The older minds went riffing through the memories. Munster finals of other years. How did they compare? Where did this one stand in the canon of greatness? The verdict could never be definitive, but it was favourable. This was wonderful. This was as good as sport gets.
When it finished, Waterford people poured onto the Semple Stadium grass and danced and embraced. It's only two years since they won a Munster title, but this one was different. Beating Cork in the final for the first time since 1959. Turning in yet another substantial performance, enough to suggest that there might be two more such days in them. An All-Ireland.
This was a game which sung, a match which was decorated with moments of art and lines of pure poetry. The day was haunted by wind and threatened by rain, and still they slung scores over with the insouciance of men tossing water out of buckets.
It began with a flukey goal conceded by Stephen Brenner in the Waterford goal when the ball declined to hop up from Garvan McCarthy's snap shot.
Waterford were momentarily dazed and Cork added another pair of points quickly. Five points down, Waterford came out to play.
The scores. The lovely points from Dan Shanahan. A sublime goal from Eoin Kelly when he nips behind the Cork defence. John Mullane explosive as usual.
And Cork matching it. Joe Deane perfect. Brian Corcoran scoring a splendid point. Wonderful stuff.
And in the end Waterford prevailed. They had Mullane sent off early in the second half, just after he'd scored his second point, and at that point you thought that the merest sight of those red jerseys swarming would cause Waterford to buckle.
Instead they snuffed out Cork's half-forward line. Bossed most of the midfield exchanges. Eclipsed Brian Corcoran. Ben O'Connor kept going. Deane kept his head above water. It wasn't enough. Waterford wanted it more.
"Listen," said their guru Justin McCarthy afterwards, "they're good players. Every player was asked at half-time could they step up their performance. There's a lot of commitment in the team. There's a lot of character.
"I was glad we weren't ahead like we were last year. We sat on the lead last year, we were six points up and sat on it. It was very hard, Cork came back. We had the players to come back today though."
They had. When Mullane went, others stepped up. Paul Flynn, who ended the day with 1-7 in brackets after his name, gave a classic Flynn performance, his audience one moment with their heads in their hands, the next rising to salute a moment of genius.
And Ken McGrath, whose move to defence has been so crucial, hurled beautifully, driving balls forward into the wind, finding the spaces and providing the inspiration. A joy to watch.
As the game got older so Waterford got better. It became clear after a while that the advantage in personnel wasn't working for Cork. Waterford were hungrier. Playing with an almost suicidal recklessness. Just wanting it.
Justin McCarthy recognised the pattern. "We've played our best hurling in a lot of games in the second half, in the last 20 minutes. We set ourselves up for that. Lads have done work on their own, they've grown up a bit, they've taken more responsibility and more leadership. That's what you saw."
For Cork the setback is significant. Last summer at this stage they were four points the better team than Waterford. They had Setanta Ó hÁilpín beginning to unveil the full breadth of his talents and the mix of Donal O'Grady's disciplined, meticulous approach with the youngster's sheer unpredicatbility was intoxicating to watch.
Yesterday they were meticulous and good but the spark was missing. In the second half they got snuffed in areas where they needed to thrive.
"The sending off disrupted things a little bit," said O'Grady, "and I don't think we played smartly after that. We should have played possession like in the first half, but we went in for long balls. They hurled well, they tackled hard, but we never seemed to stroke the ball over the bar like they should have.
"We can blame ourselves in the end. Seven points in the second half with the breeze isn't good enough."
When Cork contrast that dividend with what they enjoyed in the first half they will be concerned. "Maybe mentally," mused O'Grady, "you drop. It wouldn't be the first time that 14 have beaten 15. It seems that mentally you drop. The team with 14 drive on. In a way when you have an extra man perhaps you feel this is easy enough.
"Look now, though. Anyone who isn't worried about going into the qualifiers wants their head examined. Look at the quality of the teams in there."
Sure enough, within an hour Cork had been drawn against Tipperary in the glamour tie of the qualifiers. And Waterford. Scalps of Clare, Tipp and Cork hanging from their belt. Are they the real deal?
"If they end up as All-Ireland champions I suppose they are," said O'Grady.
"The bottom line," said Justin McCarthy at the end, "is to get to an All-Ireland and win it. There's a rocky road left. Any team playing Waterford will think they can beat them, but that's changing. Look, it's June. September is a long way off."
Not as far off as it seemed at lunchtime yesterday though.