National Hurling League Final: Seán Moranfinds a positive mood in the county as Justin McCarthy's charges prepare to face Kilkenny

Everything is relative but this is definitely a golden age for Waterford hurling. Only once before has the county won two senior Munster titles in the same decade. There mightn't have been any All-Ireland follow-through like there was in the 1950s but the current decade isn't finished yet.

Tomorrow afternoon in Thurles Waterford face into a third National Hurling League final in 10 years, still in search of a first win since 1963, but even against a formidable Kilkenny team, on the verge of a fifth title in six seasons, Justin McCarthy's side are regarded as credible contenders and one of the few teams capable of taking on the All-Ireland champions.

They can also take encouragement in their efforts from the bright precedent of last Sunday in Croke Park when De La Salle became the first Waterford side to win the colleges' All-Ireland, the Croke Cup. In the final they squeezed out Kilkenny CBS in an anxious climax.

Just as the county's only previous winner of the Harty Cup (Munster colleges), Mount Sion in 1953, provided a rich source of players for the county's All-Ireland win six years later, hopes are high the players coming through the system can give Waterford a permanent place in the big time rather than simply something to talk about in the bleak decades of whatever downward cycle may come.

And precedent indicates such cyclical fortunes have been a fact of life for Munster's smallest county, whose limited catchment is further qualified, according to Joe Carton, Munster Games Manager, one of two development directors in the province (the other is the Kerry football manager Pat O'Shea).

"I heard it said on the radio that Kilkenny is actually a smaller county. That might be true population-wise but in terms of hurling Waterford is really smaller. In Kilkenny every good athlete hurls while in Waterford the city is split between soccer and hurling and then football in parts of the county."

Carton is particularly familiar with Waterford because it's his own county and he was part of the management that brought home the 1992 under-21 All-Ireland and also cut his teeth there as a development officer.

The county has had plenty of room for development over the years. The bulk of its achievements are packed into the quarter of a century from 1938 to 1963, when five of the seven Munster titles were won, both All-Irelands and the only National League.

Most of the years since had been featureless. Some of the time what befell the county made "featureless" almost an aspiration. Two fearful hammerings by Cork in successive Munster finals in 1982 and 1983 ("Lads, ye're murder for the punishment," Cork supporters told their opponents, according to one Waterford player, who no doubt enjoyed the banter as the team walked up to Semple Stadium in 1983) remain the outstanding miseries.

But there was also relegation to Division Three in the 1980s and the unforgettable 1993 role of fall guys for Kerry's first senior championship victory since 1926.

Asked to hazard an explanation as to what went wrong after the early 1960s, Carton isn't old enough to be certain but he has a fair idea.

"It's hard to know but you'd have to look at under-age structures. If you don't have players coming through, you've no teams. There were some tremendous players but it's not a coincidence we didn't win a minor in all that time."

When he says "didn't win a minor" he's not merely talking about failure to win the Munster or All-Ireland titles. The dusty expanses stretched farther than that and give a good indication of what has been achieved in more recent times.

When the Waterford minors reached the All-Ireland final in 1992, the achievement encompassed the county's first win over anybody except Kerry since 1976 (and even those five victories included two walk-overs). Leave Clare out of it and the trail goes back to a 1955 win over Limerick.

In 1992 they beat Tipperary in the Munster final, a first victory over one of the big two, Cork and Tipperary, since 1950, that year within touching distance of the county's last minor All-Ireland in 1948.

Fifteen years ago was a watershed. There mightn't have been any more titles but the performances have been respectable, with only two bad (double digit) defeats in the 27 minor championship matches they have played since 1992.

"There are 30 juvenile teams in Waterford; Cork have about 165," says Carton. "To be within two or three points of Cork is a success most years. Since 1992 we have been competitive at minor without winning anything. We've been there or thereabouts. As a result you'll get players.

"We probably should have been more successful at under-21 because you're talking about the best of three minor teams. But there's definitely more work and more hurling going on in Waterford city and county. The current crop of players make up the best panel in 30 years."

It's chicken and egg. The success of the seniors promotes the game - "We're seeing more big games now than we ever saw when I grew up in the 1970s," says Carton - but without the development work there would be no success.

Within the county the role played by Gerald McCarthy's management from 1996 to 2001 is acknowledged as having brought the county to a new level, contesting Munster and NHL finals as well as an All-Ireland semi-final. When Justin McCarthy took over, it is equally acknowledged, the push toward a first Munster title in 39 years was assisted by many who were new to the inter-county scene.

Players like Eoin Kelly, Séamus Prendergast and Michael Walsh all arrived after the first McCarthy era, whereas Eoin Murphy and John Mullane had played only in its final year.

"We need success at under-age in order to build a successful senior team, and the relative success of the senior team is the result of development work and not the other way around," says Carton.

Last Sunday's historic win is the latest boost to the county's self-esteem. De La Salle is in Waterford city and used to be a boarding school. Ned Quinn, current Kilkenny chair and chair also of the Hurling Development Committee, played in goal for the school.

Another famous out-of-town alumnus is Wexford's Liam Griffin.

Waterford is the nearest city to south Kilkenny and the school attracts pupils from places such as Mooncoin, Slieverue and Mullinavat. Last weekend's winning team included three players from north of the border but the remaining 12 were all locals, as were the three replacements who were introduced.

"I'm sure it will have a knock-on effect," says team mentor Derek McGrath, a teacher in the school and centre forward on the 1992 minors. "The buzz that's been created and the psychological effect of winning in Croke Park after coming from behind puts more distance between us and the inferiority complex that used exist in the county.

"The seniors have helped boost the under-age levels.

There have been good structures for a good while and when there's success like last week, everyone wants to play. If they can win silverware, it helps bring a winning mentality to senior level."

Again a little must go a long way. For instance, in the 54 years since Mount Sion won Waterford's last and only Harty Cup, the provincial market leaders, St Flannan's, have taken the trophy home to Ennis on no fewer than 17 occasions.

There have been other encouraging signs at under-age level. For the past three years Waterford have reached the final of the prestigious Tony Forristal tournament (regarded as an unofficial under-14 All-Ireland) and in 2005 this season's minors lost narrowly to Cork in the Nenagh Co-op tournament (for under-16s).

The development needs, as distinct from ambitions, of Waterford are to intensify recruitment, raise the numbers playing, be competitive at under-age levels and produce two or three players a year, who might be able to take the step up to inter-county.

From a hurling perspective there are the difficulties of a dual county. Although the hurling territory is larger than the football equivalent, the big-ball game is quite entrenched even though Waterford are among the weaker senior inter-county teams.

In the past three years, for instance, county champions Stradbally and The Nire have made it to the provincial club final, and as recently as 2003 Waterford won a first provincial football under-21 title.

"Coaching has broadened the hurling base," says Carton. "It's predominantly a hurling county but because of coaching, clubs that didn't play are playing now. Like in any county, some clubs could do more and others do over and above.

"We'd be concentrating on the urban population because you'll only get X number of players out of a rural area and the clubs will tend to get to them anyway because they need all the players they can get, but there are numbers in urban areas. It would be foolish to say that everything's rosy but there's a lot of work going on."

Some of that work has been pioneering and because games development is about sharing ideas, projects piloted in Waterford have successfully transferred elsewhere. The "Hurling on the Green" scheme that was used to attract kids in housing estates is an example.

Bringing this work to fruition is a delicate task.

Carton maintains there's no point in evangelising vast tracts of Waterford if the clubs aren't able to accommodate the increased interest.

"There's a new recruitment programme with ads on radio and incentives to get involved. But ultimately the kids will play with clubs so if the local club isn't structured right it doesn't benefit us at all."

There is sufficient faith in the development work for optimism to have broken out concerning the future of the current senior team.

In the sixth year of Justin McCarthy's management a consensus had been developing that this would be the last year before the last surviving veterans of the 1992 under-age resurgence had to retire.

But new players are being discovered and even if someone like Tony Browne is hurling as well as he ever did, there is now confidence that the next generation can keep the flame burning.

"I don't agree that this team will be gone," says Carton.

"Tony Browne is 34 and Paul Flynn and Tom Feeney are around that age but Ken McGrath and Dan Shanahan are still relatively young. They might have to rebuild a little but I don't think Waterford are going to go away."

Summer starts tomorrow. A win over Kilkenny would be a memorable achievement and the county's first national title in 44 years and would underline the possibilities of an open -looking Munster championship.

Is it better to travel hopefully than to arrive? Depends where you're going, and Waterford can tell us when they get there. But in the meantime, enjoy the trip.