The Road To Croke Park

All Ireland Senior Hurling Finals come but once a year and for many the assume the title is won and lost by what happens at Croke Park over seventy plus minutes on the First Sunday of September.

But in reality, the work begins almost a year earlier and for Waterford the work began nearly twelve months ago when the players and management got back together after a short break from the inter county set up after Waterford exited the 2016 championship.

Waterford’s first outing of 2017 was when they lost out to Limerick in the first round of a new Munster Hurling League on an 0-24 to 1-14 score line.

I for one must confess after seeing that game in the heel of the hunt felt that the inter county scene for Waterford in 2017 would be a short one, but while Derek McGrath’s side won just one game in the competition, a 4-21 to 0-15 win over Kerry at Fraher Field at the end of January, I and many others should be saying after the defeat to Limerick that the winners of these competitions are hardly remembered within the winning county let alone outside of it by the middle of the year, and that there was bigger games on the horizon.

The National League was a very mixed one for Waterford.

The Déise County had appeared in the previous two finals and many were expecting Waterford to at least make it three league finals in a row, as it would be nice to go into the championship in the summer having gone as far as possible in the league.

The league began well for Waterford as they beat Kilkenny for the second year in a row on a 1-15 to 0-17 score line. This was followed up with a defeat to All-Ireland Champions Tipperary, before winning away to Dublin and losing to Cork in what was a very disappointing performance and rounded off the league with a win away to Clare.

These results put Waterford into a quarter final against Galway at Salthill, a game Waterford lost 2-22 to 2-19 and a game the least said about the easiest mended.

Out of the league on April 2, Waterford had not a competitive game again till June 18 when Cork provided the opposition in the Munster Semi Final.

Again another disappointing result was recorded for Waterford and some were asking questions. Was the long layoff without a competitive game to blame. You can play all the tournament or challenge games you like but nothing beats playing in competitive games. Was it the way the team line out on the today was not correct?

Whatever the reason for the 0-23 to 1-15 defeat to Cork on June 18, since then nobody can question what has happened on the field of play, even if there is a sizable amount of people (myself included) that would rather see six backs and six forwards on the field of play.

Away to Offaly was always going to be a no win situation. Win small and more questions would be asked. Win big and it was only Offaly.

There can be no doubting that the highlight of the year to now is beating Kilkenny after extra time.

Not since 1959 had Waterford beaten the Cats in championship hurling and while Kilkenny in 2017 might not be the Kilkenny that we saw from the late 90’s right through to 2015, good teams do not become bad teams over night.

Minnows may not be the correct word to use, maybe more sides outside of the top traditional hurling sides (Kilkenny, Tipperary and Cork) is more correct to get one over the Cats, knocking them out of the championship is bound to give them confidence and so it was with Waterford.

The All-Ireland quarter final against Davy Fitzgerald’s Wexford was never going to be a classic, and in the end despite losing Tadgh de Búrca to a controversial red card, the better team won, advancing to a third successive All-Ireland semi final.

With Kilkenny out of the way, whoever Waterford got in the semi final draw they would enter the game full of confidence and advance to this weekend’s game.

While eleven points separated the sides at the end of the seventy minutes, this in fact possibly gave somewhat a false reading to the difference between the sides.

I for one have no doubt that the better side on the day won, but if the same two sides starting with the same XV were to play again in the morning the outcome would be the same, a win for Waterford but the margin of victory would be smaller, as the sending off of Damien Cahalane did have a big bearing on the game as it allowed Waterford to cut off the supply of telling passes from Anthony Nash when the game restarted at the Cork end of the ground after the ball went dead.

Competitive Results in 2017

 

8 January     Munster League     Waterford    1-14   Limerick      0-24

18 January    Munster League     Waterford    1-19   Cork            0-25

22 January    Munster League     Waterford    3-13   Clare            2-19

28 January    Munster League     Waterford    4-21   Kerry           0-15

 

12 February National League    Waterford    1-15   Kilkenny      0-17

19 February National League    Waterford    0-15   Tipperary     1-18

4 March       National League    Waterford    2-19   Dublin         1-17

12 March     National League    Waterford    1-13   Cork            1-21

26 March     National League    Waterford    2-21   Clare            1-22

2 April         National League    Waterford    2-19   Galway        2-22

                   (Quarter Final)

 

18 June        Munster Semi Final         Waterford    1-15   Cork            0-23

1 July           Qualifier Round 1           Waterford    1-35   Offaly          0-14

8 July           Qualifier Round 2           Waterford    4-23   Kilkenny       2-22   AET

23 July         All Ireland Quarter Final Waterford    1-23   Wexford      1-19

13 August    All Ireland Semi Final      Waterford    4-19   Cork            0-20