Having queried the wisdom of selecting Andy Moloney on the Waterford team for Sunday’s All Ireland senior hurling semi-final against Clare, An Fear Rua has to concede at the outset that the Ballygunner man was one of the few members of the starting fifteen that ultimately justified his selection …

Although wearing number eleven, Moloney started at centre-field in a partnership with Tony Browne who was wearing number five! Moloney played well and never stopped trying. It was a sign of his commitment that the final Waterford score of the day came from him, in the dying seconds of the game. His presence at mid-field added much needed height and strength there for the Déise.

Long into the dark nights of Samhain in places like the Nire Valley, Ballyduff, Portlaw and over large bottles of stout in the Mount Sion club house in the city, Waterford folk will puzzle long and hard over this game and wonder if semi-final defeats will always be their lot. Whatever conclusions they may reach, already it is clear that Waterford played in Croke Park like a team that had forgotten how they played against Cork and Tipperary in the Munster championship. Thanks to the efforts of the youngsters on the team they got off to the dream start that everyone thought they needed, with their first six consecutive chances rifled over as points, to only two for Clare. Paul Flynn got the kind of start that usually steadies him into one of this better games – an early point and a well-taken goal from a ‘21’ that left the Clare backs flummoxed. However, this early promise only flattered to deceive as, later in the game, the same player fluffed easy free opportunities that could have kept his team in the game.

However, after that opening golden twenty minutes, came a critical turning point in the game. Waterford, in quick succession, fluffed easy chances to add 1-2 to their scoreline, while in the same period, Clare picked off two points at the other end. The Waterford half-back line were showing signs of nerves and fumbling, thus Alan Markham ghosted in for a goal and a point just before half-time, that left Clare a point up going into the dressingrooms.

Even at that point, the game was still there for Waterford to win. Ken McGrath and Tony Browne – twin tormentors of Tipp in the Munster final – had been extremely quiet. A word from Just-In in the dressingroom should have been enough to lift their game in the second half. But the expected Waterford ‘lift’ never came. Quite the opposite, in fact. Instead, it was Clare who lifted their game further and pulled away into a commanding four-point lead. Of the two teams, Clare were the hungrier and the more determined. Clare took hold of the game and imposed their way of hurling on to it and the Waterford lads allowed themselves to be hustled out of it.

Throughout the field – with honourable exceptions like Eoin Murphy and Brian Flannery – individual Waterford players were well below the standard displayed in the Munster campaign. Their customary ‘first touch’ had deserted them; none more so than Ken McGrath who, far from being an inspirational leader on the day, probably had his worst game ever in a Waterford jersey. There was an exceptional amount of ‘one-handed’ hurling which AFR cannot believe was conceived or condoned by Just-In McCarthy.

The legitimate response of Waterford followers to their team’s performance is not one of despondency, but of anger. Anger that any Waterford team could go through almost forty minutes of hurling and score only three points. Anger that any Waterford team could come out of Munster and play so dismally on the national stage. And out of that anger should be born resolve. A resolve never to let this happen again. Never to see Waterford hurling disgraced again in this way.

The happiest men coming out of Croke Park on Sunday will have been Brian Cody and his Kilkenny mentors. For openers, taken with their narrow squeak against Antrim, it’s beginning to look as if Tipperary are not the team of last year and that Waterford may have been flattered by their Munster victory over them. Equally, while Clare beat a poor Déise side, it was only by three points in a low scoring game; the Banner men shot many wides during their period of superiority in the second half and throughout the game allowed Waterford through for too many scoring chances, albeit not taken by them. On that line of form, Kilkenny should despatch Tipperary in the other semi-final and they will have seen nothing in the Clare performance to give them pause in their contemplation of another title shot.

What now of the Déise? Well, firstly it has to be said that their fabled supporters did not play the role expected of them, nor even akin to that we have seen from the likes of the supporters of Dublin, Kildare, Donegal, Sligo or Meath, for example, in football. True, they turned up in much greater numbers than their Clare counterparts and were in fine voice when the team came out first and during the parade. That, of course, is the easy bit. But when their team needed a lift, and could still have responded – say, with fifteen or even ten minutes to go – they were not to be heard. From the start of the second half, they looked and sounded like the supporters of a beaten team, and so it came to pass.

However, for Waterford followers, the way to look at this game is as a staging post, not a terminus. This is not ’98 all over again. This time around, there is Munster silverware on the sideboard – more, if you count Ballygunner’s Clubs trophy. The panel includes a number of really excellent young players and the older players, the likes of Ken McGrath, Browne and Flynn, are by no means finished. The key thing is to learn from this year’s experience and build on it. No man will have learned more from it than their manager, Just-In McCarthy…

Related Topics:
Separated at Birth?
The Crystal Ball: Dalcassians and Decies
D for ‘Déise’ Day
The Just-In Time Solution
Beidh Lá Eile ag an bPéire!
Ger Loughtalibane: Talking Through His Turban … Again?
The Sunday Lessons from Croke Park
Déise Victory Sets Championship Alight
Competitive Waterford Get the Breaks
Self-Belief the Crucial Difference Between Tipp and Clare
TG4 Score Again with Cusack Park Thriller
Nicky and Justin on the Phone
Maloney Exocets Down Toomevara … Now, Gunners Target Blackrock!
Waterford Team Fails to Snatch Defeat from the Jaws of Victory - Shock! Horror!