Experience got us over the line, says Mullane

HE’S been there too long to take anything for granted.

It seems like only yesterday John Mullane’s inimitable run-and-strike style came to our attention but this is his ninth season in a Waterford senior jersey.

When the chance came late on to win the game, he was the right man in the right place.

“Eoin (Kelly) showed great ability to get to the ball in the corner and to get it across, and I gave a shout to Brian O’Sullivan, ‘leave it, leave it’,” said Mullane.

“The thing opened up for me then. I got a nice strike on it and thankfully it went in. People have questioned me, about my goalscoring over the years, but thankfully it went my way today and I got two. We were just delighted with the result, to get out of jail today.”

Despite the drama, Mullane knows the win over Limerick was part of the journey, not the destination.

“It’s about getting over the line,” said Mullane. “You always know your first game is your hardest.

“Limerick put up a great battling performance and probably should have won the game.

“We’re an experienced team, we know that we have to keep going to the end, to the final whistle, and that’s what we did today. We kept plugging away and never threw in the towel.”

Mullane name checked the Limerick manager as a big part of the threat posed by the Shannonsiders — and the famous tactical approach he uses.

“We were under no illusions coming in here about the task ahead. We knew with Donal O’Grady in charge they’d be good, and you could see that they’d adopted a bit of the old Cork passing game.

“In patches in the game that had us in a bit of trouble, but what can I say about them?

“It was a courageous performance and they probably didn’t deserve what happened to them.”

Although they haven’t won an All-Ireland title, this has been a golden era for Waterford hurling, the richest since their great team of the 1950s.

Mullane sees a chance for them to take one step further than that side in the upcoming Munster final.

“It’d be nice to win back to back titles, no Waterford team has put together back to back Munster titles, but we know that a performance like yesterday wouldn’t be good enough for Tipperary or Clare. There’s room for improvement.”

Even with time ticking down Mullane and his colleagues knew they had to keep battling.

Such is the benefit of experience, says the De La Salle clubman, not to mention a strong panel.

“When they were two points ahead late on you’d ask questions,” said Mullane.

“But there’s great inner belief in the team and we proved that again.

“We’ve come through some right battles over the years and that came through again. Justice probably wasn’t done to Limerick, in fairness. “They probably deserved the win.”