Anthony Daly: The mountain top is in sight for Waterford - but Limerick to reach summit first
The Liam MacCarthy Cup is prepared in a workshop prior to the All-Ireland SHC final between Limerick and Waterford. Picutre: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
FOR me personally, the build-up to the 1997 All-Ireland final was a complete nightmare. The difference in my demeanour and attitude from the 1995 final was the polar opposite.
I just had this sense of dread. I was riddled with the fear of what could happen, as opposed to being excited about what I wanted to happen.
The county was full of confidence. There was a jingoistic vibe in the air, with all this talk of locking the backdoor, which Tipperary had come through. Kieran McDermott, the musician and song-writer and good friend brought out a song and one of the lines stuck in my head: ‘We’ll have to stop off in Nenagh, to really rub it in.’
I remember thinking, ‘Will ye all shut up. If Tipp beat us now, they’ll redden us.’ Being brutally honest, that fear was there before Tipp even played their All-Ireland semi-final.
I was hoping to God that Wexford would win. There was a great empathy between the two counties at the time, especially with Liam Griffin’s Clare connection. Yet I didn’t want Wexford to win because it would have been a novel Mardi Gra-esque and flamboyantly colourful final – it was just that I didn’t want to run into Tipp again.
Every negative thought that could have entered my head on the topic gained entry into my mind. It was some job for me to try and mentally turn the narrative around because that little guy on my shoulder was roaring and screaming into my ear.
Here come Tipp now back to haunt us. After your Munster final speech, you’re really going to get it if they beat us. Everyone will be laughing at you for booking your wedding six days after the final. If we lose, the wedding will be like a wake.
We had everything to lose. In my own head, Tipp had everything to gain. But I really felt I was Tipp’s prime target for retribution. If Tipp won, I knew their supporters were going to invade the pitch and that they’d probably make for me.
I could nearly picture them jumping up on my back, whipping me for my whipping boys comment from my Munster final speech.
It was a nightmare until I finally managed to get control of my thoughts. Ger Loughnane certainly wasn’t going to provide me with a sports psychologist so it was one of my greatest mental feats to have eradicated all those doubts and fears by the time the match arrived.
Loughnane had a different approach; he drove our fear and anxiety of defeat through the roof. ‘Everything will count for nothing,’ he told us over and over. It was nearly a paradoxical statement but he kept hammering it into our subconscious.
Every sports psychologist now would tell you to focus on the exact opposite, but we needed that fear. At that time, we fed on that stuff.
When we were four points down at half-time after having played poorly, Loughnane dialled it up again. ‘This is all going down the drain lads,’ he said. ‘They’ll say we’re one-hit-wonders.’
Very little was said at half-time that day because we all knew what was on the line. My last words before we left the dressing room that day were: ‘By Jeez, let’s get back out there and give it the 35 minutes of our lives.’
The fear of the apocalypse drove us on and we produced our greatest 35 minutes of hurling.
Delivering that level of performance under such intense pressure, with so much on the line, just increased the satisfaction for us afterwards in winning that second All-Ireland.
I was in a café in Ennis on Tuesday when I met Colum and Kay Flynn. Colum was our physio with Clare in the 1990s and we got speaking about the 1997 All-Ireland final, and the similarities between tomorrow’s final.
Like we were back then, Limerick are the hunted now. I’ve no doubt that John Kiely won’t be ramping up the dialogue like Loughnane was 23 years ago, and painting a picture of Waterford fellas potentially riding over the horizon like the horsemen of the apocalypse.
It’s a whole different mental approach now but, deep down, it will be at the back of Limerick fellas heads.
No matter how hard you try, you can’t avoid it.
Fear is overcome by your own approach and attitude, in how you choose that attitude, but it’s hard to remove every strand of doubt when you know that the one thing you want so badly can be taken away from you by a crowd you’ve already beaten in the Munster final.
Comfortable in their own skin
Limerick are comfortable in their own skin. They won’t get distracted by sideshows or theories but they’ll also
appreciate that they’re now meeting a side that are possibly 15-20% a better team than the one they beat last month.
Limerick’s form has been solid and steady but will they need to come up that 15-20% in performance to win now?
Imagine the confidence and belief coursing through Waterford since the Kilkenny game? Look at the difference alone in Austin Gleeson since the Munster final.
I watched the high-behind camera angle from that game during the week and Gleeson’s workrate was poor. I’ve no doubt Liam Cahill put it up to him afterwards and he has certainly responded. Look at the Aussie we have now? If he hits the scoring form from the second half against Kilkenny, it will take a fair effort from
Limerick to stop him.
Limerick will need to get back to the level of performance they produced against Clare and Tipp. Those two displays came early in the campaign whereas their latter two performances may suggest that Limerick’s curve may be plateauing.
Limerick’s two biggest rivals are Clare and Tipp, whereas they would never have the same bile for Waterford and Galway. Of course Limerick will be psyched to the max now but would they be the pumped up even more if it was Tipp?
Limerick will have all bases covered off but if you are even 1% off the mark in an All-Ireland final, mental and physical, the punishment can be severe.
Limerick will still enter the match full of confidence. They don’t lose finals anymore; they’ve gobbled up successive league and Munster titles since the 2018 All-Ireland win.
On the other hand, Waterford haven’t won a final since the 2015 league decider, while they’ve become serial final losers; the 2016 and 2019 league finals, the 2015, 2016 and 2020 Munster finals, the 2017 All-Ireland final.
Yet there comes a time too when a group just says to themselves: ‘Enough is enough’. That was our attitude in 1995 when we refused to countenance another final defeat.
A lot of these Waterford fellas would have also been young lads too when Waterford were annihilated in the 2008 All-Ireland final. They’d also have bitter memories of the 2007 All-Ireland semi-final, when Waterford were ambushed by Limerick.
Are they saying now, “Enough is enough.”
Hurt is a powerful form of motivation, especially when a lot of these lads experienced that pain at the hands of Limerick at minor level.
Waterford lost successive Munster minor finals to Limerick in 2013 and 2014 but Waterford came through the backdoor to win the 2013 All-Ireland minor title. And they’ll use those memories now to remind themselves of what they’re capable of in this position.
Focus
Waterford have looked supremely focused throughout this championship.
There were none of the usual post-mortems after a Munster final defeat either when having to face Clare in the All-Ireland quarter-final six days later. And as soon as they won that match, they were firmly back on the horse and galloping towards Croke Park.
Revisiting what happened in the second half of the Munster final will still have been highly informative for Waterford over the last two weeks. The game was lost after the second water break when Limerick took over in the middle third, especially on puck-outs, particularly through the dominance of their half-back line.
Limerick stopped the Waterford runners in that last quarter but Waterford’s running game is much more suited to Croke Park, which they showed against Kilkenny.
That was also evident against Clare when they went at them from the first whistle. Limerick are a totally different proposition but Waterford will take huge belief from how they emphatically finished the two games since the Munster final.
They steamed home like a train but they’re built for speed on a fast surface like Páirc Uí Chaoimh and Croke Park more than on a heavier pitch in Thurles.
Limerick’s just had more wherewithal to close the game last month but Waterford will have learned so much about themselves with how they chased Kilkenny down in the second half. It’s all about building on that belief now and if it’s level at the second water break tomorrow — like it was in the Munster final — it will be easier for Waterford to think:
‘We’re going driving it home now.’
There is a lot of experience in this Waterford side, All-Ireland final worldliness too from the 2017 defeat to Galway. Their big players know how to get it done — Aussie, Jamie Barron, Tadgh de Burca, Kevin Moran.
If they can make big plays coming down the stretch, Limerick won’t stride over the line this time around.
There are two ways of looking at Limerick’s form coming into this game; they’re not playing well but are still getting the job done; maybe tomorrow is the day they could really take off. John Kiely may not have been happy with the Galway performance but if you analyse it more closely, Limerick could have won that match by 10 points.
Conor Prunty did well on Aaron Gillane in the Munster final but Gillane still got three points and I feel he could cut loose tomorrow.
He has had his injury concerns coming since the Galway game but maybe missing a few sessions might be no harm to mentally freshen Gillane up for the challenge.
I questioned Kyle Hayes’ return to the half-back line but the more the season has developed, it’s easier to see the logic behind that move. Limerick did lose two of their full-back line and they couldn’t take risks as the season progressed and the standard of opposition increased.
By all accounts, Kyle can nearly run the 100 metres sprint at Irish national record standard and he adds the one thing Limerick really lack in defence – serious pace.
And that’s more important than ever now when facing Waterford’s running game in Croke Park.
Waterford don’t have too many key decisions to make around the make-up of their team but Kiely had the luxury of watching lads go hell for leather in training matches over the last two weeks when there were places up for grabs, especially in the full-forward line.
Whatever team Limerick name, Gillane’s fitness may dictate how they actually line out.
If Gillane is 100%, he’ll stay close to goal and they may decide to let Graeme Mulcahy and Peter Casey work off him. But if Gillane is not 100%, Seamie Flanagan’s power and ball-winning ability may be required beside Gillane.
I don’t see any huge tactical changes from the Munster final. Calum Lyons will probably stay on Gearoid Hegarty, while Kevin Moran will match up again with Tom Morrissey. Waterford may look to tweak some of their other match-ups but I’m not sure they’ll go too adventurous either, especially when they’ve no reason to doubt their form after the semi-final.
By all accounts, Limerick have been really happy with their preparations.
They seem to be in a great place mentally which is even more comforting for them when there is potential for lads to get spooked if they really thought about the ramifications of defeat against a team they’ve already beaten twice in 2020.
The top of the mountain is in sight for Waterford but Limerick should get to the summit first. Limerick have become comfortable at winning finals.
And winning this one would confirm the status of greatness that comes with securing that second All-Ireland.
