Waterford senior hurling boss Peter Queally says he would rather beat Clare in round 1 of the Munster Senior Hurling Championship than beat Offaly in the Division 1B Allianz National Hurling League Final.

Waterford got the better of The Faithful County in Walsh Park yesterday to guarantee their spot in this year’s final as well as promotion to the top flight in 2026.

Speaking to WLR after the game, Queally says a league medal would be a bonus heading into their championship opener.

“I would like to win silverware, yes – but if you ask me which would I prefer, to win the league final or beat Clare here in five weeks’ time, I think it’s a no-brainer. Of course we do want to. We don’t win that much silverware we can be blasé about finals when we get to them. We’d love to win in two weeks’ time and then it’ll give us a bit of a pep to our step for the following three weeks as we get ready for Clare coming to Walsh Park.”

The Deise boss says the league has been a fantastic point of preparation ahead of the business end of the campaign.

“We’re delighted. It was a tough campaign. Got off to a shaky start up in Cullen Park. We’re thrilled to turn it around now, win our five games and get back up to Division 1. More importantly, as regards this year in preparation for the Championship, getting into a league final. Five weeks to go the Clare match, so it’s paramount that we got that win today, got into the league final and it gives us a three-week run into the Clare match.”

Tadhg de Burca produced a man-of-the-match display on his return from injury and Queally described the All-Star as an ‘inspiration’ to all around him.

“Man of the match. He was outstanding. He’s a colossus. Even just his presence in the dressing room. I might be over the team, Dan might be a selector, but we all look up to Tadhg. This isn’t a case of us being in charge. The presence of that man and what he’s done for Waterford in the last number of years – you saw it there today. We might have only went two or three points up, but there was a reliance, there was a reliability. When we knew the ball went in there and Tadhg was in the vicinity, what he’s reading in the game, he was just mopping up break after break and building and looking for the ball and finding men. He was outstanding for us today.”

The National League Hurling Finals will be played the weekend of April 5th and 6th with the fixtures to be confirmed and finalised in due course.

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