Glory beckons for footballing outpost

THE casual GAA fan could be forgiven for frowning at a Gaultier team sheet. They take on Cork's Carbery Rangers in the Munster final tomorrow and the Déise side have the likes of A Moloney and S Cullinane in their line-up.

Andy Moloney, a Ballygunner star and Seán Cullinane, the rock of Passage, in the same club team?

Then there's Damien Tiernan, who seems to be taking his broadcasting duties for RTÉ too seriously altogether; the south-east correspondent has been scoring the goals to keep the region playing football until December, making the news rather than reporting on it.

Tomás Dunphy, the Gaultier captain, explains. "It's been going on for years," he says. "Lads play hurling with Ballygunner or Passage and then they fall in with us for the football. It's not a problem - if anything it's a help, because the banter gets going between the lads in the dressing room about hurling games. There's never any ill feeling or anything."

Club secretary Tom O'Neill agrees. "We're a bit of a footballing outpost," he says. "We are the only football club in the barony, but the fact that the lads play hurling for different clubs, that's never been a problem."

Cullinane points out the only real obstacle was one of logistics: "The only problems over the years would have been Gaultier having to contact Ballygunner and Passage to organise games, fitting football in with the hurling and so on. Passage were senior for a long time, so organising games and training with two senior hurling clubs could be a headache.

"It was never really a case of bringing fellas together after flaking lumps out of each other in the hurling, it was more an organisational thing."

It's been a good year for Waterford football, with the junior footballers and Stradbally all enjoying success. Internally, the ascent of Gaultier is also good news; it means a spread in the power base.

"Everyone thinks the west is the strongest area for football in Waterford," says Dunphy, "But there are plenty of good teams near the city as well. Our main goal all year was to get up senior."

Cullinane echoes those views: "We always put in a good effort for football," he says. "That mightn't show at senior intercounty level, but Stradbally, the U21's and the juniors show that football is strong enough in the county."

Still, Waterford is known as hurling country, and for a long time Cullinane was one of the best known hurlers in white and blue.

Just two months after he left the senior inter-county scene, Waterford won the Munster SHC title. Now he's in another provincial final, 15 years after his first with the county.

"I never thought I'd make a Munster final in football, but at my age, anything would do. I didn't even know there was an inter-county competition in this grade, to be honest, until the week of the county final - getting back up senior was the focus. The fact that everything's been a bonus since the Munster final shows in the way we play. The pressure is off."

For age, read experience, and Cullinane's past is a help to the side. "You can't buy experience. I suppose I've seen a good few big days over the years and when you've got a good few U21's, like we have, it's good for them to have the likes of me, Andy Moloney and Paul Foley. We have a good mixture, which is a help."

Another Gaultier man who's used to performing on the big stage is Damien Tiernan. Originally from Newtownmountkennedy, Tiernan was a Wicklow minor, and Bray Wanderers player, before moving to Waterford. Having spent years making a four-hour round trip back up the coast to Wicklow to play for his club, Tiernan threw his lot in with Gaultier four years ago.

"Being part of the squad is great, and to get a run is brilliant. I've come on in the last two games." (Tiernan found the net on both occasions.)

As RTÉ's man in Waterford and its environs, one might expect the odd comment from markers, but Tiernan says very few opponents remark on his day job. When he was working for Ear To The Ground he found one or two players keen to put his Face To The Ground, but the slagging usually comes from his own teammates, asking when their endeavours will make TV.

"We've done well," says Tiernan. "There's good competition for every position and we played well against high-quality opposition - we ran Stradbally very close in a challenge game this year, for example. We've absolutely nothing to lose.

"We don't want to come away just having put in a good performance, and we'll be taking on Carbery Rangers with one purpose in mind. Carbery are a good side and we know we're underdogs, but we've been underdogs in other games as well."

The opposition tomorrow are an experienced side. Gaultier aren't unduly worried, though; they know their own strengths.

"We've got a good balance in the team," says Tomás Dunphy. "The defence is pretty solid and we've got some good, fast forwards who can carry the ball and cover back as well.

"Playing stronger teams will hopefully stand to us next year in the senior championship, you've got to have good games under your belt to play senior. Martin O'Connor, one of our selectors, went to see Carbery Rangers and we'll have to listen to his report. Still, it's all on the day - you could go and see a team play one day and they'd be totally different the next.

"This is the icing on the cake, being in a Munster final, but now we're there we want to win it. There's no point in going to fulfil the fixture, it'd be a good bonus to win a Munster championship."