Waterford teams have some history of being distracted in important games. Things have been going so well for them recently, and so badly for Cork, that this afternoon's showdown is tantamount to a banana skin for Justin McCarthy's men. They must hold their focus.

For Waterford to fall down in terms of application against a depleted Cork side would be simply unthinkable. I honestly don't expect it to happen. They're too long on the road at this stage, surely, to drop their guard.

The National League titleholders may not start the 2007 championship as the bookies' favourites, but they do start it as the people's favourites. What's more, they're well entitled to their high rating.

They've earned it. From Clinton Hennessy (right) in goal to the last sub on the panel and all points in between, they have what it takes to lift the McCarthy Cup this season. They have the right stuff. The hurling, the experience, the balance, the physical strength, the speed, the athleticism.

The whole shebang.

They also have the confidence. They didn't always.

For all the fine hurling they've done, mental strength and watertight discipline have never been this Waterford team's forte. As a result, they've underachieved. Since the county's re-emergence in 1998, they've lost no fewer than four All Ireland semi-finals by a puck of a ball.

Something wrong somewhere.

This year's National League final, on the other hand, they won by a puck of a ball, having got through both the quarter-final and the semi-final in the same manner. Not all patterns repeat themselves into infinity. Beating Kilkenny in a national final for the first time since 1959 . . . coincidentally the last time Waterford were All Ireland champions . . . can only have increased their self-esteem.

One area of potential concern for them today is that this is their first outing of the championship but it's Cork's second. Whereas Waterford have been idle fixturewise since 29 April, their opponents beat Clare in the provincial quarter-final at Semple Stadium three weeks ago. Yet that would represent more of a worry were Cork at full strength here. The fact that they're not is the cloud that hangs over the game.

Ordinarily the clash of the reigning Munster and league champions would be a mouthwatering prospect. In the circumstances, however, some of the gloss has definitely been removed.

Strangely, many supporters will be travelling out of curiosity.

You could argue that Cork will be highly motivated after what's happened to them. Although this sounds fine in theory, there's no escaping the reality that Gerald McCarthy's men will take the field without three of their regular rearguard, each of them a recent All Star to boot. Managers don't replace recent All Stars that easily, particularly not when Wayne Sherlock and Pat Mulcahy, the men who a year ago would have stepped smoothly into the breach, are no longer members of the panel. How Cork could have done with the two of them . . . and also with Brian Corcoran, who was seen to such good effect in a defensive role in those frantic closing minutes against Waterford in the All Ireland semi-final . . . this afternoon.

There's any number of individual duels to look forward to. We feature three of them here (see panel). The midfield battle will be fascinating too.

The looser it is there, the more Cork . . . and especially Jerry O'Connor . . . will like it. Mind you, so will Eoin Kelly.

Their track record and tradition being what it is, Cork are never to be written off. I'm not writing them off here either.

I just think that three suspensions will prove too much for them to cope with.

Logic is against them also when you consider that Waterford ran them to a point at Croke Park last August.

Today's Waterford team is better than the one then. Today's Cork team is inferior to the one then. And forget all the talk about Cork and their plight; from a purely hurling point of view, today is not about Cork . . . it's about Waterford. It's Waterford's game to lose. I don't think they will.

The Cork suspensions weren't Clare GAA is more and more coming to resemble a complete basketcase.

Hurlingwise (and even footballwise), the county seems to be in crisis, with the situation compounded by the patent lack of leadership from the top.

The scenes that broke out in Semple Stadium three weeks ago shouldn't have occurred. The offenders had to be punished. At the moment it appears that people in positions of authority in the GAA can say what they like and get away with it. That's disturbing. Disturbing too that Cork couldn't accept their medicine and had to appeal.

Sport is a metaphor for life. In modern society there's a prevailing attitude that, no matter what happens, it's somebody else's fault. This mentality has seeped through to and infected the GAA.

Years of county and club officials playing on the margins and trying to cut corners has brought us to where we are.

The situation is chaotic. It cannot and must not be allowed to continue.