Very interesting reading yesterday evening, and I think all in all looking at both sides selected, its Davy 1 - Pat 0. ODT was bang on a couple of weeks back suggesting that particularly against Waterford, Coleman was a shoe-in for 7 and one of the Downeys would lose out. The reason for this of course was watching Waterford use 4 to 5 forwards at times in games, with Leavy as a 7th defender. PR anticipating a spare defender in the cork half will want that to be Mark Coleman all day long - he has the best touch for receiving the puc-out and the best passing skills also. It also lets Joyce drive on a bit, which he loves doing.
Furthermore, Eoin Downey, for all the good stuff he did during the league, he had a ropey last quarter against Waterford, Mike Kiely in particular gave him plenty problems so there's probably no surprise the way the back line has been selected. And for the posters remarding that Millerick at 5 and Rob Downey at 7 are our best wing backs - they will probably spend most of their time in that position anyway. So you might be looking at something along the lines of:
------SOD v Hutchinson----DC v Kiely------
------------------Coleman--------------------
GM v Prender----CJ v Mahony------RD v Bennett
All those Waterford forwards are fairly interchangeable - Bennett and Kevin Mahony could be in the full forward line.
Where it gets interesting is that Waterford didn't go for Leavy, assuming this is because De Burca has been going very well apparently, so what you might have is C Lyons going to centre back area, and De Burca sitting in front of the full back line.
SH v D Lyons------CL v C Lyons------ST v K Bennett
---------------------De Burca------------------------
---------PH vs Prunty--------AC vs M Fitz-----------
With Iarlaith Daly following Barrett out around the middle. However, I think you'll definitely see Waterford going conventional here, at least for a period of the game. They have all of their top defenders back fit so will have more confidence of not needing the 7th defender, and in that situation I think Pat might be a little bit out-thought. Calum Lyons is one of the most under-rated hurlers in the country and he could do a lot of damage in the air against Coleman if he stays put at 10.
Looking at our selection vs our last championship game, we've brought in TOC instead of Meade (positive), Barrett instead of Kingston (positive), Coleman instead of NOL (positive)... but Twomey and CL instead of Dalton and TOM (not sure that's positive).
The Lehane selection was obvious from the league selections and I actually think he'll do grand on Sunday - he'll settle quickly, get on ball and he's an accurate shooter. I think there is definitely horses for courses happening here, and hopefully we get to see a few more dogs into that middle third over the next couple of weeks - Roche, TOM are key guys in this regard still.
I'm a little worried I have to say but we have a much stronger bench than Waterford. The fitzgeralds are decent and Fagan of course but they've very little after that... Sean Walsh got a few flukey goals in the league - he wouldn't be considered much of a hurler in waterford. We've ROF, ED, Hayes, TOM etc. - they can all make a big impact, and might be the ones to get us over the line.
