Shades of 1999 again in Semple as young players take to field

Shades of the 1999 instalment to this one.

You know the Munster semi-final where Waterford, All-Ireland semi-finalists the August prior, arrived as roaring hot favourites to Semple Stadium. Cork, under new manager Jimmy Barry-Murphy, featured six championship debutants determined to commence the county’s rebuilding phase.

And so it was roles reversed yesterday, the storyline, however, strikingly familiar.

Waterford entered the contest with four debutants in their starting line-up, and added to the age profile of Derek McGrath’s side, the Déise men were virtually written off in all quarters. As I said, strong shades of 1999.

The Waterford men would revel in their underdog status and instead of the usual leadership provided by Michael Walsh, Kevin Moran and the likes, it was the younger brigade, chests out, who stood up to be counted.

None more so than 19-year-old Austin Gleeson.

This quarter-final clash was 12 minutes old when the Mount Sion teenager first eyed up the Town End goal. The end product dropped well shy of the target, with Gleeson throwing his hands to the sky in frustration. His two subsequent efforts would drift either side of the post and one feared this championship debut wouldn’t go the distance.

A successful sideline cut had Gleeson on the mark and the half-forward further announced himself to proceedings when fielding spectacularly on the stroke of half-time and splitting the posts.

Corner-back Noel Connors shed light on how the team’s newcomers are forever encouraged by manager Derek McGrath to throw off the shackles and hurl with a strong sense of abandon. Not easy when attempting to remain afloat in your maiden Munster championship outing, but the All-Ireland-minor winner captured said freedom when registering the contest’s opening goal on 43 minutes.

Collecting a poor Aidan Walsh sideline cut, Gleeson charged through the Cork defence and unleashed a powerful effort to the top right corner of Anthony Nash’s goal.

It served to grab firmly the spotlight from their three remaining debutants — Tadgh Burke probably the pick of the bunch. The 19-year-old wing-back landed a huge point early in the first-half and while his influence waned in the second period, out of place hecertainly was not. Both Colin Dunford and Barry Coughlan were called ashore in the second period.

“I thought each one of them were very impressive to be perfectly honest about it,” reflected Connors.

“I don’t think you could say any of them had a torrid day or anything like that. Derek, in fairness, instils belief and this attitude of playing with a freedom and enjoying the occasion. At the end of the day, they are well able to be there and when they go out with a mentality like that they can enjoy their hurling.

“Austin certainly didn’t seem to lack confidence. It was no problem to him out there. We saw what he done. Aussie is a great individual. He has great experience and a great family behind him. We saw him last year as minor centre-back and he was the same last year. He has never been lacking in the confidence or experience department.”

Gleeson, while wholly impressive and, indeed, influential, was not the only debut forward to capture the imagination of the 16,025 crowd.

Last Friday week, Michael Moynihan of this parish tipped Alan Cadogan to collect the 2014 Young Hurler of the Year award. An interesting assertion for a hurler virtually unknown outside of the county.

As of last night, you’d say Cadogan is in pole position. Three points to his name, the one Cork forward to rise above the parapet in the opening-half and a measure of his influence was the substitution of Waterford’s Barry Coughlan on 41 minutes.

“I thought he made a great contribution, excellent, very good debut,” said Jimmy Barry-Murphy.

“He is a very good player and showed that today. He was the only forward to settle in the first-half. He seemed to trouble Waterford with every ball he got.”

Goalkeeper Anthony Nash paid similar tribute, acknowledging also the exertion of fellow debutants Mark Ellis and Aidan Walsh.

“Aidan’s point was crucial in bringing us back into it. Aidan got the RTÉ man of the match so he was obviously fantastic. Alan Cadogan was a danger every time he got the ball and Mark Ellis too did very well. I thought he was very solid there at centre-back.

“Hopefully they will learn from today and it will bring them on. Damien Cahalane too was a glorified debutant as he had only played one or two matches for us. I thought they hurled very well.”

Returning to our 1999 comparison and the question now remains if the young hurlers on both sides of the divide can continue their upward trajectory.