@glasagusban has a lot of strength around the half back line / midfield but I’m not sure there’s a good balance there. McInerney is a mistake at 6 when you have so many other good CBs on the team. He’s a weakness that @Fagan_ODowd can exploit
Fagan has a fine team picked there and will do damage in spots, but my lads have the edge in more places.
Shaughs will have the better of Reale but Reale will limit him for me, while hickey will hold Hayes and have a bit to spare to raid forward too. Curran is the weakest link in my backs but prendergast hasn’t the hurling to take advantage and Curran comes off better there.
Power as good as he is will never best McGrath, harnedy is a ball winner but won’t take too much off G Mac, and Sutcliffe will get on a few loose balls but Daly will be inspiring the team forward from the wing.
Up front Sutcliffe will do the same for me while McMahon commands the centre for Fagan, my prendergast will mullock Ronan Maher a bit to limit his influence, and gardiner v harnedy will be 50 50. Both half back lines come out on top but mine more so.
Up front Cloonan has the edge at full forward, and Shaughs has the beating of either corner back, there’s goals there for us. Dotsy will chip in two points and Shaughs converts everything from the 60 up to the penalties I see coming from fagan’s full back line.
It’s tight enough up to here but the last space to examine is midfield and Ciarán and his nephew and heir apparent have fagans lads hopelessly outclassed here. Two wizards that can win tackle, dirty ball, raid forward, score and put the ball in our forwards pockets with no look passes.
At the end of the day, with Carey Lynch and McGrath driving the team forward and supplying the inside line the boys up front will have the ball and space to put up the winning score.
It’s a genuinely tough one lads, I won’t deny it. But I’ve a couple of things going for me. Philip Maher always had the measure of Eugene Cloonan and for some reason my counterpart moved Ken McGrath to no7. Ken only played no7 for Waterford once when he was outplayed by a chap called Adrian Cullinane from Galway in the league final in Limerick in 2004. For Ken as a back it was centre back or nowhere. He struggled to play full back as well. I’d expect Richie Power to exploit this and go to town and Harnedy then to give McInerney bags of it in the middle. Sutcliffe will be well capable of racking on the three or four points well.
Coincidentally Damien Hayes had one of his best days for Galway the same day Ken played no7 so that it is a portent.
Carey at midfield will be a handful but I’ll deploy Tom Kenny to stay with him at all times and in the round I’m happier that he’s been moved from under the dropping ball.
Shocks on the close in frees. Seanie to point everything from fifty yards out.
It’ll be close but I think we have their measure.
Best of luck @glasagusban old pal. It’s a shame there has to be a loser.
Mick Kav and Frank up against Dotsy and Shocks would be great tussles which could go either way on a given day. Phillip Maher was a fine full back til he did his crucial while Cloonan for all his talent was an inconsistent hot head. So a slight nod to Fagan full backline.
The same could be said of glas’s full backline too. Curran would be able for Pender for the most part. Hayes and Shocks against Reale and Hickey. Think Hickey would have the legs to limit Hayes somewhat.
Both half backines are good on paper although Daly and Mc would lack pace and could be turned easy enough, could say the same about Gardiner and Maher but Gardiner had more legs than Daly and Maher more that Mc… I also don’t like Ken being played wing back, he never played a championship match there. No doubt he would excel but if I’m being consistent and marking other lads down for it the same has to apply here.
Kenny would have the legs to keep into Carey but Fenlon would lose out to Lynch. Advantage glas there.
Tentative nod to Fagan for me due to the keeper and I think Power and Harnedy would do a small bit more against glas than Harnedy and Prendergast and Hayes was far more consistent than Dotsy which just about cancels out the midfield advantage Glas has. If Ken was at six i may well if went the other way
The Limerick lads overrate O’Shaughnessy a lot. I know he was diagnosed with MS but we can’t judge lads on how good they could have been. He was good in 2007 but scoreless from play in the final
As I said the other day I think there is a bit of rose tinted glasses as he was a superstar for the three in a row 21s side where he had some stellar games.
At senior his impact wasn’t anywhere near the same.
Anyone giving fagan the nod due to a better keeper and power up front can go fuck themselves if they voted for glas up against that scenario in an earlier round. Cunts.
Waterford may not have had the luxury of playing McGrath at wing back, but today I do. Good and all a player as Power is, you can put him standing in any position on the field and he won’t come out top on McGrath. If Fagan had deployed him at full forward I might have been in trouble.
Two interesting teams, but when you delve into it Fagan has the edge here. Glas has a midfield combination here that would be the envy of most teams in the country, but in about every other line Fagan shades it. You’d be confident of Fagan’s purist half back line holding Glas’s half forwards - conversely I’d fancy the intidimating combination of Power, Harnedy and Sutcliffe getting more change from Glas’s slightly more disjointed looking half back line.
Neither full forward line is truly rich in quality, but again, I think Fagan’s full back line will hold Glas’s full forward line better than the reverse. Has the better keeper to boot. Fagan for me.
I think there was a debate about it somewhere on here a while back (possibly the private forum) where lads were on about Shaughs dragging us to the final. Lit up Croke Park for a couple of matches alright, but Ollie Moran for me was our mvp that year.