Version published in the programme for the 2007 All Ireland senior hurling semi-final, Waterford v Limerick

The times and places where iron determination enters the soul of a hurler are sometimes obvious and other times not, writes An Fear Rua....

Among the more obvious ones could be the morning of a big match when your eye falls on a disparaging comment about your previous game in a Sunday newspaper. It might even be written by some journalist whom you know would have a hard time discerning one end of a hurley from another. It could be those final moments in the dressing room when the work has been done, the last word has been spoken and you face up the tunnel towards that light and the roar of the crowd.

Or, if you’re a Waterford hurler like Ken McGrath, it could be in the unlikely darkness of a bar in downtown Manhattan, maybe like the famous Jimmy Neary’s on East 57th Street. At twenty three years of age, Jimmy was a shop boy and a hackney driver in Tubbercurry, in county Sligo. In 1954, he landed in New York as a young, green Irishman with only $90 in his back pocket. By Saint Patrick’s Day 1967 he had made a few dollars on the stock market and had saved enough to open his bar. Ten years later, the Bank of Ireland on Fifth Avenue loaned him the money to buy his entire building and he lit a few candles in Saint Patrick’s cathedral, across the road from the bank, to ensure success. Now his list of regulars reads like a ‘Who’s Who’ of New York business, politics, journalism and show biz. It just goes to show what can be achieved with sufficient hard work and determination.

So, it was kind of appropriate that it was in Manhattan last December, as they sipped a few cool beers and reflected on their 2006 season, that the Waterford hurlers agreed that 2007 could be their year to win the All Ireland senior hurling championship.

The players were in the Big Apple just before Christmas as part of a reward and team building excursion after a frustrating year. It was a year that saw them go down to Cork in the All Ireland semi final by a single tantalising point and McGrath himself denied a last second equaliser from a ninety metres free by the shrewdly placed hurley of the Cork goalkeeper, Dónal Og Cusack.

They enjoyed the New York craic. They cracked a few beers and chatted. They all agreed they’d come so close last year that they’d come back at the start of 2007 and ‘tear into it’.

Now they’re back to exactly where they were at around this time last year. But can they go that one step further? Having already vanquished Limerick in the Munster final below in Semple Stadium, in Thurles, they face them again today in an All Ireland semi final. Says McGrath: ‘It’s a massive game. The championship is different to the League final or even the Munster final. Championship is championship. The intensity will be higher’.

This year, Waterford have introduced a small – but effective – group of new young players. McGrath is convinced they’ve made a big difference: ‘This team has been together for five or six years so we have been crying out for some young lads for the last few years. The lads are playing great. They’re very fit. They’re young lads and they’re eager. They’re after winning a League medal in their first or second year on the panel. It’ll have to give them confidence. These lads have no fear. When they played against Kilkenny in the League final they were looking for the ball and marking big name players.’
Ken McGrath now proudly possesses three Munster senior hurling medals and a mint new National Hurling League medal. Far from slaking his thirst, their possession has merely whetted his appetite for more silverware: ‘If someone told me at the start we’d win three Munster medals I’d be over the moon. But now, things have progressed and the team has progressed, so we want more and we want to be in Croke Park. At the time they were great but now you want a bit extra.’

But what about all the pressure that comes on Waterford players from some of the most committed fans in the game? McGrath acknowledges the fans’ hunger for victory, but it doesn’t get to him: ‘You’re talking about long waits and all that. We’re only playing for the last few years. We weren’t playing in the 70’s and 80’s. A lot of us weren’t even playing in the 90s. We can only do what we’re doing now. We lifted up hurling in Waterford. There’s no doubt about that. If we can make it to an All Ireland final appearance who knows what might happen on the day?’

He rejects the view that what they’re getting from the fans is pressure: ‘I wouldn’t say pressure at all. Winning any title you have to take some confidence from it. If we had lost the League final it would’ve been a downer. You want to win every game especially before a big crowd in Thurles against Kilkenny in a local derby for ourselves down in the city. To pull through in the end was important.’

Winning the 2007 NHL title and the Munster championship is an uncanny replica of 1963 – the last year Waterford made it to the All Ireland final. They’ll be hoping that history will repeat itself today but they are under no illusions about the massive obstacle posed by a Limerick side that has grown in stature and confidence with every puck of the ball in this year’s championship.

It’s been a long and difficult path from that conversation in Manhattan to Croke Park today. Ken McGrath hopes this game will mark a further successful step on his journey. Who knows, if this works out right for him he might be back in Jimmy Neary’s again at Christmas, but this time accompanied by Liam McCarthy? It would be the kind of fairytale end to a lot of hard work and determination that a guy like Jimmy would surely understand.