Dubs reeled in by dogged Déise
Anthony Daly was reasonably happy to come away with a point after last year’s thrashing here. As was Davy Fitzgerald although the home manager’s argument seemed the more believable.
Unlike Dublin, Fitzgerald’s side didn’t have an eight-point lead in the 33rd minute. Neither did Waterford go 28 minutes without a score. Their 25-point aggregate total was broken more evenly over the two halves and then there was the fact he was without 10 of the team that started last year’s All-Ireland semi-final.
Still, Fitzgerald knew Waterford should have won this game.
With 15 minutes left, they were five points in the ascendancy, scoring an unanswered haul of 2-7, the second goal coming from man-of-the-match Richie Foley after Seamus Prendergast, who had bagged the first of the two just before the break, was fouled by Stephen Hiney.
A David O’Callaghan point in the 58th minute ended Dublin’s drought before he banged home a goal on the hour mark after collecting CianMcCormack’s miss-hit point attempt. That reduced the difference to a single point but Dublin were rallying and a couple of Conal Keaney frees along with a Liam Rushe point in reply to a Prendergast score and a long Jamie Nagle lob drew the sides level in the 69th minute.
Nagle then drew a free which Foley converted from beyond the half-way line and that appeared to be that before Keaney gathered a Stephen Hiney pass and split the posts to even the honours. Exhilarating stuff on a day when Fitzgerald was claiming the moral victory considering he was without so many players.
“I know Anthony said I was playing mind games during the week. I was asked a question how many was there and I answered it. I’d love to have them boys there but I have to say I’m very proud of the lads. We totally dominated that second-half.
“We shouldn’t have let Dublin back into the game but fair play to them they kept fighting. At the end of the day, it beats losing.”
Daly was just as content. “I’m not apologising to anybody for getting a draw. We could have been well clear at half-time, but a combination of things only had us four points ahead.
“There’s a bit of a wind there and we knew Waterford were always going to come back. We looked dead and buried, but they showed great character.
“We’re training very hard andhopefully that comes into it. They didn’t chuck it in (in) fairness and we got a break to get us back into it.”
Two minutes before the break, one wondered just how furious Fitzgerald would be in the Waterford dressing room. Four minutes later and with Diarmuid Kirwan calling the half to a close, it was a question of how demented Daly would be with his men.
Leading by eight points (1-14 to 1-6), Dublin were making a mockery of their 15/8 odds coming into this game. Keaney was pulling the strings at right half-forward and had seven points (six from play) to his name by theinterval.
When Waterford’s defenders weren’t offending, they were guilty of some extremely loose marking, JeromeMaher making way at half-time, although they were blessed to be just four points in arrears then, trailing 1-14 to 2-7.
In those early exchanges, Dublin were the dominant team — both on the scoreboard and in the physical stakes. Declan O’Dwyer’s ninth minute goal should have been disallowed for steps but there was no mistaking they were bossing matters.
Really, it was only the two goals — Foley beating goalkeeper Gary Maguire after another mishit and Prendergast gathered a Darragh Fives high delivery in the 35th minute — that kept Waterford in it.
Both managers took issue with Kirwan’s handling of the game afterwards- even if they did pull some of their punches.
“I’m not going to say what I think,” said Fitzgerald. “You can look over the dvd yourself and he mightn’t be happy, trust me. There are certain things I wouldn’t be happy with but there’s no point getting into the referee.”
As for Daly’s take on the official? “I wasn’t happy at times and Davy wasn’t either — I saw him hopping up!”
Scorers for Waterford: R Foley 2-10 (0-7 frees, 1-0 pen); S Prendergast 1-1; P Mahony 0-2; S Casey, S Molumphy, J Nagle 0-1 each
Subs for Waterford: W Hutchinson for Maher (h-t); E Murphy for T Ryan (58); K McGrath for Casey (65).
Scorers for Dublin: C Keaney 0-10 (eight frees); D O’Callaghan 1-3; D O’Dwyer 1-1; L Rushe 0-2; C McCormack, P Kelly, P Carton 0-1 each
Subs for Dublin: P Ryan for S Ryan (49); L Ryan for O’Dwyer (65).
Referee: Diarmuid Kirwan (Cork).
