Cullinane adamant Déise backbone won’t crumble
He was full-back for Waterford, they were playing Limerick in the Munster championship, and the scoreboard read Waterford 2-6, Limerick 0-1. Then it all started to go wrong... “Eleven points up in the first half and playing fairly well — you’d expect any team that’s 11 points up to win a game, but we didn’t. Of course, a couple of soft goals in the second half didn’t help.”
One of the architects of Waterford’s downfall that day was a young forward, Brian Begley who is still part of Limerick’s attacking arsenal for the Munster SHC pairing of the sides at Thurles on Sunday.
However, Cullinane has faith in his successor in the number three jersey, Declan Prendergast.
“Declan’s a big strong man, he’d be well used to marking big players now, and he’s proved he can mark big players and small. The way full-forwards are gone nowadays he could end up marking Andrew O’Shaughnessy or Brian Begley, one extreme to another.”
At the other end of the field Waterford aren’t short of big men themselves.
“If you’ve a big man in at full-forward, then obviously you’ve the option of putting it in high to him. If that big man is mobile, all the better.
“Waterford have six big forwards, maybe Paul Flynn isn’t quite six feet tall but the other five are six feet or more, and mobile. Someone like Seamus Prendergast is a horse of a man, a tower of strength who can win the ball and take punishment. He’s a vital part of the team.
“Dan Shanahan is six three, six four, he mightn’t use himself like Seamus but he’s very mobile. Eoin Kelly and John Mullane are also big and fast. But Seamus is hugely important as a ball-winner for the others. You’ll see Eoin and John getting ball off him, he breaks plenty of ball. You don’t see many full or centre-backs winning ball in the air off Seamus.”
Ever the defender, Cullinane concedes that the likes of Seamus Hickey and Damien Reale give Limerick plenty of quality, but adds that the Déise have a good corner man themselves in Eoin Murphy.
“Limerick have a couple of handy corner-backs, they’re very tight, but if you’ve a mobile forward who’s six-foot plus you’d expect him to be winning ball and getting a couple of points.
“For us, go back the last few years and Eoin (Murphy) has marked all the top forwards — Eoin Kelly, Joe Deane — and you can see what they’ve scored off him.
“He’s been outstanding. If I were picking the team I’d put him on Andrew but having said that, Aidan Kearney has been nothing short of spectacular in the other corner.
“I saw Aidan play for Tallow a few times last year and didn’t pick him out, but since his first game, against Cork in Dungarvan, he hasn’t had an off-day. He’s been a real find.”
Contrary to popular belief,
Waterford have been uncovering new players.
Cullinane sees grounds for optimism in this year’s crop.
“We’ve found three players this year — Aidan Kearney, Shane Walsh and Stephen Molumphy — and it’s a long time since we found three players in the one year. It’s been a huge plus. Shane and Stephen are fierce workhorses.”
As Cullinane points out, those players give the lie to the perception that Waterford have basically the same 15 since 1998. What’s left from those days is quality — Paul Flynn, Tony Browne, Ken McGrath — and maybe now there’s a bit more belief.
“The league final win over Kilkenny, maybe that’s removed any doubts the players might have had. Kilkenny were playing well up to that, and they’ve played well since, so there was a lot of credit in that win — particularly the way they won it, coming from behind.”
A last, obvious question: you’re travelling Sunday?
“Oh yeah. Tickets are scarce enough, but I’m told mine are on the way. There’s nothing like being there. You can watch it on television, but the atmosphere, going out on the field after the game...it’s something else.”
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