THERE will be mixed loyalties in a Loughgiel home on Sunday morning, but for Waterford native Clinton Hennessy, saffron will be foremost on his mind.
The Ardmore native was goalkeeper in 2008 when the Decies reached the All-Ireland final, only to be humbled by a Kilkenny team at the peak of its powers, but around six and a half years ago, the North Antrim village where his wife Michelle hails from, became home.
Last year, Hennessy - who holds two Munster Championship medals plus a National League - lent a hand with the Antrim hurlers as goalkeeping coach and this year acts as a selector under manager Darren Gleeson, himself a former inter-county goalkeeper.
Antrim and Waterford haven't locked horns since the 2015 National League, so Hennessy has not had a choice to make until now and whilst his children will don the white and blue this Sunday before heading to Corrigan Park for the Division 1B game between the teams (1pm throw-in), Hennessy will be hoping his adopted county can get the better of his native Waterford.
"It was more exciting a while back and now in the week it's just another game to get ready for," he recalled when the fixtures for the 2022 season came out.
"Waterford and Antrim haven't been competing at the same level over the past number of years so it's been easy to support both. When you're living here it takes a year or two to get the feel for it.
"It will be funny in the house on Sunday as I will be going off in the Antrim gear and my three boys going off in the Waterford gear."
Waterford will be overwhelming favourites to claim the points on Sunday and for good reason as while they have yet to end their long wait for the Liam MacCarthy Cup since their last success in 1959, they have been to the final in 2017 and 2020, while semi-finalists last year.
Limerick remain hurling's top dogs, but the Decies are not far away and many people's number two in the power rankings. Throw in Ballygunner's recent All-Ireland Club success and there is certainly a good vibe around the county.
That has not always been the case as go back to the early 1990s and Waterford were somewhat in the doldrums, yet the minor side of 1992 that reached an All-Ireland final proved to be a spark and some of that team including Paul Flynn would help the seniors become a force in the 2000s.
The latest crop has been nurtured through the ranks, winning titles at underage level and with their colleges.
For Antrim to replicate what Waterford has done, the task is to establish solid foundations and develop players at an early age.
Many of the current Waterford side are now hitting their peak years and while the process takes time, it has begun to pay off for the Decies.
"A lot of those (current) players have been there a while, but they are starting to hit the prime of their careers - fellas like Stephen Bennett, Austin Gleeson, Patrick Curran and those lads who won the All-Ireland Minor in 2013 and U21 in 2016," Hennessy notes.
"It starts from the bottom up because it hasn't always been that way in Waterford.
"The team we played on in the early 2000s emphasised they needed to work on the underage structures like they did and there are good underage squads there now because of the work put in over the past 15 years starting to show."
