Who will dismiss Waterford now? Who will doubt them? On what grounds? Derek McGrath’s young side keep turning down opportunities to fizzle out, doubling down on their league final win over Cork with a 3-19 to 1-21 repeat dose here.
They did it after a nervous start, they did it without the free-taking crutch of Pauric Mahony. What else can they do? Are you willing to take a stab at what they can’t?
The fact that the Waterford following probably made up less than half of the 21,047 Thurles crowd gives a flavour of McGrath’s battle for hearts and minds.
Even after the final whistle, with his giddy band of boy princes through to a Munster final, he couldn’t move for well-wishers telling him at least he was guaranteed an All-Ireland quarter-final now.
‘Defeatist stuff’
“Including my own father!” laughed McGrath half an hour after the final whistle. “That sort of defeatist stuff is something we need to change. I must have met five or six of them out on the field there who said the same. I’m not saying we’ll be favourites for the Munster final but we’ll think about the All-Ireland quarter-final if we’re beaten at 5.30 in the evening on July 12th.”
They are a joyous bunch to behold, this Waterford side. McGrath will lose 14 of his panel to the under-21s for a clash with Cork on Wednesday week but they go with his blessing and good graces.
He threw Shane Bennett in off the bench for two points in the second half here and him supposed to be home studying for Maths Paper Two. “Didn’t take a fig out of him,” beamed McGrath. To be young is very heaven.
Characters. Faces. Names to conjure with.
Austin Gleeson sprayed four first-half wides from centre back but carried himself with a hero’s gait all day.
Colin Dunford scorched a track in the earth every time he got on the ball – at one stage Daniel Kearney (demonstrably no slouch himself) had to give up the chase with Dunford still 40 metres from goal.
Tadgh De Búrca, Jake Dillon, Shane Fives – the kids of Waterford have fresh autograph books to be filled.
The made Cork look leaden and stale, the very picture of a regime that has found itself another cul de sac to wander down. Though they began their Munster title defence with promise, Jimmy Barry-Murphy’s side atrophied the longer the day went on.
Bravado performance
They lost Luke O’Farrell to a red card and could only point to a bravado five-point performance from Pa Cronin as a silver lining. All the momentum of the run to the 2013 All-Ireland has leaked away.
“We have a tough road ahead of us now,” said JBM. “Clare, Dublin and ourselves are there. It is going to be very difficult. We’ve got to face the fact that over the two days Waterford have been the better team. There is nothing you can do about that but regroup and try and lift the lads up. We will give it a go the next day.”
They gave it go here, at least for a while. Cork attacked the day with the gusto of hurlers scorned, the five weeks of derision since the league final clearly having pricked them. Conor Lehane, Mark Ellis and Cronin all slung over points as Waterford struggled at the other end. With 25 minutes gone, Cork led 0-6 to 0-2.
For the first time all year, Waterford looked like what we thought they were. Young. Nervous. Shallow-end swimmers groping for the poolside.
McGrath explained afterwards that they’d gone out on to the pitch overly emotional, having watched a video message from Mahony on the bus as it approached the ground. They were, he admitted, fortunate that Cork didn’t stick a goal on them when they were on top.
In reach
Instead, Waterford kept them in reach. In keeping with the rest of the side,
Maurice Shanahan
survived an early wobble with his free-taking and went on to finish the day with a tally of 1-9, with 1-1 of it from play.
His goal was the turning point, drawing them level on 25 minutes. Cork didn’t lead again all day.
Dillon planted Waterford’s second goal four minutes later, ghosting past the Cork cover to run onto a canny handpass from Brick Walsh. They led 2-6 to 0-11 at half-time and surge for home in the second half without ever being in grave danger.
McGrath is probably right when he says they’ll be underdogs for the rest of the year.
Underdogs, yes. Under-estimated? Impossible now.
