Dan Shanahan salutes ‘outstanding’ little brother Maurice

Maurice Shanahan had registered two poor wides inside the opening five minutes when his big brother raced onto the Semple Stadium turf, a brief and passionate exchange ensuing.

Waterford hurling selector Dan Shanahan has no qualms in admitting he’d come down hardest on his 25-year old brother and in the absence of regular free-taker Pauric Mahony, placed-ball duties and responsibility to co-ordinate their inside efforts fell to Maurice.

The Waterford full-forward, his early wobble aside, thrived under the pressure, finishing the game with 1-9.

“I hate pointing out one fella especially when I’d be the hardest on me own fella. It was an outstanding day for Maurice,” said Dan.

“I don’t think you’ll ever replace Pauric [Mahony]. He’s one of the best, if not the best, in the country. Maurice missed the first one but had the nerve to stick with it — we had the nerve to stick with him.

“After that he got a few handy ones from the 20-metre line and he got the rest of them then.

“But it’s not about Maurice, it’s about the whole lot of them. And I thought they were absolutely fantastic. The ball has to come a long way before it gets to Maurice. The lads outside worked very hard to get the ball in.”

They barely kept Dan Shanahan off the pitch today in Thurles. Brilliant. #DanTheManhttps://t.co/RTwkMWeBqp

— RTÉ GAA (@RTEgaa) June 7, 2015

While that may be so, the full-forward’s 26th minute goal would certainly rank alongside the hefty collection of superb majors compiled by Dan during his Waterford career.

“I wouldn’t compare myself and Maurice together. Maurice personally has way more skill than I had. That’s being honest, the young lads of today have a bit more skill than maybe we had in the 2000’s.

“I was delighted with the players I played with, they were fantastic lads and still are. These lads are a great bunch of lads to work with.

“I think if we’re being honest with ourselves, it was the first real championship game for us and it had a bit of tempo to it. To be in another Munster final is fantastic for Waterford.”

Unreal by the lads roll on Munster final

— Pauric Mahony (@PauricMahony) June 7, 2015

He continued: “This was a real team effort. We work hard as a team, 19, 20 players, it isn’t a 15-man game any more. It’s all about the panel.

The three lads who came in — Tom Devine, Paddy Curran and Shane Bennett — were minors a couple of years ago. They’re great young lads. They love playing at that tempo in Thurles. It’s why you train at the start of the year in the muck and the shit, to get out there on day’s like this.

“I can assure you, I won’t ever forget Sunday — and I hope they don’t.” Though clearly outnumbered in the stands at Thurles, Shanahan doesn’t buy into the argument that a large portion of the Déise hurling public remain unconvinced as to the true worth of this team and the system they have adopted.

“The support has been unbelievable. People say they’ve been gone for years but I don’t think they’ve ever been gone. I think the financial situation doesn’t help at the moment.

“We won’t ever get 45,000 at a semi-final any more, but we’re delighted with what we had. We’re delighted with the supporters and delighted for the performance of our team.

“We’ll take it one step at a time from here. It’s very hard to beat any team twice. To play Cork and beat them twice in the five weeks, after beating them by 10 points in a league final, to come out and do them again is a great achievement for our players.

“We can sit back now and watch Tipperary and Limerick flake it out now.”