If it's not too early in the season for cliches - and it never is - what a difference a year makes. Thirteen months ago, after the NHL final, the prospect of Waterford beating Cork in a championship match in the near future didn't look bright. Waterford had more than competed until the closing 10 minutes of that match, only to be foiled by Cork's late run.
It was considered significant that Waterford's only two defeats until they reached the dizzy altitude of the championship's upper slopes were both against Cork. For whatever reason, Waterford have frequently suffered from a certain reticence against their neighbours and last year's statistics prove that. Now the whole environment has changed. Even if Cork did win the NHL last year, their championship experience wasn't particularly extensive and ended in a substantial defeat by Clare. Waterford, on the other hand, had a thoroughly productive campaign, drawing with Clare and losing by a point to Kilkenny in the All-Ireland semi-final.
A fortnight ago, it might have made sense to conclude that for all their experience in the 1998 season, Waterford hadn't unearthed any obvious solutions to the problems that remained. But that was before Cork named a side featuring no fewer than six debutants.
Six is a sizeable number to introduce at any stage but for a team which should be on its third year of its modern evolution, it's an enormous departure. It's difficult to find that many people who would dispute Jimmy Barry-Murphy's choice of personnel, but to be forced to make such wholesale changes isn't encouraging from a team-building perspective.
A couple of the newcomers can be explained by Ger Cunningham's retirement and Kieran Morrison's injury, but for the most part the infusion of youth is for more depressing reasons. Pat Ryan and Sean O'Farrell are two young players who promised a great deal last year but have been so far unable to develop that potential this season.
So it's been back to square one for Cork. Admittedly the defence looks in reasonable order with only one change in personnel, Wayne Sherlock for Mark Landers, which probably strengthens the unit given that Landers was taken for a few scores by Dave Bennett last year. Landers switches to the county's problem area of centrefield where he features in a new partnership with Mick O'Connell - a pairing which has all the marks of an experiment waiting to go wrong against the accomplished Waterford duo of Tony Browne and Fergal Hartley.
Cork have strengths up front, primarily in the shape of Joe Deane and Sean McGrath, but the decline in form of the two players who scored goals in last year's final, Alan Browne (not long returned from university in Britain) and O'Farrell has left the team short of physical presence in attack.
All things being equal, the voodoo argument might weigh in Cork's favour but a heap of factors are against them. Waterford came through three times in as many championship matches last summer. Already this season, they have had a searching test against a Limerick team which played well. There are, however, questions about the consistency of the forwards. In last year's League final both Paul Flynn and Ken McGrath were on a roll from fine performances against Limerick. Neither managed to repeat the display. Now they are in the same position. It was a frustrating feature of Waterford's championship run last year that both Flynn and McGrath, especially, struggled to string together successive good performances. If that shortcoming has been rectified, the team will have taken a big step forward. It remains to be seen. Meanwhile, what they have should suffice for tomorrow.
CORK - D Og Cusack; F Ryan, D O'Sullivan, J Browne; W Sherlock, B Corcoran, S O hAilpin; M Landers, M O'Connell; T McCarthy, F McCormack, S McGrath; B O'Connor, N Ronan, J Deane.
WATERFORD - B Landers; T Feeney, S Cullinane, B Flannery; P Queally, S Frampton, B Greene; T Browne, F Hartley; D Shanahan, B O'Sullivan, K McGrath; M White, P Flynn, D Bennett.
