It was a good weekend for Leinster hurling, with the province’s also-rans showing that they can more than hold their own with their Munster counterparts…

Even if a little compromised by the soul-less approach of their opponents, Offaly’s victory over Limerick was particularly significant. Given the small size of the county’s hurling base, An Moltóir has been concerned that the midlanders might slip back into the anonymity with which they were enveloped for a hundred years prior to 1980. This victory, however, should give their young players the extra experience and confidence needed to keep in touch with the top table. It will also give a fillip to those promoting hurling within the county.

An Moltóir had a view of this Offaly team as possessing a lot of promising forwards, but as being a bit dodgy at the back. However, the Limerick game showed their defenders as possessing the old Offaly strengths of in-your-face (or in-your-back) harassment, using deft flicks and hooks to spoil or deny possession, and good old-fashioned ground hurling to move the ball into space. At midfield, the new kid on the block, Michael Cordial, had an off-day, but Offaly showed they have a bit of strength in depth, being able to bring on the likes of Stephen Browne, Simon Whelehan and Conor Gath, who looked impressive. Up front, Brendan Murphy showed signs of recovering the form he showed when he first burst on the scene a few years ago, Rory Hanniffy has filled out a lot in the last year, and Brian Carroll will be an even greater threat when he does likewise.

However, before we get carried away we must admit that Limerick were absolutely dire. They showed all the signs of a demoralised outfit, which isn’t surprising given the recent ructions in their camp and their very dubious selectorial decisions. They also played clueless hurling, a characteristic they shared with the other two losing teams in the qualifying round. Some of the stuff Galway got up to when they panicked following the Benny Dunne goal was mind-boggling in its incompetence, as the forwards completely lost their shape and possession was repeatedly given away, as passes went astray and ball after ball was sent to unmarked Tipperary defenders. Even when they did their Lazarus-like comeback at the end they still took wrong options. Deep into added time it was clear that they needed a goal to save their bacon, yet twice when in a good position to launch an attack on the Tipperary goal, Alan Kerins went for the easy option of a point. End result: Kerins adds two points to his CV, Tipp march on to the quarter finals.

In quality terms, the Wexford/Waterford game was by far the best of the three. Over the last three years, the Déise have played the best hurling of any county in the land. The problem is, they only do it in twenty-minute spells – against Limerick in 2001, Clare last year, and both Limerick (first match) and Wexford in 2003. Perhaps signficantly, the only game in which they started tentatively in this period was last year’s Munster final, when they finished like a train. Perhaps there is a lesson in this. Of course, no team is capable of maintaining the kind of early standard Waterford set against Wexford, and it was understandable that the Yellow Bellies would stage some kind of recovery, which they did coming up to half-time. But with the strong breeze at their back going into the second half, one would have thought that Waterford had set themselves up to finish off the job

In fact, Waterford probably thought this themselves, and this may have been their undoing. While the Déise men seemed to relax, their opponents dug in for the second half, during which period Wexford always seemed first to the loose ball, and always seemed to win the fifty-fifty situations. The match statistics speak for themselves. While Waterford played the ball a little more often in the first half (80-72), on the turnover Wexford dominated the exchanges, playing the ball 102 times to Waterford’s 75 (this excludes contacts by hand or hurley which do not confer control of, or give direction to, the ball). Apart from their greater work rate and commitment, there were two key reasons for Wexford’s domination of play in the second half. The first was their much superior ability to find team mates with a pass (whether by hand, boot or hurley). In the second half, Wexford effected sixteen completed handpasses to just six for Waterford. Secondly, Wexford played much more intelligent ball. Hurling forwards like low ball driven either up the wings or down the centre, or cross balls driven from wing to wing. In the second half, Wexford played seventeen such balls as against just two by Waterford. This gave their forwards much more frequent possession, which helps explain their higher number of plays – and, of course, their superior scoring rate.

Waterford, by contrast, played clueless hurling after the change of ends. There is always a tendency for teams playing with the wind to forget about their game plan and to rely on the wind to do their work for them. Thus, with the wind at their backs, Waterford persisted in the second half in lobbing high balls in the general direction of the Wexford goalmouth. Apart from Brenner’s puckouts (all of them of the "as high and as far as possible" variety), An Moltóir counted eleven instances of Waterford players firing high balls into the Wexford goalmouth. These of course give all the advantages to the defenders (especially a fullback as good under the high ball as Darragh Ryan), particularly since high balls tend to encourage bunching among the forwards. In the first half, when Waterford were dictating affairs, they played ten low or cross balls into the forwards; after the interval, there were just two instances of this kind of ball.

There were some other significant factors in the Waterford defeat. Against Kilkenny, Wexford came up against an impregnable half back line in Dowling, Barry and Delaney. Last Saturday night, the Wexford wing forwards dominated the exchanges against their markers in the second half. Whereas Eoin Murphy and James Murray played the ball ten times between them in that period, the count for Michael Jacob and Mitch Jordan was sixteen. And even though Fergal Hartley played the ball no less than thirteen times in the half, his marker Paul Codd (An Moltóir’s man of the match) also got in ten plays. The Wexford wing backs (Stamp and Dunne) were much more effective than their Déise counterparts, playing the ball 18 times between them in the second half, compared with just eight for their opposite numbers, Bennett and Shanahan.

Also against Kilkenny, Wexford had to endure a powerhouse centre field display by Derek Lyng. By contrast, on Saturday the Waterford midfield went almost completely missing. Tony Browne only played the ball five times in the entire match (three in the second half). Peter Queally did a little bit better in the first half, but had only made one play when subsituted after the interval. However, his replacement Andy Moloney only managed to get in two plays. By contrast, Larry O’Gorman, Rory McCarthy and Tomás Mahon (O’Gorman’s late replacement) played the ball 25 times between them during the course of the match.

Waterford had further no-shows from Paul Flynn (just four plays, apart from frees, in the entire match) and Seamus Prendergast (two plays). Ken McGrath once again disappeared from view when the pressure came on. Dan Shanahan’s decision-making remains appalling. The unfortunate injury to John Mullane was just the icing on the cake in what was a bad 35 minutes at the office for Waterford.

One wonders where they can go from here. They will find it hard to replace Fergal Hartley if, as expected, he decides to throw in the towel – unless they decide to move Ken McGrath back to the pivotal position. They need to find two stronger wing backs, another midfielder and a full forward. All a tall order for a county with limited p