They pushed Galway close in last year's All Ireland final but thus far 2018 has not been kind to the Waterford hurlers.
The Deise opened up their Munster Championship campaign with a loss to Clare in the first of their round-robin games.
There's still a long way to go for them this summer but it does come off the back of a National Hurling League campaign when they suffered relegation after defeat to Cork in a Division 1 relegation playoff.
Selector Dan Shanahan joined us on the show tonight and explained the impact injury-enforced absences had as they lost to Clare.
"You couldn't write what happened last week," he said, referencing the withdrawals of Tadhg De Burca and Barry Coughlan with broken bones to their collar bone and hand respectively.
"We didn't prepare for Tadhg and Barry going off as well."
But he also admitted that "Clare were that bit sharper" than Waterford, before touching on the impact of injuries to the cause.
"We'd a great three or four weeks going into the Championship and everything was going right but then injuries last Sunday, especially Tadhg De Burca getting injured at centre-back. You had to move Darragh [Fives] who was going well at wing-back and obviously Noel Connors going off as well and Barry Coughlan in the middle of the second half," he said.
"If it happened to any other team, you'd be struggling too. Tadhg, Barry and Kevin are definitely out for next week and you have question marks over Noel and Maurice Shanahan, Austin Gleeson and Mahony, so that's eight players off last year's All Ireland panel."
