Gaelic Games

Hurling previews: Air gets thinner as Tipperary and Wexford look to stay in touch

Galway can expect a resolute challenge at Wexford Park while Waterford have precious momentum as they seek to build on opening win over Cork

Tadhg de Búrca in action against Cork's Conor Lehane at Walsh Park. De Búrca's return to action has helped spark an upturn in Waterford's fortunes. Photograph: Ken Sutton/Inpho
Tadhg de Búrca in action against Cork's Conor Lehane at Walsh Park. De Búrca's return to action has helped spark an upturn in Waterford's fortunes. Photograph: Ken Sutton/Inpho
Seán Moran
Sat May 04 2024 - 06:00
Saturday

Leinster SHC: Wexford v Galway, Chadwicks Wexford Park, 4.0 [Live GAAGO]

A grimly frustrating couple of weeks for Wexford, who have burned decent leads against both Dublin and Antrim, leaving them with one point instead of four. Galway, underwhelming against Carlow, weren’t much improved last week when a considerably understrength Kilkenny nearly – and deserved to – beat them. With all of that on top of a nondescript league, Henry Shefflin’s team needs to lay down a marker.

Conor Whelan wasn’t himself against Kilkenny although he landed the equaliser, and the return of Jonathan Glynn off the bench lacked imagination in the big forward’s deployment as an exclusive go-to target. Cathal Mannion impressed and Gavin Lee displayed a scorer’s precision. The team was saved by Evan Niland’s free-taking when he came off the bench and he starts this week.

Wexford have been staggeringly dependent on Lee Chin for their scores. He has shot 3-23, 1-7 from play, in two matches his team didn’t even win. Strangely for a team that has regularly beaten Kilkenny in recent years, Wexford haven’t won a championship match against Galway since 1996. This weekend, they will be driven by the need for points if they are to take one of three exit places. There was a directionless feel to Galway last week, which if replicated will be vulnerable to a fired-up challenge but there is better in them. Verdict: Galway

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Munster SHC: Waterford v Tipperary, Walsh Park, 6.0 [Live, GAAGO]

Liam Cahill’s problems arguably started last year when his Tipperary team failed to win this fixture in Thurles, with a Munster final place on offer. It was Waterford’s only win of an otherwise dismal campaign. Since then there hasn’t been much in the way of good performances from either team, although an under-resourced Waterford were competitive in the league even if effectively relegated, and with players back, holed Cork below the waterline two weeks ago.

That momentum looks especially desirable given Tipp’s dire opening performance against Limerick, following hard on a similar drubbing by Clare in the league semi-final. A fixture they drew last year and could easily have won was restated as a 15-point beating, the county’s worst defeat in the five years of the round-robin format. Cahill is represented as fielding an unchanged team for the weekend, which seems unlikely given his fiery talk of “consequences” for the team that failed against Limerick.

In this fixture last year, Waterford very effectively deployed replacement goalkeeper Billy Nolan as a sweeper, which played a key role in the outcome. That was of course in the absence of Tadhg de Búrca, whose return to championship hurling against Cork impressively picked up the thread of his accomplishment. Waterford also had a great performance out of Jamie Barron. Given the disparity in performance, David Fitzgerald’s team have taken on the mantle of favourites, which doesn’t always suit them. Waterford are seeking an unprecedented fourth successive championship win in this fixture and it will take Tipp’s best display in a year to see them being stopped. Verdict: Waterford

Seán Moran

Seán Moran

Seán Moran is GAA Correspondent of The Irish Times