Flynn forgets final flop for a Clare day
Of course, some have wondered if the Banner had been on Waterford minds before last Sunday’s league final. Their performance certainly suggested so, but Flynn, collecting a Vodafone Player of the Month award for April, dismissed that theory.
“There was no question of us looking ahead to Clare. We wanted to beat Galway and win the league title,” he said. “The Clare game is no excuse. It was by far our worst performance in the league.
“Galway were the best set of backs we had come up against, but that is no excuse. Their goals came from mistakes we made and you can’t do that in a league final,” said Flynn, who was joined by Padraic Joyce, who collected the footballing award for his two magical displays against Tyrone.
People have bemoaned the lack of atmosphere generated inside the Gaelic grounds, and Flynn agreed.
“It was a weird game, there was no atmosphere whatsoever and for a league final, we found that kind of strange.”
Galway is firmly in the past. Clare are a different story. And nobody is expecting great things from Waterford now.
“We are not under pressure now, people are not expecting too much from us after last Sunday. The pressure is off us. We know we can play, there is no doubt about it, we just have to get the bad habits out of out system.
“Sunday will be a different game, both of these teams like to hurl in Thurles, we are happy playing in Thurles and I don’t think there is anything either team need to know about the other at this stage.”
Waterford have turned a traumatic defeat into rousing victory once before, after Clare upended them in the 1998 Munster final and they went out and took Galway a week later.
“Yeah, I know that happened in ’98, but that was a different team. All the same, this team knows we can do it and this offers a good opportunity to prove we are not as bad as we looked on Sunday.”
Waterford supporters are likely to forget the league final debacle if Clare are sent packing, though Flynn noticed a change in mind-set on Monday morning. “It was funny, yesterday people were going around saying it was only the league, the important game is this weekend. I don’t know if they would be saying that if we won. But we might be a bit fresher for Sunday.”
Sunday may come down to goals and Flynn’s eye for the net from a 20 yard free might be significant.
“Goals are vital in the modern game, that was one of the most disappointing aspects of the Galway game, we didn’t create any real goal opportunities from play. We are going to have to do that to get by Clare.
“The new sliotar is lighter and whizzes along a lot more than the old one, so maybe that is why more players are going for goal from 20 yard frees. Goals change games now, because the defences are a lot more physical and tight, it is hard to get the room for a goal.”
Padraic Joyce knows a thing or two about scoring goals. Alongside Flynn yesterday, he was asked about Tyrone’s stroll against Derry on Sunday.
“Tyrone looked very sharp, especially the way they worked the ball. It showed they weren’t too disappointed by losing to us, and benefited from those two games just as much as we did.”
Meanwhile, Club Energise sport launched a television advertising campaign in the Denziles Cinema yesterday.
Filmed in the Wicklow mountains, the commercial features Diarmuid O’Sullivan, Owen Mulligan, Henry Shefflin, Mike Frank Russell, Eugene Cloonan, Eamon O’Hara, Jason Sherlock as well as Steven McDonnell, who puts the finishing touches to a sweeping move.
The advert will be supported by a poster campaign which will include stars such as Darren Fay, Ross Munnelly and Michael Meehan.
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