Mullane hails Déise ‘conveyor belt’

Waterford star John Mullane says the number of new players coming on stream with the county shows the “conveyor belt” that’s producing talent in the southeast.

Mullane paid tribute to the debutants who impressed in Waterford’s narrow win over Clare in the Munster championship semi-final.

“What was great about the Clare game was that we had so many new players coming in and standing up to a Munster championship game,’’ Mullane said.

“When you see the likes of Philip Mahony, Stephen Daniels, Gavin O’Brien, Stephen O’Keeffe, all those guys coming through, that’s very important.

“Over the 70 minutes we had six players coming in for their championship debuts. That’s a huge number, but it shows you how hurling has gone in Waterford. Bringing through one or two new players every year is a huge boost to the team, and it shows the conveyor belt of talent that’s coming through from colleges, minor and U21 to the senior county team. It was important for the new lads to get a game under their belts, but the fact that they were able to grind out a narrow championship win makes it all the better, and they’ll learn even more from that.”

Mullane himself was the focus of attention after the game, given his celebrations in front of former Waterford boss Davy Fitzgerald, now with Clare, but he says that’s all in the past now.

“That’s well put to bed now — my main focus is now on the game, pure and simple. My job is all about trying to win the ball, trying to win primary possession and to score. That’s my focus.’’

Waterford crashed to a seven-goal defeat in last summer’s Munster final against the same opponents, but Mullane points out that they’re not the only team to suffer an uncharacteristic beating.

“Of course people are going to talk about it, particularly as it’s only 12 months since that game was played.

“It’s definitely going to crop up, the fact that we lost last year by conceding seven goals — and, I suppose, the manner of the defeat.

“The fact that we went down without a fight.

“People are going to remind us of that game but we’re focusing on this year. That’s been the case all along, which you might expect, but it’s a new year after all and we can’t be getting hung up on something that happened last year which we can’t control.

“Those things can happen in sport — in the Premier League this year Man City went to Old Trafford and beat Man United 6-1, or the Irish rugby team down in New Zealand, losing to the All Blacks by 60 points.

“That result doesn’t mean that the likes of Ronan O’Gara or Brian O’Driscoll are bad players overnight. These results can happen, and it happened to us last year, but we have to drive on. Sunday’s a big challenge, but it’s nice to have that opportunity to redeem ourselves.”

That said, he acknowledges Tipperary’s strength on and off the field.

“Look, they’re probably viewed as the only team out there capable of challenging Kilkenny. They’re a fine side and last year in the Munster final they hit the ground running. You’d say that the way in which they beat us that day didn’t do them any great favours later in the championship, but they look to be building more gradually this year. They’re only going to get better, particularly when you look at their bench — you have Seamus Callinan, Lar Corbett and Eoin Kelly on the bench. That’s before you get to the likes of John O’Neill and Shane Bourke — you’re talking about an abundance of talent and they have close to what Kilkenny have, thirty good players.”