Six-week gap gave Cats competitive edge over Waterford, says Cashin
“You could see the way Kilkenny started yesterday, they carried their sharpness over from their two previous games. Ideally you want a hard competitive game every fortnight to keep your team focused and keen.
“Speaking to the Kilkenny lads after the match, they agreed that the gap was too long. It happened to them on a couple of occasions in the past, but they felt the extra competitive games they got this year, brought them on a ton.
“It’s something that will have to be looked at for next season and I understand that there are plans to overhaul the championship for 2005.”
A view being expounded prior to the game was that Kilkenny wouldn’t have the legs if the game was close, as it was their third competitive game in as many weeks.
“That may be so but one would never have thought that, given how well they played, particularly in the closing 10 minutes when we threw everything at them,” Cashin said.
The Waterford selector knows only too well what makes Kilkenny tick. He is a teacher at St Kieran’s in the city, and has coached a number of their players at colleges level.
“The self-belief these Kilkenny players have is incredible. They live and breath hurling and are great individual hurlers as well. On Sunday when we came at them they defended superbly as a unit.
“Also when the need arises, their midfield and half forwards drop back to lend a hand which is also the hallmark of a very good team. Playing a third midfielder worked well for us but we were unable to penetrate for the goal that might have made the difference.
“To be fair we did have a couple of chances but possibly inexperience of such a huge occasion cost us at least one goal. People will point to the loss of John Mullane as another reason for our failure but I can’t fault any of the players who took part. They gave of their very best and in the end, there was only a puck of a ball in it.
“Of course John was a loss. He’s always worth two points a game at least and would have won us a couple of frees from which we might have scored. But we’ll never know now how big a loss he really was.
“It’s hugely disappointing after coming so close to victory. In the Munster final we got a couple of lucky breaks, but that didn’t happen on this occasion.
“Seamus Prendergast went into the game having missed out on training the previous Thursday through illness. You need everything to be right for such a massive match, but I’m not making excuses.
“Maybe on another day we might have had an extra free here and there which might have made all the difference, but that’s sport and we’ll only have to grin and bear it and try and come back from this.
“There was only a puck of a ball between the teams at the finish and not even that. Something very small could have swung it for us.”
Cashin said his term of office as a selector was now over, and it remained to be seen if he was asked to stay on.
“Whoever is in charge next season will inherit a very young team with an average age of 23 years. Provided the rules are changed, there shouldn’t be a six-week gap between games next year.
“I know there is huge disappointment in Waterford, but if you look at it closely this is by far the best team to come out of the county in years.
“When the players see that the outcome came right down to the wire, it should act as a motivating factor to keep plugging away.”
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