Morale boosting win for Waterford footballers against Cork

Depend on what area of Waterford you live in there is different views on who are Waterford’s greatest rivals when it comes to the GAA.

If you live in the Dunmore East, Passage and Cheekpoint areas and you look across the River Suir, many would love nothing more than beat their cross river neighbours Wexford.

If you live in the city area then there is no doubting you want to beat Kilkenny.

If you live in Portlaw and down into Carrickbeg, Ballymacarbry, The Nire, and Ballinamult, then Tipperary is the side you love to beat. From Cappoquin, up around Lismore, Ballyduff, Tallow and down to Clashmore then the side you want to beat is Cork.

In truth, Cork are the side that most would like to beat, and when you beat them then great joy is taken from it. To beat Cork no matter the code or the grade gives many in Waterford great satisfaction. Why, its hard to know, but maybe when it comes to the GAA the Cork supporters are amongst the most jolly you will meet and when they are beaten they are the first to admit that they lost to a better team. Like many other counties when Cork loose some like to find fault as to why they lost. Usually in the GAA the referee is to blame or the lads on the line were slow to make the changes or made changes too quick, but with Cork to their credit, for many of their supporters when they loose it are to the better team.

Football in Waterford is often criticised from both within and outside the county. There is some in the county who would puncture every football in the county, or kick them into the Blackwater, Suir or Atlantic Ocean which ever is closer to them. There is some outside the county who when grading the counties footballers at the end of the year who like to keep the side down near the bottom, not and in their piece as to why they are so low down they like to find plenty of negative reasons.

But they fail to pick out the plusses. Seldom to have they told us that in recent years Stradbally, Ballinacourty and The Nire have all gone very close to winning the Munster Senior Club Football Championship. They don’t tell us that in the last two years, Waterford have served up good performances against both Cork and Kerry in the championship, running Kerry in particular very close in their own back yard in Killarney.  

Many often forget that in recent years we have produced some good minor teams in the last number of years but they have failed to get the recognition they deserve. In 2002 and 2003 I was involved with the Minor Football back room team and in the two years, some excellent footballers were involved, the likes of Thomas O’Gorman, Liam Ó Lonáin, Liam Lawlor, Patrick Hurney, Tony Grey, Joey Veale etc. who all could prove to be crucial to Waterford’s hope of winning some silverware in football this year.

At Clashmore on Sunday afternoon last heading into the game few gave Waterford any chance of beating Cork. Waterford had not beaten the Rebels in Senior Football in five and a half decades, but you always have to believe that you can win.

You can flip a coin 50 times and 50 times it might land on heads, but if you keep going eventually it will land harp side up. And it’s the same with football or hurling. You may not beat certain teams all that often, but if you keep going, you will have that day when the result goes your way, and when it does it is sweet.

There is going to be some that will point out that Cork did not have a full strength side out. But let’s ignore these people. Club football in Cork is supposed to be stronger than it is in Waterford, with some of their junior clubs said to be better than some of the senior clubs in Waterford. But whatever team Cork had out in Clashmore, like Waterford they started with 15 players on the field, the same as Waterford, and even when they called on some of their big guns including Colm O’Neill, Donnacha O’Connor and Paul Kerrigan, Cork could not shoot down Waterford.

Played on what was a heavy pitch, it was Waterford through a brace of Shane Ahearne frees that were first off the mark.

The Visiting team missed several chances to hit their first score of the game before Dan McEoin levelled matters by the 20^th minute with a brace of frees.

Waterford however hit back with points from the Ballinacourty pair Patrick Hurney and Michael O’Halloran to give Waterford a deserved 0-4 to 0-2 lead at the break.

Waterford in the second half began as they had finished the first half, kicking two points through Rathgormack’s Gavin Nugent to extend Waterford’s lead to four.

Cork however would strike back kicking the next four points of the game, two from Donnacha O’Connor and the other from Colm O’Neill to leave one between the sides.

For some time now Michael O’Halloran is one of the most exciting prospects in the county and he showed why he is thought of so highly on fifty-seven minutes when he kicked a fabulous free from distance.

Mark Collins cancelled it out on the hour mark to leave one between the sides once more and while Shane Ahearne and O’Neill would trade scores from frees in the closing ten minutes Cork despite having chances failed to land any further score to force the game to extra time or to even win a place in next weekends final against UCC.

Waterford: Stephen Enright; Dean Crowley, Niall Walsh, Thomas O'Gorman; Tadhg Ó hUallacháin, Maurice O'Gorman, Ray Ó Ceallaigh; Shane Ahearne, Tommy Prendergast; Michael Curry, Michael O'Halloran, Patrick Hurney; Liam Lawlor, Gavin Nugent, Joey Veale. Subs: Conor Phelan for Michael Curry (51), Lorcan Ó Corraoin for Joey Veale (59), David Hallahan for Ray Ó Ceallaigh (64).

Scorers: Shane Ahearne 0-3 (3fs), Michael O'Halloran, Gavin Nugent 0-2 each, Patrick Hurney 0-1.

Cork: Ken O'Halloran; Liam Jennings, Tom Clancy, Stephen O'Donoghue; Padraig Hodnett, Eoin Cadogan Jamie O'Sullivan; Michael Cussen, Mark Collins; Kevin O'Driscoll, Barry O'Driscoll, George Durrant; Dan McEoin, Fiachra Ó Deasunaigh, John Hayes. Subs: Donnacha O'Connor for Dan McEoin (h-t), Colm O'Driscoll for Fiachra Ó Deasunaigh (h-t), Colm O'Neill for George Durrant (h-t), Paul Kerrigan for John Hayes (43), John O'Rourke for Jamie O'Sullivan (61).

Scorers: Colm O'Neill (2fs), Dan McEoin (2fs), Donnacha O'Connor (2fs) 0-2 each, Mark Collins 0-1

Referee: Sean Joy (Kerry)