The best of rivals
: “I SAW Waterford coming along in the ’50s, that was when they started gathering their momentum. The first All-Ireland I went to was the 1959 final, when they played Kilkenny. They were in their element then, came from behind, Cheasty scored a point to snatch a draw. My brother had a VW Beetle; I won’t say how many of us travelled in it, but you wouldn’t get away with it now, we’ll say that! After the match we went to the Metropole Ballroom, danced away all night and got home to Kilruane just in time to milk the cows the following morning. Ye came back then and won the replay, and that was ye’re crowning glory.”
: “WE had some fantastic hurlers. They were brilliant on the ground when they needed to be and wonderful off left and right. I know that what happened in Cork the day we beat Tipp in the semi-final in ’59 was a freak thing, 8-2 to no score at half-time, but it was a very good team. I remember that day so well; I got one shot to save in all the first half, stuck out my leg and it went out for a 70, which Tipp missed. A strange thing; Tom Cunningham (Waterford corner-back) and myself were walking through Cork just before the game and there was dead silence there, everyone had already gone out to the match. We met a few Tipp lads, Devanney, Nealon, Moloughney, and I couldn’t help noticing there was a kind of complacency there; they were kind of patronising us a bit and I wouldn’t blame them, Waterford were always being hammered by Tipp around that time. But I sensed after that meeting that we had a great chance. I never expected what happened, but you see Tipp did a very foolish thing. If I win a toss I never give the advantage back to the other fella. I’ll take the wind, throw the sun, moon, stars, throw everything at them for the first half, put all the pressure on them, and then I’ll roll up the sleeves for the second half and take whatever they throw back at us. But Tipp gave us the wind and, with all the complacency, they weren’t able to cope with the mad frenetic start we made.
