A minor source of comfort

I’M going to start this analysis not with the senior final – by which I wasn’t at all impressed, and more on that later – but with the minor game.

What a contest, and what a display by Waterford. I’m a happy man today that I managed to get into Semple Stadium yesterday to see all of this game.

As a unit, Waterford were brilliant, really well coached. Every man did his bit for the team, but I have to pick out a few lads. The Waterford goalkeeper, Stephen O’Keeffe, for several absolutely outstanding saves; Phillip Mahoney at centre-back, almost a clone of Ken McGrath – he even ran like him; his two wing men, Darragh Fives and John Dee, covered that line superbly; midfielder Fináin Murray and his partner Martin O’Neill, what a free-taker; centre-forward Brian O’Halloran, really mobile, and what pace; and corner-forward Ian Gagley – not much of him, but boy can he hurl, and is he a bould little so-and-so, just what you want in a corner-forward.