We are looking to turn the lack of pace in Cauliflowers full back line and the fact that he has James McGarry in goals into a serious weakness for him and plan to go for the jugular.
Rushe goes to full forward and will be stationed very close to goal for direct deliveries from our lads in the middle third. We fully expect him to catch a few clean and either win a penalty or put the head down and flick it to the net
Griffin and Carey have the legs on their men too, I will look to keep them close to the end line to play any breaks off Rushe and also so they have space to run into if we have time to probe balls into the space between the 14 and 40…
This will mean that Cauliflower will have to decide whether he keeps his half backline deep to support his full backline and cut off the space between the lines or follow their men where we will have Kerins looking to pull Tony Browne 70 or 80 yards from goal and into the centre of the pitch with Power drifting left and right into pockets of space being picked out by the likes of Galvin, Maher, McMahon and Kavanagh with shorter balls if their men don’t follow.
Prendergast will look to be a puckout and long ball target up against Corcoran who was a fine hurling wing back but is giving up 4 or 5 inches here at least in the air to Seamus who will break it for the bodies around him.
Midfield will be see an excellent tussle between Derek Lyng and Derek Lyng. McCormack and Niall McCarthy are both industrious sorts but the type of lads that Maher and Byrnes would relish as the contest would be played on their terms as a physical contest.
DJ and Power would cause any backline problems. Curran is a sticky man marker who’s sole aim will be to shadow Power here. Frank Lohan will take DJ who he had experience of coming up against DJ with Mick Kavanagh being too savvy for Prendergast who hasn’t the quickness of wrists to do any real damage at corner forward. Kavanagh will be able to do his usual tidying around the D as well.
Cauliflower has a fine team on paper but that keeper and lack of pace in the full backline will be his undoing here.
Without big Mick, we’d have no championship. He’s a great manager and his role in the administration of the league is akin to Cody being a member of the referee advisory panel. It’s surely worth him a few votes.
However, we are here to win. I was chatting to a few auld lads at the pretend mart this morning and they couldn’t get over the tour de France Seamie Prendergast gave at corner forward the last day. They remarked that if Waterford had done the same many years ago, they might no longer be waiting for that elusive all Ireland.
A very difficult one to call, I can’t see either Lohan or Kavanagh doing a great job of holding DJ. I prefer Power closer to goal where he’ll do more damage but he does give @Big_Dan_Campbell a stronger HF line against @caulifloweredneanderthal’s superior HB line. Cauli will need both midfielders to chip in with a few scores to keep the scoreboard ticking over.
