Waterford hurling manager Justin McCarthy is prepared to give that elusive All-Ireland title one more crack.
After six years in charge, and a series of disappointments climaxing with this summer's second successive All-Ireland semi-final defeat, speculation had been mounting that McCarthy would step down. But yesterday he confirmed his intention to stay on for another year - in the process confirming the last of the major hurling management positions for 2008.
His reappointment will now go before next Monday's county board meeting, which should prove a formality. Although question marks still remain over the future of some of Waterford's more seasoned players, such as Tony Browne and Paul Flynn, McCarthy still has the backbone of a team capable of contesting for All-Ireland honours, especially given the emergence of some younger talents this season.
McCarthy has already guided Waterford to three Munster hurling titles during his reign, the first of those in 2002 ending a 39-year wait for such an honour - while his team also proved successful in 2004, and again this year. But it was the All-Ireland Waterford clearly craved most of all, and for much of this summer it seemed they would finally end the even longer wait for that honour, which now stretches back to 1959.
Despite emerging from the epic All-Ireland quarter-final battle against Munster rivals Cork, where Waterford eventually won out after a replay, those All-Ireland hopes were dashed in the All-Ireland semi-final on August 12th by the surprising defeat to Limerick. Since then McCarthy has given his future some thought, and is now satisfied he has both the hunger and determination to lead Waterford through 2008.
"I'm not short of the appetite at all to continue with this team," he stated.
"To be honest my enthusiasm is 100 per cent and I have the energy and the incentive to continue to do the job. It's been part of my life but at the end of the day I feel that the Waterford team still has a lot of potential and is very close to being one of the best teams in Ireland.
"So it's a matter of learning a bit from this past year and hopefully getting a little more out of the team next year.
"You can take it we will not be stuck for enthusiasm. That is one thing I've always had when it comes to hurling. I love the game but I also want to be successful at it and I want to get as much as I can out of this team and there is another bit in them. I feel that."
McCarthy remains as popular as ever with the team, and at this stage there is nothing to suggest that the likes of Browne and Flynn won't continue for another year. The Cork native, and All-Ireland winner of 1966, was known to be considering his future this time last year after enduring the All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Cork, a game made memorable by Cork's late goal, and even later match-winning save by Donal Óg Cusack.
Instead he came back as motivated as ever, and in the process ended Waterford's other long wait - this time for the National League title - with a rare victory over Kilkenny. He also managed to blood several new players that became central to Waterford's game over the summer. In the end, the three tough games in the space of 14 days, brought on by the quarter-final replay against Cork, probably contributed to their downfall.
"We set our sights on three trophies, the league, the Munster Championship and the All-Ireland," explained McCarthy.
"We won two out of the three, while I would love to have won the big one, of course. But it's a combination of things that has kept things going.
"The players themselves are extremely enthusiastic about hurling. They got a taste of success this year to a large extent and the draw just did not favour us at all in the end. We had three high-powered games in 14 days; it made it extremely difficult for us to recover and just did not give us enough time to prepare for the next challenge.
"That was especially true of the two Cork games. If they were two less competitive games perhaps we would have got away with it, in that they may not have taken as much out of us. But we had to peak twice to beat Cork. Then Limerick were fresh and ready for us, caught us on the day, and that was it . . . We just could not recover from the bad start we had (against Limerick)."
The Waterford newcomers in defender Aidan Kearney and forward Stephen Molumphy proved a revelation over the summer, earning All Star nominations last week:
"The nucleus of the team is still there," added McCarthy, "and hopefully we will bring in a few new lads again, freshen things up again. But we have a good solid team for next year."
So Waterford's hunt for that All-Ireland is ready to resume.
