A night to live in the memory
Frazier’s eyes were shut.
Of course, blindness was a minor impediment to a fighting heart like Frazier’s, and he wanted to continue, but Futch stilled him: “Sit down son, nobody will forget what you did here today.”
Forgive the comparison, but there was a reason people wandered Semple Stadium, stunned, for a long time after Saturday night’s final whistle. The curtain-raiser was decent, with Wexford striking for the proverbial sickener against Clare in the 72nd minute to force extra time.
Waterford and Kilkenny was epic, however. Beyond the immediate rewards, there was a sense of an almost Oedipal struggle between a young team hungry to break through, and the older masters, unwilling to be dethroned.
Kilkenny won in the end, after another bout of extra time which went so late that the coins had to be dropped in the meter to turn on the Semple Stadium floodlights.
Afterwards, in a humid tunnel under the stand, Jackie Tyrrell of Kilkenny was composed enough to sketch a quick tactical analysis of the game.
“The main thing was that we never dropped our heads, even when we didn’t know if that last point went over or not [before extra-time]. After it was announced that there’d be extra-time, we just refocused the minds and went at it.
“The element of experience came into it, but look at Waterford, the way they kept plugging away. No-one has more experience than the likes of Tony Browne or Brick Walsh, but maybe we were a bit fresher.
“We seemed to be able to get scores a little easier towards the end. Richie Hogan got a few scores in extra-time to settle us down — that’s the experience you were alluding to.
“It probably took a lot out of Waterford to drive on the way they did in the last five minutes, to claw back the lead. That probably took a bit out of them at the start of extra time — they were probably a bit dead because of that.”
Sign that man to a media pundit’s pre-contract. Waterford’s heroics in forcing the additional 20 minutes certainly came against them at around 9.05pm, when extra-time began. Their age profile has more 20-year-olds than Kilkenny’s, but it was the Cats who were sharper from the 70th to the 90th minute overall. As Tyrrell said above, freshness is the motto that should be stamped on that county crest; they’ve always sought it, and when they have it, they always try to retain it.
“We didn’t do a whole lot, we knew there was no point in beating Tipperary and going out in the next round,” said Tyrrell.
“We focused straightaway on Waterford, because if we lost to them, it would have taken away a bit from the win over Tipperary.
“We spoke about that. We only had a week to get ready, so it was all about getting the body and the mind right again.”
They have a weekend off coming (“Well, we have training...” said the big corner-back), but Tyrrell didn’t see their week-on-week exertions as unfair.
“No, not really — playing great games in front of big crowds on sunny days, where else would you want to be?”
And off Tyrrell went, a large cardboard box under his arm with a hunk of crystal inside for his man of the match award, a scale model of a hurley in crystal which looked like it’d fit snugly in his palm.
It was good to see him stop on his journey when Waterford’s Noel Connors, no less heroic all night, came against him.
“Well done, Noel.”
“Best of luck, Jack.”
You didn’t need Eddie Futch to tell you. Nobody will ever forget what all of them did last Saturday night.
