Déise will not go away, warns Fanning
Waterford hurling selector Pádraig Fanning is blunt when you ask about those previous meetings. Take last year’s All-Ireland semi-final, won well by Tipp; his evaluation comes without varnish.
“We probably didn’t play as well as we could have but we looked at the DVD and we had a lot of chances in that match without playing well.
“We had two goal chances and when we made a couple of changes we had it back to four or five points without playing well.
“There were things which we felt that did not do as well as we would have liked from a game-plan point of view but we were happy with our game plan, it was just that we did not carry it out.”
Okay, exhibit B: the league game in Thurles this season, when Waterford shipped another heavy defeat.
“We were down to 13 men and I think we learned a bit from that match as well.
“It wasn’t a win, unfortunately, and it probably cost us a place in the league final. We got going when we went down to 13 men, we just left off the shackles a little bit and we went at them. We took some positives out of it in that we more than held our own.
“Tipperary are very hard to play when you are two men down, but we kept at it, we created some chances and it was probably too much to overcome to try and win the match from that position.
“We took out of it the fact that we had a lot of young lads playing that evening, as we had right throughout the league, and we felt that we had something to build on. We felt that we had a team that we could work with and eventually develop further throughout the rest of the league.”
Moving to this year’s championship, Tipp have seven goals scored in two games, hammering in four goals against Clare last time out, though some have pointed out that those goals came through defensive errors by the Banner.
“Possibly,” says Fanning, “But they still had a bit to do when they got into the goal-scoring positions, and they certainly did that.
“Every time they get a goal, they always seem to be in acres of space and that does not happen by accident.
“There is serious teamwork there, there is serious understanding with each other, everybody knows that you have to watch them. You saw it against Kilkenny as well last year, they were just able to open them up as well and they can do that very easily.”
So much for Tipperary. After the Munster semi-final, there was much talk of Limerick’s revival under Donal O’Grady’s stewardship, and the focus on them clearly ruffled Waterford feathers.
“We played Limerick and for the first half of that game, we played very well,” said Fanning.
“All the talk from people after the Munster semi-final was about Limerick but we are the team that are in the final because we won that game and we are very happy to be there.
“Are we coming in under the radar? Possibly but you can come in any way that you like but what we will do is we will come in ready.”
The prize, a Munster title, isn’t something Waterford — or Tipperary — take lightly.
“They are All-Ireland champions, we are Munster champions so we will do our best to hold onto our title and Tipperary always put a high stock in the Munster championship and will come out all guns blazing for that.
“Any time I have heard any of them talk, they always talk up the Munster championship and I am sure that they will want to win it badly but I can guarantee you that we want to win it just as badly.”
It’s not just a matter of this weekend. Fanning comes equipped with statistics when he sounds a defiant call to arms for Waterford for the future.
“Let’s be honest, if most people were looking at us over the few years, they thought we should be gone by now.
“People thought that we were on the way down and we ended up winning a Munster final last year, the minors are in a third Muster final in a row, the under-21s are unlucky not have reached a third Munster final in a row. We are positive in ourselves and we believe in ourselves. Waterford are going to be around for a while yet.”
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