A talented hurler at underage level with Waterford, the Reading and Republic of Ireland star tells Mark Rodden about his high hopes for his native county next Sunday

WHEN I was younger hurling was probably my main sport for quite a while. I played with Clonea Power and with Waterford under-14s in the Tony Forristal tournament and at under-16. Then I left to go to play soccer abroad, so that's when I retired from hurling I suppose. But you never know, one day there's a possibility you might play again.

I played either as a corner forward or wing forward. I played with Séamus Prendergast, Eoin McGrath and John Mullane in the Tony Forristal and all the way up in the younger ages.

I played against Séamus Prendergast in an under-16 county final against Ardmore. I think we just about won that game. My brother Noel is telling me that 4-5 was the full score. I scored 4-4 and he scored a point, or so he tells me.

I was probably more talented at hurling than I was at soccer at that age. It was nice, but soccer took me down the right road in the end.

It was nice to see Waterford getting to a final after the years of hard work from the team that's been involved and the ex-manager, Justin McCarthy. I know they have worked hard and they've been knocking on the door for a while.

It was unfortunate that the manager left at the start of the summer, but I suppose hurling will probably catch up with soccer in terms of how ruthless the game is sometimes. But Davy Fitzgerald has come in, he has fresh ideas and the players have reacted to that.

I go to most games in the summer when I'm home. Usually, the Munster final clashes with the start of pre-season so I only get to see Waterford in the early rounds of the championship and the later stages of the league. But I watch it every year with great interest.

This year I think the pressure was taken off them with the manager going and Waterford are generally better as underdogs. The final is a one-off game and, hopefully, they can get a good result.

Where I come from in Clonea Power is about six miles from Carrick-on-Suir, so it's the border of Waterford and Tipperary. A lot of my friends come from that area and there's a strong rivalry there. So whenever Waterford play Tipperary there's always a lot of banter flying around and a lot of stick being given out. Waterford started to come good around '98 or '99 and they've been strong ever since so we've had most of the bragging rights. But Tipperary had a good young team this year so I won't say too much.

Shane Long is a very good hurler, but when we met up with Ireland for the last trip we had training at five o'clock and we missed the second half of the Waterford-Tipperary semi-final.

We managed to listen to the radio commentary of Mícheál Ó'Muircheartaigh near the end of the game. I haven't listened to him for a while and it was amusing - he's one of the legends in terms of commentators.

We were in a shed listening to it just before training started so it was quite good fun. Kevin Doyle was trying to muscle in, but he had nothing to do with it - Wexford were out and he's got his Gaelic football to keep him occupied.

It's going to be a bit frustrating when the All-Ireland final is on because we play Georgia in Germany and then we travel to Montenegro the next day.

We might get to see the game in Germany, but we probably won't. I'm hoping to get someone to bring it over to Montenegro so I can watch it.

Paul Flynn was one of my favourite Waterford players and he'd be one I'd like to see him get an All-Ireland medal. He's obviously very talented. He's been a great servant for Waterford and he'd be the one I'd have watched out for when I was younger.

If you're in an All-Ireland final and you want a goal in the last minute against Kilkenny then you'd want him on the pitch, that's for sure.

Kilkenny are a hurling machine though. They keep producing player after player and after getting to meet Henry Shefflin, you can see why they do so well.

He's down to earth, nothing gets to his head and you can tell he just gets on with his game.

Waterford deserve good credit for what they've achieved, but I think until after the game they need to stay in the zone, train well and look forward to it without getting involved in the ticket side of things.

The place would go wild if Waterford win. I don't think many people would go to work the next couple of days after it, put it that way.

I think the county deserves it, but we'll have to wait and see what happens.