Noel Connors and Waterford braced for the expected Rebel backlash

Noel Connors stops short of suggesting he may take a few himself, although Waterford appear to have several players lining up to take the frees in Sunday’s Munster hurling semi-final against Cork.

Denied, though injury, of the assassin’s accuracy of Pauric Mahony, and with Maurice Shanahan, their next best placed-ball specialist, still only “50-50”, someone else will have to step up to the mark. And Waterford, says Connors, are not short of candidates.

“Most intercounty players are privileged enough to take frees with their club,” he says.

“So there are an abundance of players there, from the likes of Jamie Barron, to Jake Dillon, Stephen Bennett. Even the likes of Austin Gleeson, the whole way back to Tadhg Burke, they are all well equipped to take frees. They take them with their club. So I don’t think that will be too much of an issue, really.”

Corner back

Connors is unlikely to stray too far from his corner back position, where he once again lorded the Waterford defence in the league final against Cork.

Whoever does step up to take the first Waterford free has a tough act to follow, given how accurate Mahony proved during the league (his season now cut short with a broke shin bone).

Maurice Shanahan, younger brother of former star and now Waterford selector Dan Shanahan, would have been Mahony’s natural successor, although he’s still nursing a knee injury, also sustained in a club match just days after Waterford’s league win over Cork.

“I think he is 50-50,” says Connors of Shanahan. “But, look, 50-50, in the week of a championship match, I don’t think you can go out. Even if you’re 99 per cent, I don’t think you can go out and play championship. It’s a hostile environment, trying to get it over the line. If you’re not 100 per cent committed, mentally focused and physically prepared, then you might as well sit in the dressing-room really.

“It’s championship mode now, and it could be a small thing, a slip, that could win a match. I think Derek McGrath would be very tuned into where Maurice is with his fitness.”

However Connors adds that even injured players still have a role to play, including Mahony, who continues to be a part of the panel this summer, despite being on crutches: “Ultimately, he’ll be there talking in fellas’ ears, just having the chat, or whatever that may be. . .”

The radar

Mahony’s loss will force McGrath to alter Waterford’s game in some way. And in a way, Connors agrees, that might add an extra element of surprise, particularly as Cork travel to Thurles looking to turn the tables on the league defeat of just five weeks ago.

“We were under the radar for a wee while, and that is well and truly gone,” says Connors, who was speaking in Croke Park at the announcement of a new sponsorship agreement between taxback.com and GAA associations in the US.

“But I don’t think it will change too much of our approach. We always go out and try to impose our game on the opposition. Your job as a player is to go out and perform . . That’s the ethos, throughout the year, look after what we can look after ourselves.”

Connors appears extremely relaxed about Sunday’s showdown, despite the rising expectation of Waterford hurling, – and the prospect of a stronger showing from Cork.

“Everyone is going to raise their game, come championship. Cork being a good traditional team you wouldn’t expect anything else really. You’d be foolish to think the match five weeks ago is going to have a massive bearing on the match on Sunday.

“The draw was made last year, so we always knew who we’d be playing. It would have been absolutely irrelevant, to us, who we are playing in the league final, and who we are playing on Sunday. Because we just go out and concentrate on ourselves.

“We are quite a young team, and the league and the championship are totally different animals. So certainly there is a level of optimism, but not to the extent were things are getting out of hand. It’s more so that people are getting behind the team.”

And, perhaps crucially, the new Waterford free-taker.