It’s what you dream of as a young fella, says Déise skipper Daly

Kevin Daly became only the third Waterford man to captain a successful minor side and the enormity of that achievement seeped in immediately afterwards. Back at the top table after a 65-year absence.

“It was a dream come true,” said the Dungarvan full back after holding the Irish Press cup aloft. “It’s what you dream of as a young fella. You think that it’s a dream, you never think that it is actually going to happen.”

It marked the end of a long and winding road as Waterford emerged victorious after an exhausting eight-game campaign. On a personal level, climbing the Hogan Stand steps also brought contentment as he came into the minor ranks without recognition at the lower grades.

“I didn’t make the Tony Forristal and I didn’t make the Sonny Walsh and I was thinking at that stage maybe I’m not that good at all or I might never make it. It was just a dream come true to come up and lift it and bring the cup back to Waterford for the first time since 1948.”

The pain of the Munster final loss to Limerick spurred them forward when Galway levelled the contest at 0-15 each.

“We were not losing today. This was our day. We have been together too long and lost too many finals. The feeling after the Munster final was heartbreaking. You honestly couldn’t go through that again. That defeat brought us to where we are today. We knew what it was like to lose and no way were we going to let that happen again.”

The goal from club-mate Patrick Curran buried any niggling doubts at the back of their minds as they piled forward to win with eight points to spare.

“It was looking doubtful there for a while, we were asleep there for a while in the second half but Patrick got that goal and from then on, we knew that we weren’t going to lose. We just drove on from there.”