Cork will be underdogs away to Waterford with place in Munster ladies football final at stake

The outcome is simple for Sunday’s TG4 Munster Ladies Senior Football Championship between Cork and Waterford, 2pm at Dungarvan GAA Club.

The Rebels head to Waterford for their third round robin game and the winners of this clash will face Kerry in the Munster final on May 25.

No matter who wins Kerry will be hot favourites to win the title but getting to the final is also important.

Seedings for the All-Ireland championship are based on where you finish in your province so the better you do the higher your ranking and it gives you a better chance of coming out of your group. But for now that won’t bother Cork or Waterford as their first target will be to reach the Munster decider.

The Rebels will go into this one as underdogs, which may surprise some. But based on league form and form to date in the Munster series Waterford are deserving of the favourites tag.

LEARNING CURVE

They finished third in Division 1 of the Lidl NFL, just two points behind Armagh and five behind Kerry. They beat Armagh but a surprise loss to Meath cost them a place in the league final in the end, a game they learned a lot from.

Tomás Mac an tSaoir took over as manager for this season and he will be very familiar with the Cork players.

For the last few years, he was coach of the Cork senior ladies football side, under manager Shane Ronayne, and will be well aware of the dangers the Rebels possess.

Likewise Cork manager, Joe Carroll, will be familiar with some of the Waterford players as he coaches some of them with UCC.

Speaking after their win over Tipperary, and ahead of this weekend’s game Carroll said: “We already know that Waterford are one of the top teams in the country at this stage. Look, they finished third in the Division 1 league.

“We were playing Division 2, beaten in the Division 2 final, so Waterford are probably going into that game as favourites. Going down there, so we still have a lot of work to do to come up to that level. It is going to be a real test for our players.

“Some of those Waterford players are in UCC with me like Áine O’Neill, Bríd McMaugh and, one of the top forwards in the country in my estimation, Kellyann Hogan. Waterford have some absolutely fabulous players.

“It is going to take a bigger performance than we gave against Tipperary to beat them. Look, hopefully, we can produce that on Sunday.” 

Cork will be hopeful that Sarah Leahy will return from injury to help strengthen their defence, to join the likes of Melissa Duggan, Shauna Kelly and Erika O’Shea.

Maire O’Callaghan made a welcome return from injury against Tipperary and should feature again this weekend as Cork bid to reach the decider.