‘It’s just huge disappointment now’
Victors in the league and triumph in their provincial heartland had Liam Sheedy’s men nicely placed for a tilt at an All-Ireland final place, only for Waterford to interrupt their charge towards September. Corner-back Conor O’Brien has put in a debut season of excellent consistency and solidity, but that mattered little for the Éire Óg-Annacarty man in the aftermath of yesterday’s game.
“It’s just huge disappointment now. We came up with ambitions of winning and getting to an All-Ireland final. It just didn’t work out for us on the day. Maybe they just worked that little bit harder and we didn’t have the answers. We were saying beforehand that Waterford were after losing the last couple of years and they weren’t going to go down without a fight. They weren’t going to let us have it our way. They stood up and came at us. And fair play to them, they’ve got to an All-Ireland final. We wish them the best of luck against Kilkenny.”
Tipperary wing-back Shane Maher was experiencing similar emotions. The Burgess defender had hurled up a storm in the No 7 position throughout the 70 minutes which merely heightened the sensation of defeat. Tipperary had come desperately close to victory, which was all the more admirable considering the manner in which they had recovered from a chaotic start to the game. Waterford exploded from the traps, leaving Tipperary languishing in their slipstream, as they vaulted 0-6 to 0-0 ahead. Still Tipperary kept calm and Maher admitted their recovery fuelled their hopes of success.
“The start they had was unbelievable. They went six points up at one stage. I don’t know what it was with us, maybe it was the occasion. We knew they’d have runs at us in stages of the game. But we thought we’d be able to come back at them and we did do that, in all fairness. We were level at half-time and it was only a very small thing separated us in the end. Even when they got the goal, we came back down the other end and got a goal ourselves. I guess Waterford just pulled it out in the last few minutes. It’s desperate disappointing for us. The dressing room is very low. We came up to win; it’s as simple as that. We’re fairly shell-shocked.”
Yet Maher retained a sense of respect for what their opponents had achieved. Waterford have experienced plenty semi-final heartbreaks themselves and Maher clung to the hope that this can be a building exercise for his team. “We came up with the intention of winning but what can we do only take our hats off to Waterford. Fair play to them. We’d don’t begrudge it to them. We’re going to have to sit down and have a look at this. Hopefully we’ll learn from the experience. Waterford have been in our shoes for a good few years and hopefully we’ll learn from this now.”
