Possibly the most significant outcome of last weekend’s most enjoyable hurling fest was the fact that the most impressive winners were the counties which contested last September’s All-Ireland final. While both of Sunday’s games went down to the wire, on Saturday evening Kilkenny and Waterford won pulling up, having seen off pesky, but ultimately limited, adversaries. In the first of three reports, we will focus on the latter games here, with our review of Sunday’s fare to follow.

Saturday’s game in Thurles went along the lines originally expected for this contest, with Limerick gamely staying in touch for fifty five minutes before finally succumbing to the Déise’s superior talent. It has been suggested that Justin McCarthy’s switches midway through the second half – especially Donal O’Grady’s substitution and moving Séamus Hickey to defence - played a significant role in Limerick’s demise. However, the fact is that O’Grady had been almost completely anonymous – just four plays in total – and was totally dominated by surprise packet Shane O’Sullivan. And if Hickey was nominally moved to the half back line, whether by defiance or design he continued to operate around the middle of the park and to spit defiance against overwhelming odds in the closing minutes.

The manner in which Waterford pulled away in the closing 15 minutes suggests that superior fitness may have been a decisive factor separating the sides. If this is the case, it would certainly justify the players’ rebellion against McCarthy last year, which was partly based on concern that the team simply wasn’t fit enough. Waterford are reported to have gone through a very strenuous fitness programme this year, and certainly their dominance of the latter stages of Saturday’s game would tend to bear this out.

Whether or which, the fact is that, in terms of both effort and quality, Waterford improved more than Limerick since the previous Sunday. Waterford increased their number of plays by 12% compared to Limerick’s 8%. More importantly, Waterford’s quality points total (based on the quality of individual plays) rose by a whopping 31% compared with 11% for Limerick. Only Séamus Hickey matched Waterford in terms of added intensity and quality. While James Ryan produced another solid performance, other big players from the previous week, including Brian Geary, Niall Moran and Mark O’Riordan, fell back. However, to give him his due, after another terrible first half, Ollie Moran put in quite a good performance after the change of ends when moved out around midfield.

Waterford, by contrast, had several star performers on the night. While Richie Foley (in particular) and Jamie Nagle were much more subdued, there were stellar displays by O’Sullivan, John Mullane, Brick Walsh, Séamus Prendergast and Stephen Molumphy (until forced to retire at half time). Apart from O’Sullivan, all of these were among the Déise’s top performers the previous week, but were even more effective in the replay.

A key factor in Limerick’s second half recovery in the first game was the performance of their substitutes. However, with three of these starting this time, as predicted in last week’s column, on this occasion backup from the bench was to prove pretty thin. Thus, where Limerick’s substitutes made little impact, Waterford had the luxury of bringing on a fired-up Dan Shanahan while Jack Kennedy also rowed in with a super point. Indeed, when one thinks of Waterford starting without Ken McGrath and losing Stephen Molumphy half way through, one gets a good sense of the depth of their squad, with Dan Shanahan, Eoin McGrath (an All-Star nominee last year), Aidan Kearney, Jack Kennedy and James Murray all coming off the bench. Limerick’s substitutes were not in that league.

Waterford dominated the play count in both halves (83:64 and 82:66). Waterford were even more dominant when plays are measured in terms of quality (measured on a scale of 1-5, with plays from dead balls no longer being counted in a further tweaking of this column’s rating system). Thus, where Waterford made 26% more plays than Limerick, they garnered 35% more quality points. Most importantly of all, the Déise put almost 50% more on the scoreboard than the Shannonsiders, adding efficiency to their other areas of superiority.

In terms of plays, Brick Walsh was way ahead of everyone else with 23, 18 of which came in the second half. His ability to gain possession and bring the ball out of defence to set up well-placed colleagues brings a new dimension to Waterford’s game, and presumably is seen by Davy Fitzgerald as a better option than Ken McGrath’s spectacular clearances, directed as often as not towards his brother at top of the left.

In terms of quality of play, Waterford’s big performers were Shane O’Sullivan and John Mullane. Whereas Brick Walsh got 53 quality points from 23 plays, O’Sullivan got 49 from 16 plays, and Mullane an even more impressive 43 from just 12 plays. One presumes that O’Sullivan does this kind of thing regularly in training, as indicated by his continued selection despite consistently ineffectual performances. Well, he certainly finally delivered last Saturday, and if he can maintain this form, Waterford will become an even more formidable proposition. Waterford also got good returns from the redoubtable Tony Browne (30/16), Kevin Moran (26/9) and Richie Foley (20/9), while mention should also be made of Eoin Kelly’s free-taking, especially from long range which, despite a blip midway through the first half, makes fouls anywhere within 100 yards of the goal a risky gambit for Waterford’s opponents.

Séamus Hickey (43 points from 15 plays) was the only Limerick players to get more than 30 (never mind 40) quality points, with James Ryan next on 27/12, followed by Niall (24/9) and Ollie Moran (23/12), Brian Geary (23/10), Damien Reale (22/9) and Dinny Moloney (21/8).

For a game that has been denigrated in some quarters as involving two mediocre teams, there was a very substantial number of high-quality plays. An Moltóir awarded 25 plays with a quality points score of four or five, over 50% more than in the much-hyped Galway-Kilkenny game in Tullamore. One thinks, in particular ,of a wonderful point off his stick after a penetrating solo by Séamus Hickey, points from out on the sideline by both John Mullane and David Breen, almost any of Mullane’s other scores, all of Séamus Prendergast’s points and, above all, the marvellous point by Shane O’Sullivan from halfway having fielded the ball above Hickey’s head.

A key talking point after the game was the treatment meted out to John Mullane from a series of Limerick players. Mark Foley, in particular, appeared to be a man with a mission in this respect, while hurling seemed to be the last thing on Tomás Condon’s mind when he was given the thankless task, late in the game, of bringing the Waterford corner forward under control. There definitely appeared to be an agenda here and, when one adds in Brian Geary’s brutal full-frontal on Stephen Molumphy, one wonders should the GAA’s disciplinary mandarins consider some kind of collective sanction to Limerick for bringing the game into disrepute.

Number of plays – open play only (quality points in brackets):

Waterford: Hennessy C 5 (13); Murphy E 8 (18); Prendergast D 8 (16); Connors N 7 (17); Foley R 9 (20); Walsh M 23 (53); Browne T 16 (30); Moran K 9 (26); O’Sullivan S 16 (49); Molumphy S 8 (19); Prendergast S 14 (43); Nagle J 7 (14); Mullane J 12 (43); Kelly E 6 (16); Hurney G 5 (11); McGrath E 3 (6); Shanahan D 7 (17); Kennedy J 2 (6); Kearney A No plays

Limerick: Murray B (15); Reale D 9 (22); Lucey S 3 (6); O’Riordan M 8 (18); Moloney D 8 (21); Geary B 10 (23); Foley M 8 (18); O’Grady D 4 (8); Hickey S 15 (43); Ryan J 12 (27); Moran O 12 (23); Moran N 9 (24); Shaughnessy A 4 (10); Breen D 7 (16);); Browne P 10 (19); Foley E 3 (7); Mulcahy G 1 (3); Condon T 1 (2); Ryan