By John Harrington

Tipperary hurling manager, Colm Bonnar, is wary of the goal-threat that Waterford will pose in Sunday’s Munster SHC Round 1 clash at Walsh Park.

The Deise scored 22 goals in seven Allianz League hurling matches and the first instinct of their forwards is increasingly to go for the jugular rather than take the easy option of popping a point.

“Yeah, it doesn’t take much to analyse Waterford in the way they are playing,” said Bonnar. “They are very aggressive and very direct and have a big running style. Their turnover rate is huge and their counter-attacking is massive.

“They scored five goals against Wexford and hit Cork for four, and it just shows you the danger they have. In all of those games they possibly could have doubled their goal count, such is the ferocity of their ability in terms of running at defences.

“So look, you can get worried about it and say ‘can we handle that?’ But look, it’s been good to see them up close but having said that, we have to counter what they’ve been bringing and it’s very difficult.

“The power and pace of hurlers these days, if you can break that first tackle and are ruthless enough and create overlaps, there’s goal chances on and Waterford seem to be taking them at the moment.”

Waterford only managed to score one goal against Tipperary in the League but still ran out comfortable 10-point winners

They completed dominated in the last 20 minutes when they played with far more energy and intensity than a Tipperary team that couldn’t seem to match the physical conditioning of the Waterford players.

Are we likely to see a repeat of that on Sunday, or does Bonnar believe his players can match Waterford for pure strength and conditioning?

“Yeah, I think Thomas Hargroves, our strength and conditioning person has done a fabulous job in terms of the strength and conditioning and in terms of the endurance and power that's needed we won't be found wanting,” says Bonnar.

“That won't be an excuse that will be coming from Tipperary. We'll match anyone in those stakes for sure.”

As Bonnar himself pointed out, Waterford like to play a hard-running game that sees them break the first tackle and then create scoring opportunities by creating overlaps and utilising the impressive pace they have all over the pitch.

Tipperary have been accused in recent years of lacking that same sort of speed in all sectors of the pitch, but Bonnar doesn’t believe it’s a deficiency in the make-up of his team.

"Tipp would have played a different kind of style, hugely skilful hurlers we all know that and they were able to pin-point balls to 40, 50, 60 yards and the more modern game now, in terms of what the likes of your Corks, Limericks and Waterfords are doing is more of a running power game, it is about breaking the tackle and having that pace to get away and create those options,” he said.

“I am looking at the players we have, the likes of Ger Browne, Conor Bowe, the younger lads, Gearoid O’Connor, Jake Morris, Mark Kehoe…these are all lads who would burn you on their own so we are mixing them with some of the more experienced lads and that is rubbing off on everyone.

“No, I would not be fearful, I think we have an exceptional bunch of players who can mix that power and pace, mix that hurling and as important as it is to be able to transition that ball out of defence, we need to be able to deliver ball to the right places at the right time and in different games. I think we need to be able to mix our game up better than some other teams and I am hoping to see a bit of that in the championship.”

With Brendan Maher and Padraic Maher retired, Niall O’Meara unavailable for selection, John O’Dwyer ruled out for the season with injury and now Seamus Callanan in danger of missing the championship, Tipperary have lost a lot of experience from their team in a short period of time.

To fill the void Bonnar knows that the cadre of players on the panel who graduated from the All-Ireland U-21 winning team of 2018 and U-20 winning team of 2019 will have to now assume a greater burden of leadership.

“I was very conscious the first time I went in that a lot of the younger lads, and we're talking lads about 23/24 year olds, they're not really that young, they just haven't gotten an opportunity,” he says.

“There was a hell of a team there in front of them over the last five or six years and they showed it in terms of winning the All-Ireland in '16 an '19. They're difficult to try to move off a team.

“But, yeah, the likes of James Quigley, Brian McGrath, Craig Morgan, Dillon Quirke, Robert Byrne, Paddy Cadell, Ger Browne, Conor Bowe, Gearoid O'Connor, there's so many young lads there. Mark Kehoe and Jake Morris, still young fellas. They're all very, very good hurlers and these lads don't want to be second-best to anyone and they have huge ambition for themselves and huge ambition for Tipperary.

“When you match that in with the likes of Cathal Barrett, Ronan Maher, Barry Heffernan, Noel and John McGrath, Bonner Maher, Dan McCormack, there's huge experience there as well. We're very happy with the players that we have.

“A lot of those younger players, I think we've tried over 30 players in the League and a lot of the players I've mentioned there would have gotten chances during the League. It's just about getting the right mix now and getting that right balance and mixing that youth with the experience.

“This Tipp team could gather a lot of momentum very, very quickly.

“But having said that, if it doesn’t people will be saying, ‘Look, they are rebuilding, they are in transition.’

“We are not looking at it like that. We are going to go as hard as we can to every game and we are going to try to win every game.

“Our ambition is to go as far as we can with this team and the players are the exact same.

“Even though the general public and the media would have Waterford down as hot favourites, we are not playing into that script.”