What county used nine different goalkeepers in the one year may well be a quiz question in the future.

The answer may surprise many as the Waterford footballers were the county to use nine different goalkeepers through the 2019 campaign.

The tale of their goalkeepers is full of woe as injury after injury saw them call on numerous different ‘keepers.

This was highlighted last month when Waterford manager Benji Whelan handed 46-year-old Darren Mulhearne his championship debut against Clare in the Munster SFC.

And it was Mulhearne who was centre stage for the opening round of the qualifiers against Westmeath last weekend, but on this occasion for the wrong reason.

A freak injury in the warm up before the game saw Mulhearne arrive at Cusack Park on crutches and his place went to Paudie Hunt who only joined the squad a couple of weeks earlier.

“It’s the death knell for anyone to come in and be a keeper for us! That’s the ninth keeper we have had in from start to finish,” Whelan told the Waterford News & Star.

Whelan added that Mulhearne’s injury could see him sidelined for some time. “We think he cracked his ankle, very unfortunate. We were over in Mullingar Shamrocks just warming up there. Just an innocuous incident. The ground was absolutely perfect; it’s whatever way he came down. We think it’s broken.”

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