Carthach Daly says 'recharged' Waterford will go for the League again

The ongoing - and unresolved - curiosity into Waterford’s soaring high and crashing low season is, at the end of the day, or seven months on as is the case here, perfectly understandable.

WE GO AGAIN: Carthach Daly of Waterford is tackled by Darragh Fitzgibbon, left, and Ger Millerick of Cork. Pic: Ray McManus/Sportsfile

Not even the proximity of 2023 and the throw-in of the new season can divert conversation away from a Munster campaign now seven months in the rearview mirror.

Not even the arrival of a new manager - and not just any old vanilla-flavoured sideline recruit - can move the dial on.

The ongoing - and unresolved - curiosity in Waterford’s soaring high and crashing low season is, at the end of the day, or seven months on as is the case here, perfectly understandable.

On April 2, Waterford put four goals past Cork to finish an outstanding League effort as champions. Six weeks later, they were as good as gone from the championship. Now they still had one game left to play in the Munster round-robin, but their season was beyond saving.

So, what happened?

For the latest post-mortem take, we turn to Carthach Daly.

Twenty-year-old Daly was man of the match in the six-point League final win and was present inside the whitewash during a Munster round-robin series that finished in familiar deflation. He’s well positioned to appraise the county’s latest provincial flop.

For starters, young Daly doesn’t see it as one big flop spread across their four Munster outings. He doesn’t believe the county’s entire Munster campaign should be taken together when assessing the wreckage. They did, after all, beat Tipperary first day out and came within one score away to champions Limerick a week later.

Daly reserves his focus specifically for Cork’s visit in mid-May. That was the day their championship ambitions went up in smoke.

“There’s a lot of people in the panel and around the county that can’t really wrap their fingers around what happened last season,” the 2022 debutant begins.

“It wasn’t as if we weren’t playing well in the championship. We beat Tipp and put it up to Limerick in the Gaelic Grounds. We were within three points of them. We just didn't show up against Cork and that kind of ruined our confidence. I don't know what the reason was or what it could have been.

“Our confidence was low then going to Clare. We were fighting a lonely battle and we kind of went out then with a bad mentality and lost the game.” 

Too easy a narrative to pedal, Daly adds, is the school of thought that says Waterford rose too high during the league. An unsustainable high. And that, consequently, their form graph was only ever going to travel in one direction during a demanding and unforgiving Munster championship.

“Any competition that we go at, we're going to try and win it. Everyone was saying that we peaked too early for the League, but every competition you're in, you should go for it.

“It's easy to point the finger at this and that and say that just because we didn't go well in the championship that it was because we peaked in the League.

“We were all disappointed with how [2022] ended. We were hoping for much better but them things happen. We're back training now, we've recharged the batteries and we'll go again for the Munster League, League, and championship, and try to get out of the round-robin and do well this year.” 

Waterford’s early championship exit saw Daly head stateside for the summer. A stress fracture incurred shortly after the League final win was aggravated while lining out for Fr Tom Burke’s during his Boston summer. His commitment to Lismore upon returning home made matters worse again and so the Mary I student is currently on the Déise injury list.

It’s a list older brother Iarlaith is not long removed from following his grade 5 ankle ligament tear during the earlier mentioned Munster championship defeat to Limerick.

Carthach’s almost-finished rehab means he’s been something of a spectator to the early pages of Davy Fitzgerald’s second chapter with Waterford.

The Clare man’s track record of delivering a year one bounce whenever he pitches his tent in a new field lends hope that Waterford’s dismal Munster round-robin record - one win from 12 - can be rewritten.

“I was only around six years of age when Davy was first here. I remember going to the 2010 Munster final and it was a brilliant day out. It went to a replay and extra-time, and we won it. I suppose that’s the good memories I have of Davy. I’m lucky to be playing under him.

“The atmosphere is good in the camp. We have a few new lads that are after being called into the panel. They are going well, and we are driving them on and they are driving us on. So yeah, so far so good and we can only hope for the best in the new year and coming up to the championship.”