Tony Browne: Direct running and eye for goals give Waterford the edge

Until Limerick win a second All-Ireland, they won't hold the kind of aura that many seem to believe they already possess. Waterford certainly won’t fear them

Waterford’s Dessie Hutchinson scores the first goal of the game in the All-Ireland Senior Championship Quarter-Final. Waterford have a lovely balance now between how they played under Derek McGrath and how Paraic Fanning had wanted them to play. Picture: INPHO/Morgan Treacy

Although it’s natural that it’s often brought up how long it is since Waterford last won an All-Ireland, it’s a big help for Liam Cahill and his team that it’s only three years since we were last in one.

Between it and Covid, there’s no real hype down here. Along with the 21s winning the All-Ireland in 2016 and then the seniors having the run they did in ’17, it’s become almost the new norm, Waterford being in some final.

All through the noughties we spent so long trying to get an All-Ireland final, the county became almost fixated with what the place would be like if we were to actually reach one. But as we know only too well, it’s not about getting to them, it’s about winning them.

Back in 2008, you couldn’t come out of the house without burning energy: everyone wanted to talk to you and have a piece of you, even if they only meant well.

Now lads don’t have to contend with that. I’m looking out here from my father’s house in the city and there’s a scarce amount of flags up on the streets. In other years they were going up the day after the semi-final. Now they’re going up much later, if they’re going up at all. There’s a real slow, relaxed, measured build-up to this one.

Even if there wasn’t a pandemic, I think people down here would be taking an All-Ireland final in their stride. There’s almost an expectation set by these players that we should be reaching them, even if no one at the start of the year anticipated Liam Cahill turning things round quite so quickly and that we’d be contesting the 2020 final.

We’re well used to having outside managers in Waterford but Cahill is the first from Tipp and with that he’s brought a real goals mentality. Traditionally they see goals as the way to win games and silverware. And you look at the tallies his U20 and U21 Tipp teams ran up on their way to winning the last two All-Irelands in that grade: 3-17 and 3-13 in the 2018 semi-final and final before racking up 19 goals in just four games on their way to winning the 2019 title. That’s a serious amount of goals.

And maybe it wasn’t lost on him how a core of this Waterford team ran up huge scores and plenty of goals when winning their U21 All-Ireland in 2016; in the final alone they smashed five goals past Galway.

So I think Waterford have a lovely balance now between how they played under Derek McGrath and how Paraic Fanning had wanted them to play. Tadhg de Burca is still offering that protection sitting in back in the semi-D but if anyone epitomises how Waterford are now attacking it’s in the form of Calum Lyons at wing back alongside him bursting forward.

Most teams now are content to play more of an outside game because of the opposing deep-lying number six and just take their points and not be bothered if the goals don’t come. But Waterford are geared to run direct and score goals. And that gives them an edge on Sunday. That’s a big reason why I think we’ll shade it over Limerick.

I have huge admiration for this Limerick team and how they’ve transformed the notion of what a Limerick team can be. Back in my playing days, we knew any game against Limerick was going to be a ferocious battle. But while they had always had some exceptional players — Ciaran Carey, Ollie Moran and Mark Foley were as good as I’ve ever played against — we felt that we had more stickmen than them and if we matched them for intensity we’d edge it on hurling.

These days you can’t say that. It’s phenomenal how they now have such supremely big, well-conditioned players who are also so highly skilled. It’s personified in Kyle Hayes. But, to be honest, I’m glad to see him at number seven, definitely a lot happier than I would be to see him coming at us wearing number 11. 

He’s playing really well in his new role but in trying to patch things up at the back with being down Mike Casey and Richie English, Limerick are after losing some of their own goal threat by depriving themselves of those penetrating runs that Hayes would offer.

To me, this All-Ireland final is a lot like the one Limerick themselves won in 2018. That time they were going up against a formidable team that had already been over the line and had shown again that season why they had been champions. But in hindsight there were signs of slippage all season and in the end they were edged by a ravenous young team who were the one side in the country who could match their physicality.

Limerick to me are like Galway in 2018. After winning an All-Ireland, they’ve backed it up. But until they win a second All-Ireland I don’t think they have the kind of aura about them that many seem to believe they already possess. 

Waterford certainly won’t fear them. Along with Limerick themselves, they are the best team in the country to win ruck ball around the middle of the field. And when they come out with that ball, they’re counter-attacking off the shoulder. In that 2018 final Limerick ultimately won because they scored more goals than Galway.

In 2020 I think Waterford have that edge. Limerick aren’t coughing up goals but they’ve yet to meet a team that will run at them the way Waterford will with the way they’ve pushed on since the Munster final.

I know it’s late in the day but I’ve an urge now to go out and put the bunting up.

[b]- You can purchase the Irish Examiner's 20-page All-Ireland Hurling Final preview supplement with your Friday edition of the Irish Examiner in stores or from our epaper site.[/b]