Ahearne seeks antidote to pain of ’98
Since that time the closest they came to stopping the sequence was 1998 when Kilkenny shaded a low scoring All-Ireland semi-final by 1-11 to 1-10. The closest, yes, but also the one that niggles most.
In a year of high drama and controversy, that game faded into the background but it brought promising white and blue momentum to an abrupt end. Former Waterford hurler Shane Ahearne served as selector under Gerald McCarthy that day and he remembers it as the game that got away.
“It was a huge missed opportunity and it’s only as the years go on that you realise, more so than at the time, how much of an opportunity it was to get Waterford on the road to All-Ireland finals and maybe winning it,” he said.
“We had a skill level brought to the game at that stage with McCarthy and we left it behind us that day. We went back to old habits like bunching and following the ball and that type of thing.”
Tony Browne scored 1-3 that afternoon and he remains the link to that time.
“Tony played centre field that year and played absolutely brilliant. When you think that he is still going it just shows how good of an engine he has.”
In an open championship, Ahearne feels they missed the boat.
“Offaly went on to win it handy enough in the final. What happened that year was that we caught a lot of teams on the hop from the very start. Before every game, everyone thought that this would be the end of our campaign. We could have went the whole way and won it before people realised who we were.”
Reaching the semi-final stage in fine fettle, despite losing out to Clare in Munster, they dismantled Cyril Farrell’s Galway in the quarter-finals.
“That was probably the best hurling that we played all year.”
Fast forward to tomorrow’s qualifier and Ahearne believes Waterford can invent a smarter tactical plan than the one Tipperary brought to the table.
“When Waterford were playing Offaly people were saying that Offaly were a big, strong, physical team and we couldn’t take them on physically so they had to play a low, fast ball. That’s the perfect template for taking on this Kilkenny team.
“Tipperary made the mistake last week of trying to take them on physically and tried to use high ball. Both tactics were silly if you ask me.”
As rank outsiders, the Ferrybank club man sees a slight opening.
“I think Waterford will be classed as underdogs and that’s the way to be. I look back at all the years that we thought we were going to beat Kilkenny and it didn’t work out so maybe when we are not expected to beat them, it might work out for us!”
