Waterford make the long trip to Salthill this afternoon to face Galway in the penultimate round of the league.
This is a game which many have seen a clash that Liam Cahill will have targeted from the day the draw was made. The fourth league outing for the Deise, coming off the back of a win over Limerick and having gotten a look at his full squad in the Cork and Westmeath games that came previously.
With no challenge games and a very limited "pre-season" to work with the team, the early league goings can be treated as an experiment for most counties. The risk of relegation was never going to be a reality, so full-fledged preparation for the upcoming championship was the order of the day.
Former Deise Captain Brian Flannery recognizes today's game as the one where we might start to see both teams start to come good with their "warm up" matches now behind them.
"Galway would have been regarded as the team that tested Limerick most in the last year or two and you know they're recent Ireland winners as well and they've the majority of that team back playing tomorrow [Sunday] if you look at their lineup - Dathí Burke is back at fullback, Gearoid McInerney and Joe Canning back in, Connor Whelan, and Connor Cooney, you could say it's a championship lineup that Galway have announced."
"Having said that you know Waterford have ten of the team that started the All-Ireland last December as well, so you know it's really a game to look forward."
One point that has been raised by many pundits after the first three rounds of the league is whether or not Waterford's forwards have generated enough upfront. Former players Fergal Hartley, Eoin Murphy, Dan Shanahan and now Flannery have all suggested that Cahill's team are a bit light in the attacking ranks and one must wonder where the extra scoring is going to come from.
"The big question still is you know - can Waterford amass a big enough score on a big day in a Munster Final or an All-Ireland to get them over the line and bridge that ever-increasing gap to the last All-Ireland"
"At the end of day, you need your strikers on the ball to get scores and Limerick are All-Ireland champions because they have four or five players that will get multiple scores each day. You know, Tom Morrissey, Garrett Hegarty, Cian Lynch, Seamus Flanagan, Aaron Gillane, you know, they roll off the tongue."
"Being honest about it after last years All-Ireland final, you know, really the scoring burden was on Stephen Bennett and Austin Gleeson's shoulders to a large degree. That's not going to win and All-Ireland and that's the big challenge."
"Can Shane Bennett come in and make the difference this year? Can Patrick Curran perhaps? He was very good the last day off the bench. Can we get two more out-and-out scorers into the forward line that's going to make a difference that will get those multiple scores in the big games when under pressure?"
"That's why Limerick are All-Ireland Champions and that's the challenge, but that's the challenge every team has"
Even though Waterford have failed to startle so far this year, especially considering the highs that were reached last year - the game with Limerick stands out as a moment of real importance. A team that had beaten Waterford so consistently since 2016, and with three solid wins in the past year, the Walsh Park victory two weeks ago had the tone of a turning point for the side.
They were not beaten up physically and once they took the lead through Jack Fagan's goal, they never relinquished their advantage. The bit of needle at the end of the game showed that Waterford were not going to take a backward step. Unfortunately Iarlaith Daly was handed a suspension off the back of the incident, but nonetheless, "a win is a win is a win" and that win was badly needed to get the Limerick monkey off Waterford backs.
As the Championship beckons and the business end of the year draws into focus, Flannery thinks the team need to strike while the iron is hot and convert their recent highs into silverware before the chance fades away.
"A lot of people when they're talking about potential All-Ireland winners - not many pundits will mention Waterford in the first two or three teams but, I'd look at a different; I'd look at why not Waterford? They're in the mix. They're there or thereabouts All-Ireland finalists last year and Munster Finalists."
"All those players that have All-Ireland Minor titles & Under 21 titles; they're now 25 or 26 years of age, you know, this is their prime, their window of opportunity to win an All-Ireland is now, maybe perhaps in the next year or two but, it needs to happen for this Waterford team. It needs to happen, and soon"
Today's match will be broadcast live on WLR thanks to George Corbett Skoda, with Kieran O Connor and Shane Ahern on commentary.
Brian was speaking on the Saturday June 5th edition of On The Ball, you can hear the full show here.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3SdNZF7mK0Z3ouAnje5uAg?si=o2gY2jpuS1-ip2Xhx9t_7w
