Limerickâs last 2 games saw cautious Q1, effective Q2 and Q3, and unconvincing Q4.
A more convincing Q1 is going to be vital on Sunday.
Limerickâs last 2 games saw cautious Q1, effective Q2 and Q3, and unconvincing Q4.
A more convincing Q1 is going to be vital on Sunday.
The team froze a small bit but were blown out of it, Limerick won pulling up and Gillane scored one of the best goals Iâve ever seen scored that day, the flick. Gillane been poor the last few days he wonât be as poor again. The likes of Casey on the line heâd be the star forward in every other county. Richie English getting back to fitness at the right timeâŠ
A shur look at kid. These are strange times weâre living in. Ye have a fine team there, as we have. If ye win it, itâll be hard won but absolutely deserved.
Indeed!
I was in Dungarvan today. Nice bit of friendly banter with the locals when they saw my limerick flag
They are a sound auld lot up there. Great town for the session.
Ollie Canning backing Waterford there on Sky sports mix inside the game show,
Between him and the Tipp Stapleton brothers thereâs a deep desire to see this Waterford team overcome their famine.
Understandably in fairness
If it was any other year MikeâŠ
Cahills record as an underdog in All Irelands canât be discounted.
Going to be a cracking final.
Look at. We are where we are. After the Munster final, I said I wouldnât be surprised if the same two teams were destined to meet again ext Sunday. The similarities between both are uncanny. Indeed there is a valid argument there to say that Waterford should have reached the peak before Limerick did. But thatâs an argument for another day. Itâs all down to 70 minutes now.
Great match ups there, Mike.
Let the best team on the day win.Great to have it played this year in the end to be honest.
Shortened the winter nicely.
Best of luck to the amateur team.
what did Cork GAA do with all the money?
I love the 1950âs backgrounds in photos
Advantage Waterford
about an hour ago
TV Honan
Waterford fans Shelly, Brigid and Aoife Phelan at Croke Park for the 2017All-Ireland final against Galway. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho
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As a giddy mini-bus from McLaughlinâs bar crossed the Blackwater Bridge at Youghal, en route to the 2002 Munster final at PĂĄirc UĂ Chaoimh, Larry Gogan gleefully announced on the bus radio: âThe King is back at Number 1 with a re-mix of A Little Less Conversation.â
On-board, lifelong sports and Elvis fan the late Ned Tobinâs vision was absolute. Amid slagging and laughter he declared: âI told you King, I told you Iâd bring you to a Munster final. Weâre gonna win!â Ned was right. Later that day Fergal Hartley and his victorious team walked The Munster Cup back into Waterford across the same bridge.
It was one of the great days in modern-era Waterford hurling, one of those days when it wasnât a bridge too far. Other times, after Thurles routs, supporters might stop for pints in Kilsheelan only to endure some Tipp-lad twisting the knife: âNow we know why youâre called the DĂ©ise. Game after game youâre in here going; de-shouldâve done this, de-shouldâve done thatâ. Waterford hurling supporters are battle-hardened Beckett disciples: âTry again. Fail again. Fail better.â
Itâs quiet here this week. On the high path across the road from our house, neighbour and unofficial Cannon Street town crier Watty Walsh is subdued. He is quietly confident too. âThey have a right chance,â he told me yesterday. If silence really is golden Waterford will mine nuggets on Sunday.
In more ways than one Waterford hurlers are in a bubble. Last Saturday in Dungarvan children wore county jerseys. They werenât autographed. Training isnât a spectator sport and clueless club mates arenât hassling players for tickets. Christmas and Covid are masking the team like a Klingon cloaking device. It wasnât always thus. A woman friend said after the Munster semi-final against Cork: âI know nothing about hurling but if the bookies were open Iâd go down and bet on them now to win it out. Without the usual hype and bullshit theyâll probably do it.â
Covid induced gut-instincts aside this team has earned its All-Ireland final place. Waterford people wouldnât want it any other way. Not for them a patronising path to a deserved medal, let alone one with an asterisk. They donât want charity. They want to win their All-Ireland.
Waterford supporter Austin Grubb sizes up another Austin.
Waterford knows this panel is not a standalone item; Liam Cahillâs team is built on Derek McGrathâs, as his was on Davy Fitzgeraldâs and before him Justin and Gerald McCarthy. Their inherited steel and smarts has been tempered over time in the furnace of defeat and victory. Whatâs reassuring is that Cahill brought his bench-grinder to work and sharpened their edge.
âThey have shown their character and their identity through their play,â said Cahill of his players. As a blow-in from Clare, I have a pitch side view of that identity. Itâs the blow-inâs blessing to know a good thing when they see it. Ask the Vikings and Normans or indeed the DĂ©isi who landed here before them. This is some county, a place of diversity before it was fashionable.
Embraced from west to east by Blackwater and Suir rivers these players truly represent the united tribes of Waterford. Cahill is a student of hurling history. He understands the importance of inclusivity to a countyâs identity and success. Look at the treasure throve of players his native county unearthed in Mullinahone, until then no more a hurling stronghold than Fiji.
Like Hucklebucking, swashbuckling was the Waterford way when Ken and John and Paul and Tony opened their shoulders in Semple. It was a sight to behold and entertaining too. Then the tactical years when thinking and tactics shortened the odds. Now thereâs a team built on both traditions with its own character and sense of possibility. So it begins; another trek to Croaker and destiny.
âIn years to come archaeologists will track the Waterford hurling teamâs travels around Ireland,â said Ballybrickenâs man-about-town Paddy Green. âBecause theyâll dig up fields of chucks and ribs and loin bones near every hurling ground in the country.â Waterford supporters ate well even on days there was famine on the field. Still, even if itâs a Blaa, man does not live on bread alone. Thereâs a spiritual hunger here. Itâs a void that makes people feel somehow incomplete. Itâs an absence an entire generation never quite put their finger on. Itâs the Liam MacCarthy Cup.
For Austinâs sake Iâd love them to win it on Sunday. I can see his smile in a sea or perhaps a bubble of hugs and love immediately after the game. He may not really appreciate what has been achieved. Austin might be a little confused. Lifeâs huge moments arenât always immediately apparent to the young.
Afterwards people will explain to him again and again just what it means to them. Although he doesnât know it yet Austin and his family will be changed forever by a win. Thatâs my Waterford grandson Austin Grubb and it will be exactly the same for another Austin.
For both of them I sense itâs the DĂ©iseâs day.
â TV Honan is director of street arts and festival company Waterford Spraoi and he holds Clare and Waterford passports
Wonder whoâll lift the cup on Sunday.
Mahony is Captain and very much still involved, but I think Prunty is going up for the toss these days.
Declan Hannon Iâd imagine.
This Cunt needs shooting
Did you expect O Mahoney to go up for the toss?