‘I have never been as proud of the lads’

Derek McGrath is as talkative as ever but the toll of the day is clear.

For 14 minutes he sits and answers questions with his trademark honesty but he rubs his eyes and his head slowly as he talks like Marlon Brando’s Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now.

The words come in fits and starts as he comes to terms with the battle lost.

McGrath talks about their sluggish start and how Kilkenny’s early storm in 2008 was on their minds. “Jesus, this is coming. Galway are primed.” Kilkenny in waiting, he calls them. But what he doesn’t do is put defeat down to nerves or fear or reticence.

Or the referee.

“Obviously we are hugely disappointed but the overriding emotion is one of pride in our lads. There was no capitulation, there was no sense of throwing in the towel. The resilience shown was incredible. I’m very proud of the lads, never as proud of them, in fact.”

Defeat is the mother of an infinite number of regrets. Recrimination can prosper in its wake too but McGrath doesn’t sound like a man who will entertain either unwanted guest at his door over the dark and gloomy winter to come.

There will be no ‘what ifs’.

“One hundred per cent. I’d be so strong on that.”

Hindsight had it that the county went bananas prior to the ’08 final and paid for it but McGrath was already standing over everything they had done in the run-up to this final as he digested the loss and its reasoning yesterday evening.

Looking back, he wouldn’t change a thing.

“Not one thing in terms of preparation. When you go into the aftermath you analyse changes and mistakes you made but that’s for another day. We all make mistakes and there was mistakes made but I wouldn’t be keen to advance on that.

“That’s cranky for me now. They put so much into it. I’ve heard the word potential and talent in Waterford since I was a minor in 1992. Potential and talent are not even a distant relative of what’s needed out there.”

It’s a fine line they have to walk now between pride and disappointment.

McGrath said as much afterwards. Moral victories have long since lost their value on the local market and there is no guarantee that this bunch of players or management, good as they are, will get a second shot at another decider down the line.

After all, this meeting of counties encumbered by desperation rather than tradition brought with it shades of the 2013 decider between Clare and Cork and neither of those have yet to grace the September stage since their two-act tango four years ago.

“It’s an expectation (that Waterford will be back) but it’s just so hard because you would be thinking other teams will come to the table as well. That would be an expectation without it being a definite. An expectation is what it is, just an expectation.

“You go through the roller-coaster year that we’ve had in terms of losing to Cork, extra-time against Kilkenny.

“The Wexford game was a game for a long time, the Cork game you could argue 59 minutes gone we were a point down, so it’s been a roller-coaster.

“Brian Cody came into our dressing room after the 2015 semi-final and said in a completely non-patronising way that it’s so hard to get back here. That’s why he has kept Kilkenny so sharp. Every year he’s been the reason.”

McGrath’s honesty and openness has been a breath of fresh air on the inter-county scene.

A decent man, he spoke about the emotion that swirled about him and his players all weekend as they embraced the wider significance of it all.

They risked a quick peak at Up for the Match on Saturday night and listened to Tony Keady’s daughter Sharon speak about how she had won an All-Ireland camogie medal and they lingered on the disappointment Conor Gleeson felt over being suspended for the game.

K

evin Moran stood in the dressing-room beforehand and spoke about how it was days like these that living is all about and at half-time the ultimate experience for any inter-county GAA player still stood within their grasp despite all of Galway’s efforts.

“The general theme in our dressing room at half-time was that this is going down the stretch. The start of the second-half was heartening. We went a point up but then Galway kind of in the midst of us chasing it, Niall Burke and Jason Flynn had a big impact.

“Equally Tommy Ryan had a good impact (for Waterford) too, but we have no real arguments overall. That theme is coming across regularly with my points. Hugely disappointed because it is so hard to get here but I have never been as proud of the lads.”