Dan Shanahan: ‘We have to believe we can beat Kilkenny’

Twenty months ago, Dan Shanahan agreed Waterford were the fifth team in Munster. “Maybe ninth or 10th in Ireland,” he says now of that period. How times have changed, writes John Fogarty.

Today on the sideline, Dan Shanahan will be Waterford’s figurehead. Where Brian Cody will spit on his hands and cajole his men with a fist pump, Shanahan will dance on his toes and applaud.

Derek McGrath wouldn’t want it any other way. When the players look over to their sideline they will see a 38-year-old pucking every ball with them, desperate to win, just as he is to play.