Gleeson’s glorious goal headlines two-part drama

Waterford took to the field for yesterday’s Munster senior hurling quarter-final against Cork with Brian Flynn’s initials sewn into their jerseys.

Theatre director Flynn, a relative of Waterford manager Derek McGrath, passed away a couple of weeks ago, and the pulsating drama of yesterday’s draw in Thurles would have done credit to any of his productions.

Waterford were brave and enterprising, making nonsense of the pre-game odds to lead from the start until very nearly the end.

At one stage in the second half they were nine points up, a lead that would usually lead to indictment of the management for not closing it out, but not yesterday.

Cork goalkeeper Anthony Nash indicated that the wind was a significant factor in the proceedings, and both sides did the majority of their scoring into the Town end.

The difference was that Waterford goaled into the wind, but we’ll return to that score, so good that it’s destined to be the gem everyone in the 16,025 attendance will remember when this game comes to mind.

Cork surged against Waterford in the second half: even if the Rebels needed a late, late Patrick Horgan free to tie the game they were on top as the proceedings wound down, a point not lost on the Waterford boss.

“Obviously games go to and fro in terms of momentum,” said McGrath after the game, when heart rates in Semple Stadium began to return to normal.

“We found it difficult to sustain in the middle period of the second half, and ultimately that’s what counted against us. The young lads . . . they’re good young lads in terms of pedigree with the colleges and so on, the journey is difficult for them and there’ll be more attention given to them the next day out – the quality of the unknown is probably gone, but that’s where we are.

“We’re in a period where we have to go with the young lads, but we believe they’re good enough to go with.”

The belief is well founded on yesterday’s empirical evidence. The temptation is to say that Cork, clear pre-match favourites, were out of sorts in the first half, with puck-outs going over the sideline and simple passes missed. That would do a disservice to Waterford’s appetite for work, though.

The men in white and blue bossed exchanges on their own half-back line, inhaling plenty of breaking ball and placing deliveries to their inside line: Kevin Moran created more than one score that way, and their calm distribution was a study in contrasts with Cork, whose under-pressure defenders ended up delivering dirty ball to an under-pressure forward line.

Debutant Austin Gleeson, tipped for glory in these pages last Friday, was emblematic for Waterford: hungry for work, the teenager blocked Cork captain Pa Cronin twice in one passage of play and chipped in with a couple of scores himself, impressive in a teenager.

On the other side Cork lacked zip, though hindsight might not look kindly on keeping ball-winner Seamus Harnedy on the edge of the square against the wind and placing Patrick Horgan in the corner.

Waterford were six ahead at the break and still well on top when Gleeson casually took his seat among the immortals of Munster hurling.

The Mount Sion teenager set off on a rambling solo run down the right side of the Cork defence, deceiving a handful of opponents before cracking home a superb goal against All-Star ’keeper Nash.

Ambition, context, execution: this was one of the great Munster hurling goals. As the words of the song have it, dust from a distant sun showers over everyone.

The All-Ireland finalists would be nine points down before they came back, Patrick Horgan’s elegant striking and substitute Bill Cooper’s industry helping them to turn the tide: Cooper’s goal, scrambled home from a good Horgan shot which Stephen O’Keeffe saved well, was badly needed by the men in red.

Cork couldn’t quite close the gap, though, and the game was close to the end when Waterford nudged ahead through Seamus Prendergast, though Cork boss Jimmy Barry-Murphy was emphatic about what he saw as a foul on Alan Cadogan just beforehand (“Definitely a free, without a doubt.”).

Horgan still had time to level matters, however, and the sides will face each other again in a fortnight.

“We’ve had a good break since we played Tipperary here in the quarter-final of the league,” said Barry-Murphy.

“That day we were the same, we were very sluggish and didn’t get going until the end. Today we just didn’t seem to get to the pitch of the game as quickly as we’d like. A lot of our players, particularly in the forward line, found it hard to get into the game, particularly in the first half, apart from Alan Cadogan.”

Waterford were verging on the mournful at their press night, but ravaged by injury as they were, they were entitled. Now, as McGrath suggested after the game, the element of surprise is gone and Cork will be well armed to combat the likes of Gleeson and Brian O’Sullivan.

In the other corner, there is certainly room for Cork to improve: involving Harnedy and Horgan more centrally may be an option for them, while the Cork supporters chanting for Nash to take a close-in free yesterday may be even more vocal if another opportunity pops up in two weeks’ time.

As we left the tunnel to the dressing-rooms yesterday in Semple Stadium we encountered Derek McGrath one last time and murmured that they had done Brian Flynn proud.

“They did,” said McGrath. “They all did.”