LIVIN’ ON THE EDGE Two near misses for Waterford could have killed the dream but here they are
DEREK MCGRATH could toe the party line and say he always believed but, in all honesty, he thought Waterford’s All-ireland dream was dashed on two occasions.
The first came on June 18 when Cork dumped Waterford of the Munster Championship, plunging them into what he termed a “shark infested” qualifier pool.
Could he envision his team reaching the All-ireland final at that stage?
Waterford boss Mcgrath (right) said: “No, no, I absolutely couldn’t. You always hold out hope, but it was very much in the back of our mind.
“Our initial thought process that evening was, ‘Jesus, Tipp and Kilkenny are in the qualifiers. We are entering shark infested waters’. That was it, to be honest with you.
“There is no point sugar coating it. Even down to the preparation for the Offaly game in the qualifiers, we prepared for it like it was an All-ireland final.
“We had a meeting after the Cork game at the Horse and Jockey hotel. We weren’t happy with how we played, we weren’t happy with ourselves as management.
“We knew there would be a storm of criticism. I am often asked about that weekend and comments that were made about us and I just say I looked at Rory Gallagher in Donegal, Tyrone hammered them that weekend, and I looked at Andy Mcentee in Meath, they were well beaten by Kildare.
“It happens in every county at some stage, big defeats, and there is always a debate afterwards.
“I remember saying, ‘I wonder are they getting it as hard in Meath and Donegal?’ But they probably were.”
“Waterford ultimately took it game by game. They couldn’t do much else, particularly when they were drawn against Kilkenny whom they hadn’t beaten in the Championship since 1959.
It was all looking good as Waterford roared ahead but when they leaked that eightpoint lead and were taken to extra-time, Mcgrath thought their Maccarthy Cup challenge was over. Again.
He said: “Yeah, you are right. I would love to say you aren’t right, but you are. What I went through, selfishly I suppose, was the debate that I expected to come afterwards, what was going to be said about the eight-point lead dissipating and how they ‘must have sat back again’.
“I just saw a mirror image of the All-ireland semi-final of two years ago, not killing them and I also felt the momentum shift had been huge in their favour.
“I felt Kilkenny had all the momentum.”
But Mcgrath’s players dug deep in extra-time and winning gave them the belief to march all the way to today’s final.
Mcgrath said: “We speak a lot about making memories, as a group. That was a memory that will last forever.”
“They’ll make the most special memories of all today if they overcome Galway and secure Waterford’s first Allireland win since 1959.
Mcgrath may be required to pull a rabbit from the hat at some stage to get it done.
He said: “I have great admiration for Stephen Rochford in Mayo in the last while.
“Outside of even the goalkeeper situation last year, to do what he did [moving Aidan O’shea to full-back] and saying, ‘This is the right thing for our team’, I just think that was so ballsy, for want of a better word.
“I don’t know who said it but there’s a lot of truth to it that if you stand alone and you are going in the right direction, you might be better off than going
with the crowd.”