Déise draw on pain of 2011 with eyes on Munster final revenge
Painful loss of 2011 has sown the seed for a revamped Waterford to take their revenge on Tipperary
STOP the clock at the final whistle of the 2011 Munster final and it looked like the future belonged to Tipperary. After taking the power back from Kilkenny the previous September and spoiling the historic drive for five, then adding an Under 21 title in glorious fashion the following weekend, the county seemed to hit a new peak against Waterford in a seven- goal Munster final massacre.
Kieran O’Connor witnessed his first Munster final back in 1963 and has been the voice of Waterford hurling with WLR FM since 1998, his commentary career arc dovetailing perfectly with the county’s renaissance. He never saw anything like this. ‘If it went on any longer Tipp would have scored more goals,’ he says of the 7-19 to 0-19 final scoreline. ‘As Van Morrison said, “there’ll be days like this”. It was a nightmare to commentate on, to try and keep the Waterford listeners.
‘You could argue which was the worst between that and the All-Ireland final of ’08. At least that day, I was doing it with Fergal (Hartley) and we were complementing how good Kilkenny were — this was the complete team performance. We were admiring Kilkenny as much as knocking Waterford.’
What was most ironic was that then manager Davy Fitzgerald had guided Waterford to a Munster title in 2010 only to be criticised for imposing a more defensive gameplan than the traditional flamboyant, off-the- cuff approach.
The seeds of Derek McGrath’s defensive system that has been the springboard for Waterford’s return to a Munster final against Tipperary were first sown then. McGrath has taken that template, put his own stamp on it and used it to make his county a force again. The idea of Tipperary rattling seven goals past Stephen O’Keeffe tomorrow in Thurles is so fanciful as to be dismissed out of hand.
For O’Connor, that was the moment when Waterford knew they had to try and rebuild. ‘It kinda caught people off guard. It was probably the end of an era for some of those players. A real sense of shellshock.
‘In 2010 Dan (Shanahan) came on and got the famous groundstroke in the rain to win the Munster title.
‘But Tipp were a decent team. It was the emerging of these guys. And Lar (Corbett) finally fulfilled the promise that he showed all his career.’
The Tipperary forward went one better in the All-Ireland final when he had designs on the match ball. Firing in a hat-trick on hurling’s greatest stage is a rare feat, but Corbett eclipsed that by finding the net four times against Tipperary. His personal tally of 4-4 nearly matched Waterford’s on his own.
When he dispatched another bullet to the net just before half-time, he already had secured the position of Tipperary’s leading Championship goalscorer of all-time.
With the score reading 5-10 to 0-7 in first-half injury time, RTÉ commentator Ger Canning drew his own parallel with the other most public humiliation in the county’s recent history. ‘This is every bit as devastating as the display by Kilkenny in the 2008 All-Ireland final against poor and hapless Waterford once again,’ observed Canning.
Ken McGrath was a notable absentee from the team that day, a run of injuries prompting him to calling time earlier in the season. But ‘Brick’ Walsh, Noel Connors and Kevin Moran won’t have forgotten the pain of that defeat going into tomorrow’s final against the same opposition.
O’Connor explained how his own time behind the mic coincided with Waterford’s re-emergence as a force in the game. ‘The first Munster final I ever covered was in ’98, when Gerald (McCarthy) arrived. After being hammered in ’ 82 and ’ 83, I was apprehensive.
‘We drew with Clare and there were unbelievable scenes. To even beat Tipperary in the semi-final, go on and bring Clare to a replay in the final — that was the turning point.
‘In ’02 then when Tipperary were All-Ireland champions. We were outsiders. You had the famous Babs Keating story where he said that Tipp would be so far ahead that a lot of Waterford supporters would be leaving before the final whistle.
‘They were the All-Ireland champions in ’01, we had beaten Cork in the semi but nobody gave us a chance. That was the first time I ever saw Waterford winning a Munster final. Unbelievable feeling.
‘Then you had ’03 when Mullane got the three goals. I’ve never seen a game like ’04 with the scores from both sides. Eoin Kelly with the goal, Dan (Shanahan) with his own, then Paul Flynn with the dipper.’
And of course, the jump and catch by Ken McGrath to secure the win with the very last act of the game, ‘the salmon leap,’ as O’Connor puts it. ‘I said to the Cork lads that year, “Ye won the All-Ireland but we beat ye in a Munster final with 14 men”.’
While there was no redeeming feature to 2011, Waterford had the strength of character to bounce back the following year and reach the same stage against Tipperary. ‘At least in 2012 there was a bit of redemption. It was competitive, back to what we expected from the lads.’ After last year’s limp Munster Championship and qualifier exits, O’Connor admitted: ‘The general feeling after last year was that we’d be down for a few years, not that we’ve made i t yet. Derek made bold decisions and turned it around. ‘One to nine we’ve been outstanding this year. That has been the foundation. The work-rate, the intensity, the skill level in addition. These lads have all been successful at underage or colleges so there i s no hang-ups. They’re like a club team with the spirit in the camp.’
Defensively, they will present Tipperary with a very, very different puzzle to solve compared
to 2011.
‘We’ve been outstanding so far and it’s built on work-rate and intensity’