Defiant McCarthy says charges will be ready for Clare

NO ifs, buts, or excuses from Waterford, with the dressing room remained shut for almost half an hour after the game.

Manager Justin McCarthy addressed his players and spelt out the importance of picking up the many shattered pieces of a demoralising defeat and preparing for the big challenge Clare will provide at Semple Stadium next Sunday.

But it was a defiant and determined McCarthy who insisted that come Sunday’s Munster Championship opener, his side would be fit and ready, mentally and physically, to face the might of the Banner. “The league is over”, McCarthy said. “We reached the final, didn’t perform as we wanted to, and that’s the end of the matter.”

He said Galway, in stark contrast, were outstanding and they could never break them down. The first half goals they scored laid their victory foundations and gave them a vital cushion for the second half.

“Dan Shanahan was desperately unlucky not to have goaled right on the stroke of half time, and a goal for us at that stage would have been crucial”, the Deise boss said.

“It wasn’t to be and, thereafter, we were chasing the game.” Asked how the players would react to having to turn their attentions to Clare in the championship next Sunday, McCarthy was bullish: “It’s the Munster championship, and if we can’t lift ourselves for that then we may as well not even be in the title race”, he said. “Today was not our day but believe me next Sunday is another day and we’ll be ready and all fired up for whatever it brings.”

The Deise second-in-command, Nicky Cashin, accepted: “The better team on the day prevailed, we have no argument about the result.”

In the winners dressing-room Cashin told Galway that they are the team to watch in the upcoming championship campaign.

“A team all the genuine title contenders will have to beat if they are to lift the McCarthy Cup next September,” he said.

Cashin said the most disappointing aspect from a Waterford perspective was that they had failed so badly to do themselves justice on the day.

“It wasn’t the Waterford that battled its way so resolutely to the final. Don’t ask me why, because I can’t come up with the answer,” he said. What then of next Sunday and the crunch game with Clare? Like Justin McCarthy, the St Kieran’s College teacher and All-Ireland winning Kilkenny minor coach in 2002, is in no doubt.

“This team won’t just lie down and die, however disappointed the players are feeling at the moment,” Cashin said. “We will be up for it, and when the championship chips are down, as they will be against Clare, expect our fellows to rise to the challenge. This is an undoubted setback and there’s no point in saying anything else, but write our championship challenge off at your peril”, he added.