After spending four years in charge of Waterford, Clare manager Davy Fitzgerald will see a lot of familiar faces when the two sides clash in a Munster Senior Hurling Championship semi-final on Sunday.
The Banner boss had a relatively successful time during his time with the Déise, reaching an All-Ireland final in 2008 and landing the Munster Championship title in 2010.
Clare’s promotion to Allianz League Division 1A will be a huge advantage in the future, but Fitzgerald’s intimate knowledge of his former charges could be the deciding factor this weekend.
The All-Ireland victories of 1995 and 1997 seem a distant memory now, and Fitzgerald (who kept goal in both years) will be desperate to revive the fortunes of his native county. Their U-21 side claimed a historic All-Ireland crown in 2009, and supporters would have looked to that crop of players to make them a force to be reckoned with at senior level again.
But underage success is never a guarantee of brighter things to come at senior (Clare can ask neighbours Limerick about that), and the class of ’09 need to start delivering soon if the momentum of that victory is not to be lost.
John Conlon, who was a member of that team three years ago, summed it up nicely: “It's about time we got away from this thing of everyone saying we're a young team, a coming team,” he told the Irish Examiner.
“It's about time we started looking to the future and building on our potential.”
The Division 1B final victory over Limerick was crucial, and Clare will take much more notice of that result than they will of the subsequent heavy loss to Kilkenny in the Division 1 semi-final.
Waterford didn’t reach the knock-out stages of the league, but wins over Galway and Dublin in their last two games saw them stave off relegation.
It was quite an achievement for manager Michael Ryan, as his side looked doomed after they lost their opening three outings.
Ryan has abandoned the defensive tactics of his predecessor, and reverted to what he sees as Waterford’s more natural “off-the-cuff” mentality.
Seasoned veterans like John Mullane, Eoin Kelly and Michael ‘Brick’ Walsh are back for another summer at the coal face, but debutants Stephen O'Keeffe, Stephen Daniels, Philip Mahony and Gavin O'Brien will bring a degree of freshness to the table.
The Waterford camp has been keen to downplay the significance of their reunion with Fitzgerald, with Mullane going as far as to say that his name had been mentioned “not once”.
But you can be sure that while Fitzgerald will benefit from his knowledge of Waterford, the Déise also will be acutely aware of how the Sixmilebridge thinks.
Whichever side wins will go into the Munster final as massive underdogs, but the occasion would mean a lot more to Clare at this stage of their development and the hunger instilled in them by their boss should see them over the line.
Verdict: Clare
