Not for nothing did a decent and honourable man called Nicholas Whittle entitle his magnificent book about his life and times in Waterford ‘The Gentle County’, writes An Fear Rua …

Whittle was one of that small, but gallant, band of men and women who were ‘out’ during the War of Independence. Throughout his life he carried a few Black and Tan bullets in his body from the famous ambush of 1921 at Pickardstown, a few miles on the city side of Traaaamore.

No fans of any other county will have been as disappointed - nay devastated - as those of Waterford following Sunday’s defeat by Limerick in the Munster senior hurling semi-final in Páirc Uí Cheacescu. They love their sport in Waterford with a passionate intensity that is rarely found elsewhere. And, over the years, they’ve had a fair measure of success, not least in soccer, where the nickname ‘The Blues’ became synonymous with success in the Sixties and Seventies. Apart from recent successes by the Womens’ team and the Junior team, the less said about Gaelic football in the county, the better. In hurling, there has been some success. Aficionados of that sport would aver that the great Waterford team of ’57 to ’63 were one of the best sides ever to grace to the sport and deserved more reward than just a solitary All Ireland title, in ’59. In recent years, as they watched Clare and Wexford surge past them to win All Irelands, Waterford folk have become even more frustrated at their county’s failure to make the breakthrough.

Yet, all of that great love of, and enthusiasm for, hurling never quite seems to translate into winning results when it’s most necessary. Waterford has some very good hurlers and a couple of great exponents of the ‘small ball game’, as the late John D Hickey used to call it. In Gerald McCarthy, for the past five years, they have enjoyed the experience and wisdom of one of the greatest players ever to take to a hurling field, a man justly bedecked with all the honours the game can bestow. Yet, what have they to show for it? A brief flight across the heavens of ’98, like a comet that flares for a few seconds and is then doused for eternity.

Why should that be so? Well, one problem AFR has always identified in Waterford hurling teams is the consistent failure of all their stars to shine brightly on the same occasion. Sure, we recall games when Paul Flynn led the opposition a merry dance. Undoubtedly, Tony Browne merited the accolade of ‘Hurler of The Year’ in ’98. Ken McGrath would be welcomed on any hurling team in the country and that includes last Sunday’s victorious Limerick team. But when have we ever seen a game when Flynn, Browne, McGrath, Shanahan, Queally, Frampton and Hartley all played brilliantly on the same day ? That’s the key difference between this pale Waterford of 2001 and the robust team of ’59: Grimes, Guinan, Flannelly, Power, Walshe, Cheasty and Morrissey all played superlatively – and for each other - every time. When something went against the team, one of them stepped into the bearna baoil and rallied his colleagues. Far too often, with the current team, even the slightest setback means the heads go down and the shoulders get hunched. And even when they’re winning, as on Sunday, they play like they can’t really believe they’re ahead and can’t wait to get back into the more familiar losers’ position.

When the patriot Nicholas Whittle called it ‘The Gentle County’, he meant it as a compliment. The problem with being too gentle, of course, is that you may lack the killer instinct – the instinct that distinguished the Clare team under Loughnane, every Cork team that ever pulled on the red jersey and that marks out this current Limerick side as formidable opponents for anyone.

What now for Decies hurling ? There are so many things to put right that it’s hard to know where to start. AFR believes that Waterford teams are best led by mentors from within the county, who understand the traditions and culture of the county, though no suitable candidate springs to mind immediately. There are some good players still in their twenties in the current panel. But the future of Waterford hurling does not lie with them because that is simply compounding the mistake of grafting a small inter-county panel onto a base of continuous failure at minor and under-21 level. Instead, the way forward is that of Offaly, Galway and, now, Limerick – concentration on medium term development of the game at juvenile, minor and under-21 level, with success at those levels then feeding into a strong senior panel. This is easier said than done, but a start must be made.

Waterford people – and not least – Waterford hurlers are fond of reminding us that it is thirty eight years since they won a Munster title and forty two years since winning an All Ireland. It took Clare all of eighty one years to overcome the curse of Biddy Earley! If they could motivate themselves to do it after that length of time, surely Waterford still have time on their side …

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