Hurney relishing return to ‘first love’ as Déise eye final place

AS A measure of the progress of the Waterford footballers, their post-match reaction in the Fraher Field on Sunday afternoon was instructive.

In 2007, the final whistle sparked scenes of euphoria at the Dungarvan venue when they claimed the scalp of Clare for their first Munster SFC victory in 19 years, but three years on, replicating that result provoked a more sober response. In the Waterford camp the scope of their ambitions has widened and once the win was achieved in Sunday’s quarter-final, the focus immediately shifted to a semi-final date with Limerick in a fortnight.

“It was very important for us to win and keep progressing,” outlines attacker Gary Hurney. “League promotion was our first objective this year but when we achieved that, the focus turned towards championship. That’s where you want to win. Waterford football seems to be on the way up and that’s the way we want it to be.”

Hurney’s involvement in their championship efforts was not guaranteed at the start of the year. The past few years he has concentrated on Davy Fitzgerald’s hurling setup but Hurney returned to the football ranks during the league and is revelling in his return.

“I’m really glad to be back with them now. Football is my first love really. I gave the hurling a go for a couple years and I enjoyed every bit of that. But I missed the football and I came back into it during the league. It was great to come back to appear in a league final and win a championship game.”

Waterford have benefited from having Hurney available to their football cause once more. The Ballinacourty man pounced for the critical second-half goal in Sunday’s game and combined cleverly with brother Patrick, who fired three first-half points.

“The goal was an important score for us and I’ll take any goal I can get in championship. It was great to see Patrick doing well coming into the team today. He worked hard in the first half and took his scores very well. Unfortunately he got injured in the second half but he’d done his bit.”

Waterford entered the game in the unusual situation of being warm favourites to triumph. Hurney has grown familiar with the default setting of underdogs being attached to Waterford teams entering Munster football championship games and admits the contrast before Sunday was an odd experience.

“We found ourselves in a different position coming into this game than we have in the last 20 years. It was strange being favourites. We tried to take it in our stride and we knew Clare were going to make it difficult for us coming to Dungarvan. They gave it their all at the start and it wasn’t easy to get into the game. We just got the few vital scores in the second half to get over the line.”

Their reward for coping with the pressure is a shot at Limerick in two weeks for the enormous prize of a first Munster final placing in 50 years.

“We can dream now about a Munster final and the county’s waited a long time to be in one. I think the difference this year is we have a massive panel and have some very good subs to come in. It’s good that we’ll be able to get another crack off Limerick after the league final. But it’s not going to be an easy task and we’ll just try to get ourselves right for that game.”