Dan Shanahan primed for ‘massive day’ for Waterford

The most experienced Waterford man in Semple Stadium this weekend will be easy to spot.

Déise icon Dan Shanahan hasn’t let a maor foirne bib curtail his enthusiasm on the sidelines yet and he won’t change for the Munster final on Sunday against Tipperary.

It’s his eighth senior provincial decider including replays and he goes back two decades with Knocknagow.

“It started with a good win in Fermoy against them at minor level. We had pretty good days against Tipp. They’re a fantastic team and always will be.

“All we want out of our lads is to keep working hard on what they’re doing. It’s a massive day. There will be 35,000 or 40,000 above in Thurles but we don’t want our lads caught up in the atmosphere of the game, just to go out and enjoy it. You don’t get many days like this when you are playing Tipperary in Thurles in a Munster final.”

He describes the Waterford panel — 14 of whom are U21s — as level-headed.

“Not one of those lads will get a big head. From being there in the past, it’s vital for young lads not to get carried away. They performed well against Cork in the U21 — having said that not a great Cork U21 team, with respect — and they got the job done.

“They are a fantastic bunch of lads to work with. A lot of that too is down to the older lads who won’t let these lads get carried away either. The likes of Brick Walsh, Kevin Moran and Noel Connors bring them down to earth pretty quick in training.”

They’ve already collected silverware, of course, an NHL title after a significant enough win over Tipperary in the league semi-final.

“Other people would have thought we were in bonus territory going into that game. No-one gave us a chance.

“It takes a bit of pressure off when you’re not expected to win games, especially against the calibre of Tipp. Tipp had a great start with two early goals but we soaked it up after that and just worked hard as a team and kept plugging away.

“We didn’t put much thought into the league but when you get the chance to win a trophy and you are in a semi-final, you go out to win it. Tipp were probably disappointed that they didn’t beat us but that’s the way it goes, but when you see the Tipp team and the way they played against Limerick, they are a different Tipp team to what we saw in the league semi-final. Their movement is way better.”

Waterford have benefited all year from their defenders driving out and delivering good ball to the attack.

“Some people say we play a sweeper,” says Shanahan. “I don’t think we play a sweeper or anything negative like that. We just work hard as a team.

“Our two midfielders are helping them and that’s the way it’s been all year. The attack starts with coming out with the ball and setting up the play up front. It’s not something we have worked on, I just think we have intelligent hurlers that don’t want to waste ball.

“A lot of those lads are in college or they are school teachers so they are all intelligent lads. If one of our players is after making a good hook, you don’t want to be hitting ball on top of the spare man. We can’t land ball down on Padraic Maher the next day because he will attack everything.

“Will we have a game plan going into the game? Maybe we will, we will wait and see. We will have to nullify the Tipp backs launching ball into the good forwards that they have. It’s something that we have to work on.”

For that to work they need players who can burst past their opponents.

“It’s something we have done this year, to take the challenge, come out past your man and lay off the ball to the man in the better position.

“We are using the ball way better than we have last year or in previous years. You can’t waste ball against Tipperary because if you do, they will hurt you. They are the one team that will get goals. They got seven in a Munster final below in Páirc Uí Chaoimh and we can’t let that happen the next day.”

They’ve looked at the small things, Shanahan, manager Derek McGrath, selector Fintan O’Connor. They weren’t helped by a slow start against Cork in the semi-final, when their cause wasn’t helped by the garda escort arriving late. Small things can be rectified, though.

“We were late getting off the bus, we’ll have that sorted for the next day, and maybe we were rushing a bit. I don’t think that we can overcomplicate things with the slow start. Cork had their purple patch in the first 20 minutes and we weathered that storm.

“When you are getting strappings and physio, it can get a bit rushed in the dressing room beforehand. We didn’t make a big issue of it. We had a chat to the players about it and it wasn’t a big thing.”

Some challenges are trickier.

“Let’s be honest,” says Shanahan, “Tipp are a hell of a good team. I’m not here to build up Tipp or anything like that. I’m here to speak the truth.”

He knows. He’s been facing them for 20 years.