ON A day like this, cliches have to work harder. Páirc Uí Chaoimh became a field of dreams for Waterford yesterday. Half an hour after the Munster final had ended they didn’t want to leave.
Ken McGrath stands there, signing autographs and jerseys and sucking in the carnival atmosphere. Seven points from play – a succession of markers dispatched – have been a keystone in his county’s first provincial title in 39 years. “I thought we played brilliant hurling all the way through,” he says, “and got what we deserved – a Munster medal. It’s the first senior medal for all this team. The support was unbelievable. They’ve been following us during lean years when we were winning nothing. It’s going to build up hurling in the whole county of Waterford.
“I reckoned I’d hit the ball okay but I was a bit nervous if I got a shot. But when the game gets going you forget about those things. I went for the first ball and got an oul’ shot and it wasn’t too bad so you forget about it.
“To be honest with you, playing with Waterford . . . you know these things that happened. Until the final whistle went I didn’t feel safe. I thought we dictated the pace of the game. We wanted to play fast hurling, we’ve a fast team.”
Wing back Peter Queally recounts his reaction to the final whistle. “It’s unbelievable. I don’t think anyone wants to leave the stands and the players don’t want to leave the pitch. I went straight to my parents. I knew where they were in the stand and my wife and her family. A very emotional moment, something I’ll remember for the rest of my life.”
His long-time comrade and captain Fergal Hartley is defiant in the face of it all, glorious and unpredictable as it was.
“Yeah. A 70-minute performance. We’re sick of reading the likes of yourselves writing about us saying we’re a 35-minute team. That kind of thing spurred us on. We had a good day today. In the past we were as well prepared but just didn’t have a good day. It’s not so much that we’re doing things differently. We’re coached well – Justin is a very clever man – and we had the rub of the green.
“We’re in the last four now so we’re not going to give up now. Having said that it’s still a long shot for Waterford to win anything more than this. This is as much as we wanted to achieve for the time being. We’ll think about it tomorrow.”
For Paul Flynn, another big haul (1-6) under his belt, there is the luxury of recalling in tranquillity the bravura words of former Tipperary manager Babs Keating on the radio on Saturday afternoon.
“Waterford supporters weren’t leaving early as one Tipp manager said on radio yesterday. Not at all.
“In Waterford it’s so long . . . we don’t know how to treat it but there’s other matches to play this year. We’ll have a good week.”
On the other side of the spectrum, Nicky English surveys the damage. The success of last year lies strewn all around amongst the players that had looked in such good heart for the defence of their titles – until yesterday.
“Waterford were fantastic. If you’d told me coming down that we’d score three goals. I’d have been pretty confident we’d win. It will be hard to regroup now but at least we’re still in it. Galway footballers showed that it’s possible last year. This is a bad beating to come back from but if we can win the next round we’re back at square one.”
