WE’LL B OK SAYS DEREK..

1A: Waterford v Clare Walsh Park, 2.30pm

DEREK MCGRATH insists Waterford will battle to stay in Division 1A – despite admitting Division 1B is his ideal group.

The All-ireland final manager (above) said in an interview before the League began that ‘I think you’d always be better off in 1B, if I’m honest’.

He was speaking in terms of the reduced media glare and extra opportunity to experiment while knock-out games against top teams are still virtually guaranteed.

If Waterford lose to Clare today they’ll be dumped into a relegation play-off.

But Mcgrath said: “I don’t think you can ever say that you want to be relegated. I don’t think I’ve ever said that. I’ve basically said that from a growth point of view, in terms of growth towards the Championship, that 1B works well.

“For example, if you look at Galway, coming home from Cancun and their team holiday, their match schedule up to playing Limerick this weekend, from an outside perspective that’s probably been ideal.

“You have Joe Canning resting up, you have David Burke resting up. I’m just looking in from afar, that’s how it seems to me. Bottom line, we don’t want to go down to 1B. We are trying to get two good performances over two weekends to prevent us from going down.

“I think in nine weeks we are playing Clare in Ennis,” he added.