Shanahan and Waterford feeling good about future

Dan Shanahan returned to action last night, but not for Lismore.

The Waterford senior hurling selector togged out with some of his old Déise team-mates — players like Paul Flynn and Eoin Kelly — for the Ken McGrath All-Star Challenge in Walsh Park.

The game, between Munster and Leinster, drew an enthusiastic crowd and punctuated a pretty promising few days for hurling in the south-east.

“The minors had a good win last Wednesday night over Clare, which is a great boost to everyone in the county,” said Shanahan.

“Last night we had the game in Walsh Park, a great crowd and great atmosphere, and now today it’s Laois.”

In previous years Waterford would have been confident about seeing off the Midlanders at home in Walsh Park. After they ran Galway to two points almost four weeks ago, though, Laois will ask serious questions this evening.

“We all know Laois have been improving,” said Shanahan. “We saw how well they did in Division 1B this season, and they’ve brought that form into the championship.

“Hitting 23 points against Galway was some shooting. Put it to you this way, Kilkenny couldn’t manage that last Sunday in Tullamore.”

Index-linking the Laois performance against Galway with Kilkenny’s is a neat assault on complacency.

“We know they’ll be confident,” says Shanahan.

“We’ve been stressing to the players that their attitude has to be absolutely 100% right, that it’s not acceptable to take Laois for granted, but in fairness to our own lads, we’ve been delighted with the response from them in the last couple of weeks. We feel they’re ready for tonight.”

Shanahan says Waterford have been focused on raising their performance after the disappointment of their replay defeat to Cork.

“That was a letdown because we’d gone so well the first day. We were sharp, the team worked well together, and we got the one break we needed when Austin [Gleeson] got the goal to put us on the front foot.

“It was a disappointment we couldn’t build on that in the second game, but we’ve concentrated on the positives that we can take out of the games.

“It was another championship match, for one thing, which is a bonus considering how many youngsters are in the side — getting them in a big match environment in Thurles was worth a couple of training sessions, definitely.

“The way Cork went against Clare, then, last Sunday, probably showed a few of our lads that we’re not that far away. We were leading Cork the first day in injury time, while Clare never really got to grips with Cork last weekend and were a few points behind Cork for more or less the whole game.”

Cork have acknowledged the benefit of that extra game in preparing for Clare and Shanahan is hoping the experience will also stand to them.

“Cork are in a Munster final now, and fair play to them, they earned it — but they were losing to us in injury time in the first game of the year.

“That’s something we’ve brought up with the players, just how narrow the margins are at this level.

“We’ve told the players to take that lesson on board, that if they keep going to the absolute end, then there are possible rewards, but you have to give it every single per cent that you have until the final whistle.”

Shanahan says he and the backroom team are keen on getting a good local crowd out this evening.

“We’re hoping we’ll get a big crowd up in Walsh Park tonight. It was fantastic to see the support there for Ken, a man who gave everything to Waterford, and we were delighted to pitch in.

“Waterford hurling is on the up and we want them to come see that in action.”