A title for Waterford — and a statement of intent

Around five minutes after the final whistle blew on Saturday evening, the heavens opened. I ran like hell for the car. I didn’t want to get drenched but I also wanted to get out before the traffic. I needn’t have worried. Every Waterford supporter in the ground was on the pitch by that stage. And there were only a handful of Galway cars ahead of me on the road out of Thurles.

The crowd was at least 5-1 in favour of Waterford. They came for a coronation, which they got. The problem was that Galway looked like a team who expected as much. They too readily accepted that this was going to be a victory parade. That was obvious from the outset when Galway lacked a plan to stifle a team that was clearly better than them. They invited Waterford onto them. At one stage of the first half I thought this was going to be 2010 all over, when Tipperary wiped Galway by 25 points, the biggest margin of victory in the history of All-Ireland U-21 finals.

This Waterford side is loaded with pure class; Austin Gleeson, the Bennetts, Patrick Curran, Tom Devine, Conor Gleeson are their standout performers but the supporting cast is just as strong. Mikey Kearney was brilliant. Mikey Harney was even better. DJ Foran caused Galway all sorts of problems. They have so much talent that Waterford has the potential to dominate Munster in the coming years.