Waterford, in these coming days, enter the realm of sports psychology.
Some history: only time they ever beat Kilkenny in championship was the 1959 All-Ireland final replay.
At least, unlike 2015, we know Saturday’s Thurles replay will be men against men.
After how it ended, Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final draw must have initially felt like a defeat. “In ways it is but in other ways it is Kilkenny,” said Austin Gleeson, who hit a brilliant 0-5, celebrating with index finger raised above his head even for the one that sailed wide.
“Nobody gave us a hope coming up here so to be five points up with 15 minutes to go . . .”
How it ended is their cautionary tale. In the 68th minute Kevin Moran showed the value of his 10-year service when seemingly pointing from out around halfway. The scoreboard ticked over – 0-24 to 0-20 – as An Deise supporters appeared to finally believe what they were witnessing. But Hawk-Eye, despite its laser-red trajectory seeming to be inside the upright, said "Níl."
"We don't have any shares in it, that's for sure," smiled Brian Cody. "They tell me it's foolproof, I don't know. He's doing okay."
The Hawk-Eye is a man so.
Wonderfully scooped
The Waterford score returned to 0-23 as
Mick Fennelly
wonderfully scooped the sliotar onto his camán and eased away from three Waterford bodies. Two ricochets later and
Walter Walsh
batted possession to
Colin Fennelly
who stepped into a gang of white jerseys. Walsh, moving diagonally past him on the outside, took the return pass to goal from an ideal forward’s angle.
Instead of 0-24 to 0-20, the game was tied up at 0-23 to 1-20. All change in 80 seconds. The madness finally stalled as Waterford goalkeeper Stephen O'Keeffe was hurt colliding with Wally Walsh's massive frame. Dan Shanahan was verbally laying into the linesman.
Derek McGrath was visibly shaking, roaring at his players. Brian Cody spat into his hands after calmly relaying instructions onto the field.
"Tadhg De Burca had retreated back inside the D," said Brendan Cummins on commentary. "We hadn't seen that in the previous 65 minutes of the game, inviting Kilkenny on, and you do that at your peril."
Is that when Waterford stalled at their Rubicon? Six wides down the home straight stains what had been a near-flawless hour of hurling.
“What happened happened,” Gleeson shrugged. “We just have to keep going for next Saturday.”
Impossible for the mind not to be playing tricks with them. The 21-year-old seemed to be the man who would win it for Waterford but his colossal display faulted when a sideline cut refused to fade inside the right post on 71.20. Others had chances at other moments. Like Paul Murphy’s snap shot at the death.
Did the mind frazzle? “I could have kept going for a while,” Gleeson replied. “We just worked like animals and have to do the same next Saturday . . . We’d play Kilkenny in the middle of the road. We just have to take the fight to them again, as they will take the fight to us.”
The picture of Sunday's game was certainly animalistic. Maurice Shanahan meant nothing by it. Just had to let out a wild roar. Just happened to be into the face of Shane Prendergast after he put Waterford four points clear of Kilkenny.
But the younger Shanahan brother was adamant Sunday’s game brings confidence to Waterford rather than regrets.
“Before we came up here people said we didn’t have much of a hope. Doesn’t bother us what people think – we know what we have in the group. We’ll get better. We’ll learn from this.”
Immediate theory
Shanahan also refused to accept the immediate theory, by Cummins and others, that Waterford went into themselves with victory in sight.
"I don't think we did. Kilkenny just said, 'Here we go – it's now or never.' They knew they were in a f**kin' fight. You could see by Eoin Murphy and all the boys were driving each other on. They knew they were in a fight."
Last year, in this moment, Kilkenny shifted up the gears to leave Waterford trailing by six points. What became evident on Sunday was their physical superiority no longer exists.
“Yeah, definitely,” said Gleeson. “Last year it was emphasised by a couple of the players that it was men against boys. We didn’t want to be run over. We matched them, we were fairly close [TO WINNING]. Have to go again.””
