Munster Club SFC Final: Seán Moranon how, while the Waterford footballers may misfire, it's a different story at club level

The thing that struck Peter Queally most forcibly was the indifference. After a career that started as a footballer in Waterford, he switched to the hurlers and was around for the emotion of the county's 2002 breakthrough in Munster.

When he called time on hurling a couple of years later, Queally decided to give something back to football and got involved with the county team.

"One thing really struck me when I threw in my lot with the footballers as a player and trainer. We trained very hard and played Limerick in the McGrath Cup. Limerick had a strong team at the time but they only beat us by a point or two.

"The first League game was against Wicklow at home and we got beaten easily enough on the day but what stayed with me was the level of support. There were only 60 or 70 supporters there. We'd done well in the McGrath Cup and were under new management but hardly anyone was interested. It was totally deflating."

Waterford football isn't quite Kilkenny football but when the All-Ireland hurling champions last had a team in the NFL, their neighbours were about the only team they could plausibly aspire to beat.

This decade has, however, been eventful for Waterford football. Everything is relative, of course, and one provincial under-21 title plus an All-Ireland junior championship and a clutch of creditable but unyielding appearances in provincial club finals would be less of a golden age in Kerry and more of a recession but for Waterford there have been glimpses of a better time.

That trend continues tomorrow afternoon in Killarney, as Ballinacourty become the third club from the county in four years to contest a senior Munster final. Even more impressively their predecessors have been competitive in defeat - Stradbally going to a replay against Kilmurry-Ibrickane and 12 months ago The Nire nearly completing an astonishing comeback against eventual All-Ireland finalists Dr Crokes.

There remains, however, a reluctance to read too much into the prospects at senior county level. Pat Nugent managed the team that achieved the most stellar breakthrough of the decade - the defeat of Kerry in the 2003 Munster under-21 final. He acknowledges the difficulty of following through.

"Players are there," he says, "but we haven't been able to translate that into results. Good results are sporadic - you might get a couple of good ones in the league but a lot of disappointing ones as well."

It's at club level that the county has most consistently been a top-level presence. Queally believes that this was driven by the excellence of a Stradbally team that won five consecutive county titles, emulating the club record from the 1940s.

"There were a couple of factors," according to Queally. "The emergence of Stradbally really took the county championship by storm and they were very unlucky not to win the Munster championship.

"Nire saw how close Stradbally came and I think took confidence from it. Also you have the impact some of the younger clubs have made on the championship.

"Huge development work is being done and some very good young footballers have come through and that has brought the level up.

"An interesting thing is that the Waterford championship runs late and I think that helps clubs in both hurling and football. They have more momentum going into the provincial games."

The enhanced development work started in the 1990s when former Cork All-Ireland winning captain and later team manager Larry Tompkins did some work in Waterford.

He describes what he found as a "shambles" but says that with the hard work and commitment of the football community the situation was addressed.

"The interest of guys like Timmy O'Keeffe and Eamonn Martin brought it up to a new level. We set up a very good scheme that eventually had 15 to 20 coaches active in the county. We also put a lot of work into the under-21s. Unfortunately not all of those players went on to senior. Some played other sports and others just walked away.

"You need things organised to attract young players into the senior panel. Those structures traditionally haven't been there."

For instance, the county's junior All-Ireland successes of 1999 and 2004 featured players who, all things being equal, should have been playing for the seniors.

The favoured statistic at the time was that for the four years 2001-04 the winner of the county's Footballer of the Year award didn't play for the senior team.

Hurling takes its toll: Michael Walsh, who captained the Munster hurling champions last season and won an All Star, is one of the best - if not the best - footballer in Waterford; Shane Walsh, the next most highly rated, joined the hurlers last season.

Nonetheless, Tompkins was impressed by the raw material and the attitude of the clubs.

"I got huge commitment. They had the talent that could be brought on. Their clubs were always competitive, rarely trimmed. They were strong to beat and very spirited."

His stint with the county was productive in establishing raised horizons. The under-21s reached Munster finals in 1994 and '95, losing to Cork and Kerry teams who would go on to win All-Irelands. That trend of improved competitiveness continued after Tompkins left, with another Munster final appearance, this time against Limerick.

The first under-21 final not to feature either Cork or Kerry went to a replay before Limerick won. Three years later, Shane Walsh's late, late goal defeated Kerry in Walsh Park and led to a creditable All-Ireland semi-final display against eventual champions Dublin.

The question remains as to where the county can realistically go. John Kiely, the manager of the junior All-Ireland winners three years ago, has been in charge of better results and displays in the past couple of seasons but the best 15 players aren't ever available.

Opinions are even mixed on the likely effect of a club final victory, should Ballinacourty win what looks like the toughest of the three tasks in the past four years, beating championship specialists Nemo Rangers.

Tompkins cautiously sees such a victory as having the potential to raise confidence in the county although he understands that the club scene differs from inter-county competition.

"You'd imagine it should. If you've a healthy club scene doing well, surely there's a way of getting that through to senior level. Even combating the inferiority complex should be a massive help. But then again, the club is a close-knit unit with fellas who grew up together and have a great spirit. Bring five or six of them into a county panel and they mightn't have the same bite. You need leaders to come out and force the issue."

Peter Queally isn't so sure. Whereas he feels that a club title was tantalisingly close he doesn't believe in its miraculous properties.

"It's a real pity Stradbally didn't win Munster but I wouldn't want to be drawing too much of a cheery picture. I wouldn't see it having a great effect to be honest."