Dunphy: We’re going to give it our very best shot
Last November, at the second attempt, they caused something of a sensation by winning the county championship and many pundits have been amazed to see the roller-coaster take them all the way to Croke Park.
Lismore were the last team to beat them in the county championship — in the 2007 quarter-final, when according to manager Owen Dunphy, they were ‘fancying themselves big time,’ after coming through the group stages unbeaten.
An All-Ireland winner himself with the 1992 Waterford U-21 team, he accepts they are rank outsiders and they face ‘a massive task.’
“Portumna potentially could be the best club team in the history of the competition. We have to approach it in a positive mind. We are going to give it up our very best shot. That’s all we can do,” he says.
The painful memories of losing the 2005 county final helped to ‘drive’ them through last year’s campaign, he says, especially when it reached the closing stages.
“It was a major plus that we were there before because we didn’t want to go through that experience again.
“At the start of the year we ear-marked the county championship because we thought we were good enough to win if we could get it right.
“I felt that if we got over the quarter and got to a semi, we’d be very hard to beat, that we’d really push on from there.”
Dunphy praises their three county players — Kevin Moran, Brian Phelan and John Mullane — for the contribution they have been making, saying that after Waterford’s hammering in the All-Ireland final they weren’t sure ‘what way’ they would come back to them.
“In fairness, the Wednesday night after the final the three of them were up training with us. They just put their heads down and got into it straight away.”
More generally, the belief shown by all of their players (emanating in part from a lot of under-age success) has been key to their success. “That’s something we have worked on. Down through the years people said De La Salle had the hurlers but didn’t have the stomach or the guts to win a county championship when it came to it.
“That’s something people can’t deny about us now.”
Among the DLS contingent, forward Derek McGrath has special reason to look forward to running out on to Croke Park, having played with the Waterford minors in the All-Ireland final there 17 years ago.
In the interim period, he made a fleeting appearance with the seniors, as a late substitute in the 1998 quarter-final against Galway.
A teacher in De La Salle college (and involved in their recent run of successes in the Harty Cup and All-Ireland series), he describes himself as ‘a prime example’ of what can happen to a young player whose hopes of a successful career at senior level remain unfulfilled.
In his case, he had four years as a minor, being under 16 in that minor final in 1992 — when Galway defeated a team managed by Jim Greene. “I never made it’ at senior inter-county level. I was on the panel from 1996 to ‘98, without really establishing myself,” he remarked.
“After that minor final I thought I’d be back frequently,” he recalled “But, the only other time I played in Croke Park was as a sub six years later against Galway.”
He agrees that the build-up to the final has been different, explaining: “We’re not saying we are going to be relaxed, but it’s similar to the Sarsfields match the week after the county final.
“People were giving us little or no hope against them. There was a relaxed air going down in the bus. The attitude was ‘we’ll have a cut off it and see how it goes.
“We are conscious of the fact that we are playing a great team, but the realism doesn’t bring any fear either!”
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