Sometimes, it is hard for Sean Cullinane to reconcile the optimism which floats over Waterford now with the heavy sense of emptiness which settled on the county after the 1993 Championship. Crushed at home by Kerry. Walking off the field that day, the Kerry players overjoyed after scalping Waterford by one goal, he felt nearly ill with frustration. His worst moment as an athlete. And they had told him this was to be the year.

"Well, our under-21s had won the All-Ireland the year before and they stuck six or seven of that team onto the senior side. Maybe in hindsight, they shouldn't have dropped lads like Liam O'Connor, who was only about 28 then. We went out there very raw that day, we didn't have the right balance. It was tough to take. It's at times like that you wondered was it worth it."

Which is why these times are so precious. At training last Tuesday evening, hundreds watched on and when Gerald McCarthy blew time, youngsters in replica jerseys scampered across the turf, name hunting. Scenes from other counties.

"It's amazing right now. Everywhere you go, there is blue and white bunting, flags, houses painted, slogans, the lot. And to see the youngsters going around in our jerseys where last year it would have been Manchester United tops is just brilliant."

Cullinane is a historian of the bad times, a 10-year stalwart dodging the tag of veteran. He made himself known to the Waterford senior team in the last 20 minutes of the 1989 Munster Final, when he ran on to cut short an afternoon of Nicky English poetry.

"Yeah, I held him scoreless when I came in but the damage was done by then."

Another hiding by Tipperary. Seemed as though the old order never grew tired of reminding them of their place in the hierarchy. "I suppose because I've been on the end of a few beatings from Tipp, that day in Cork (where Waterford defeated Tipperary) meant so much to me. That was our goal at the beginning of the year, to beat them, and it really hammered home to us that we could compete with anyone."

And so they have proven. The seeds, though, were planted back in December, when they roused themselves after St Stephen's Day and worked savagely towards peak condition.

"I always enjoyed the training anyway, but it was of a different intensity. That fitness and the mental attitude Gerald has introduced has been the major difference." He occasionally still feels the nearness of a Munster Championship medal. Those games against Clare were, he says ,"like All-Ireland finals.

"To win a Munster Final would have been incredible and, you know, we had that chance. To lose was devastating, the quarter-final was no consolation on the day. But when we got back to training, we all had our say on the Monday about the various incidents connected with the game and put it behind us. The fact that we had our first trip to Croke Park since 1993 to prepare for rid us of any feelings of anti-climax."

The ease of the Galway game surprised him. He guarded Joe Rabbitte, initially in the full forward spot, then Kevin Broderick and finally Ollie Fahy moved in, as Galway sought desperately to design some workable plan.

"They were just poor on the day. Galway are always a team I fancy to do well but they didn't play."

In Kilkenny, they are claiming to be struck with the same affliction, that their hurlers just aren't ticking. Cullinane sees danger in their protests.

"Okay, maybe they haven't been going the best. But they are due a big game and we are alive to the fact that it could arrive for them on Sunday. Look what Offaly did. And Kilkenny have all that experience."