Kilkenny, Cork and Tipperary have won over 70% of All Ireland’s between them, 94 out of 132. When all three are shit at the same time, like they were for most of the 90’s, well the middle part on, you make hay when the sun shines. Offaly, Clare, Wexford and Limerick all had some terrific hurlers in the 1990’s but all were carrying a number of passengers which probably wouldn’t have got them over the line in any other decade.
Waterford’s Top 7 hurlers were possibly better than the Top 7 in either Cork or Kilkenny, they had another 4 or 5 who were of the requisite standard too. They were carrying at least 3 all the time though, when Kilkenny or Cork weren’t carrying any, and both had depth off the subs bench too. Just looking at the 2007 semi final last week, reinforced what a problem area the full back line was for that Waterford team.
Browne is an all time great for his quality and his incredible longevity but he was never the electric, irresistible, force of nature, how did he do that, hurling genius type of the likes of Carey or Ken McGrath.
They did win the League in 1997. That team was finished by then though. That was the one and only year the league semi finals and final were played in 1997 a few weeks after the All Ireland Final. Didn’t Tom Ryan get his P45 a day or two after winning the league?
The facts don’t bear out a lot of the hoopla about the Waterford team of the 2000s. They were great to follow and had bundles of flair and charisma but they were never better than the third best team in the country. A list of the teams who knocked them out of the championship is instructive when you hear talk about them being unlucky to run into the greatest team of all time.
Cody was unusually blunt after the 2008 Final. He said there was a lot of foolish talk about how Waterford would put it up to Kilkenny if it was close in the last 10 minutes. He gave the impression that he hadn’t rated Waterford at all and I’d say they were just the kind of team that would annoy him.
It was a team of all the excuses. In 00 it was because Ken McGrath got injured. In 01 it was because Clem Smith did John Mullane (he didn’t). There was either too long between matches (04) or too short (07). Or the bus got stuck in the tunnel (08) or the flight was grounded due to fog (04 again).
In reality they had a great chance in 02 and 04 and 07 at least to make a final and they seized up on each occasion. They also melted down in 01 and 03. Much as I don’t like to admit it they were a mentally brittle team and they also had serious discipline issues between fellas getting sent off and missing matches or fellas disappearing out to seaside villages for weeks on end to go on the batter mid season.
It always amazed me that the width of a river would separate a bunch of lads who on the one side were steadfast and just got on with things and on the other were mentally unstable flibbertigibbets. But it did.
Probably their best chance was 1998. They lost a semi final to a piss poor Kilkenny team by a point after been asleep for the first 50-55 minutes. Doubt they would have had too many hang ups about Offaly in a final.
Of the 4 semi finals that were lost 2002-07, the prize that awaited for winning 3 of them was Kilkenny in the final and in 2004 if they’d beaten Kilkenny in the semi final, it was Cork in the final.
2005 was also an All Ireland Clare left behind them. They had Cork beat with less than 15 minutes left before John Gardiner and Ben O’Connor took the game by the scruff off the neck and pulled Cork back from the brink. They would have beaten that Galway team in the final too
Waterford never looked like winning that quarter final in 2005. Think 2005 was the first year Clinton Hennessy was in goal after coming back from the US. Pity for Waterford he wasn’t there in 2004. Goalkeeping errors in 2004 from both Stephen Brenner and Ian O’Regan ultimately undid them in the year they probably did their best hurling.
Clare had scourged us in Ennis in the qualifiers that year. I suspect anyway that if we had beaten Cork we wouldn’t have got Clare again and would have had to play Kilkenny.
Clare beat them by 5 or 6 points in ennis too with Alan Markham bagging a couple of rockets for goals on a baking hot day. Did Cork beat them in Munster as well that year?
