FIVE months on from our All-Ireland semi-final defeat by Limerick, it’s still hard to know whether we are over it yet or not. It’s been a long slow winter mulling over what could have been.
Don’t get me wrong, 2007 was still a great year for Waterford hurling. We won the National Hurling League for the first time since 1963. We won our third Munster final in recent years, De La Salle won the Dr Harty Cup and the All-Ireland Colleges titles, both for the first time, and of course our U-14s won the coveted Tony Forristal, also for the first time. We also achieved an unprecedented five All-Stars and Hurler of the Year.
But one can still only look back with disappointment at the way it all finished so suddenly on that day in Croke Park against Limerick.
In recent months a lot of our top players have been well recognised both nationally and locally with various awards and distinctions but I have no doubt that those players will be glad to put all that behind them and get back to doing what they do best and that is play competitive hurling, and that starts on Sunday in Walsh Park against Wexford.
This year we go into the National Hurling League differently than we have for forty-four years as we go into it as reigning champions and this brings with it a certain amount of added pressure and responsibility to our tasks for the year ahead.
CHANGE OF FOCUS
However, winning the League in 2007 should now change the way we approach and indeed our focus on the 2008 league. While the momentum built up in winning the three knockout matches (against Tipp, Cork and Kilkenny) at the end of last year’s league campaign was invaluable to the team come championship time, this is not case this time around.
Last year it was imperative that we made the knockout stages of the league as there was a ten-week gap between the end of the group stages and our opening championship match (a Munster semi-final against Cork) in mid-June. This made it vital that we had competitive games in this ten-week spell.
This year however things are different as we have a first round championship match against Clare on June 1st which is at least two weeks earlier than we were out last year.
While I’m not for a minute saying that we shouldn’t try to go as far as we can in the league or even win it if we can, the priorities of this year’s league are different.
Number one priority must be to continue our search for new young players of the calibre of Stephen Molumphy, Aidan Kearney and Shane Walsh.
These players provided a great boost and freshened up our style of play last year and this approach scouring for new players must be continued.
COMPETITION IS VITAL
While we did have a very good year last year, I think it’s fair to say that some of our bigger name players will look back on their performances in ’07 with a tinge of disappointment. Therefore it is vital that we have as much competition for places as we possibly can and the league is the place to start this process.
This leads us on to Sunday’s game against Wexford. We all remember last year when we beat them easily on the scoreboard in the opener in Wexford Park. However on the day had Wexford’s forwards been less wasteful in front of goal it could have been a different story altogether.
This time around Wexford are facing into their second season under John Meyler and they will be hoping to build on what was a good opening year for him in charge (they got to the semi-final of the league, the Leinster Final and the All-Ireland semi-final - and were beaten by Kilkenny in each one). But to be fair most teams would have struggled to beat Kilkenny on any of those occasions last term. So let’s not take Sunday’s game too lightly.
Having said that let’s hope that Sunday is our first outing of a year which will hopefully bring us all the way to Croke Park come early September.
HARTY CRACKER IN PROSPECT Having won the Harty and Croke Cups last year, De La Salle are looking good again this year. They lost a lot of last year’s side but against expectations they seem to be repeating their run of this time in 2007.
Next up in their way is an all Waterford semi-final against Colaisti na nDeise from the West of the county. These sides met back in the group stages and on the day DLS won comprehensively but on that day Colaisti na nDeise had to play without their Dungarvan contingent, while De La Salle had the benefit of their Ballygunner players in the week that those two clubs met in the county minor hurling final.
Therefore I expect it to be a whole lot closer this time around as both colleges have had very good campaigns and big quarter-final wins since they last met.
But isn’t it great that whatever way this match goes, we will have a Waterford team in the Harty Final once again this year.
FITZGIBBON CUP
Wasn’t it great to see WIT back to winning ways in the Fitzgibbon Cup last week against a strong UL team in Limerick. This year’s competition is on a league basis with two teams to come out of each group this was a huge game for them as this week they are up against the favourites and reigning champions, LIT in Waterford.
From what I hear this year the college team are not laden down with ‘so called’ stars but with this victory they have shown that they should not be written off.
In recent years they have a great record in this great competition and I wouldn’t bet against them going close again this year. THE LATE JOHN QUIRKE Lastly, I could not finish this piece without mentioning the death of John Quirke.
I had the pleasure of knowing and playing with and against this huge man for many years and I can safely say that he was as big in personality as he was in stature.
I played alongside him the day he went on a scoring spree against Cork in Fermoy in the NHL. Fermoy was more or less John’s hometown and he took great pleasure in rattling the Rebel’s net on a number of occasions that day.
Go ndeine Dia trócaire ar a anam dílis.
