DESPITE crashing to a heavy defeat in Thurles last Sunday, promotion is still very much on the table for the Limerick footballers right now even if it would require a huge improvement in form for John Brudair’s side to really force their way into contention alongside Tipperary, Fermanagh and Armagh.
However despite the fact that TJ Ryan’s hurlers have yet to open their season, they’re already under huge pressure to deliver a victory if they want to finally escape from division 1B and resume hurling among the real powers of the game. They’ll have some margin for error over the next few rounds of action, but not this Saturday against their most likely promotion rivals.
Last year the Treaty County opened their campaign with a draw and while a repeat of that result would be a disappointment, it wouldn’t be a disaster. A defeat however would be another matter entirely, particularly since head to head records would be used as the tie breaker in the event of two teams finishing level on points. Wexford are hurling at a level that they might cause Waterford a few problems in round five, but with Offaly continuing to decline at an alarming rate and Laois not quite at the level to trouble a Munster county just yet, losing this Saturday night’s game would be a huge blow as Waterford would probably have promotion secured before that local derby throws in.
Waterford showed some decent form in the Waterford Crystal Cup and when the two counties met in Kilmallock just over a month ago, a solitary goal separated the teams. A decent outing in a challenge match against Clare at Sixmilebridge last weekend would suggest that the Déise men are still going fairly well and with the Kilmallock players still absent, another narrow home win is probably the most likely outcome this week.
Paddy Power are betting 4/9 Limerick and 2/1 Waterford for the match, while offering 7/2 about Limerick winning by 1-3 points exactly. Even allowing for a few defensive absentees, most hurling followers would acknowledge that the main strength of this Limerick group is their defensive play. They conceded 18 scores or less in eight of their ten competitive starts last year and continued that trend throughout January. Another similar result, maybe 1-18 to 1-16 or so, is a very plausible outcome this week and the 7/2 shot is a logical way to punt this game.
In the other fixtures taking place, we’d be inclined to keep both Walsh Cup finalists on side as the standard of hurling in Croke Park last Sunday was quite decent.
Even at the height of their powers, Clare weren’t a good league team away from home and they are likely to be quite disjointed with so many of their players involved in Fitzgibbon Cup action, while Galway tend to be much more competitive at this time of year.
Dublin are also moving well and they’ll feel confident of their ability to get out to a good start against a Tipperary side that has shown very few signs of life so far in 2015.
