A tiring rendition of a familiar tale
Cork's Tim O'Mahony and Waterford's Darragh Lyons in action.
Last week, I wrote that the result against Cork would either be a catalyst for change or the straw that broke the camel’s back. Another Sunday night trying to make sense of it all, as so the latter has proven.
Once again, you can’t fault effort, you can’t fault application - but margins and breaks simply don’t seem to go the way of Waterford when push comes to shove. You can bemoan that all you like, make all the excuses in the world and try and hypothesise a million different things. I said it last week and I’ll say it again, moral victories don’t win you points and I’d much rather be winning ugly than losing valiantly.
Peter Queally himself said after the match, that it would be great to be able to swap the feeling of pride for the occasional feeling of elation. When we look back on 2026 in a few years’ time, it’s fair to say elation is an emotion that won’t be coming to anyone’s minds.
Context is important - the black cards, the injuries, the saves from Collins, things that go your way some days and other days they don’t. On a personal note, I think Waterford can have little complaint with the black card for Mark Fitzgerald, however I’d argue there did appear to be covering defenders when Jack Fagan received his. Ifs, buts and maybes, either way - I also thought the better team won.
You’ll see elsewhere in the sports section this week my piece on the permutations that will allow Waterford to qualify for the All-Ireland series, but those permutations have one central component that has to happen - which is the Déise going to Limerick and getting a win. Even the most optimistic Waterford supporter in the world would tell you that that is the unlikeliest result of all in the sequence that has to happen for us to somehow qualify.
Waterford’s Munster Championship record against John Kiely’s Limerick doesn’t make for pretty reading. They are still the team to beat and for me, I can’t see anyone else climbing the steps of the Hogan Stand to lift Liam McCarthy later this summer. What they did to Clare was ruthless last time out, and as much as I hope it doesn’t happen - respectfully, would anyone bat an eyelid if they did the same to Waterford? Limerick at 80% beat every other team at 100%.
Every passing defeat, moral victory, gargantuan effort - whatever you want to call it - they all get increasingly gut wrenching as the weeks go on. So near, yet at the same time you feel a million miles away.
With emotion, loyalty and pride - maybe we all look at things with our Waterford glasses on, I know I am certainly guilty of it. Hindsight is a handy thing to have, but when you really think of it - how realistic is it to ask Waterford to qualify from Munster?
Weigh up the five counties as if they were Premier League powerhouses.
Cork are like Arsenal, a force of old back right in the mix for the most coveted prizes. Limerick are Manchester City, a juggernaut who have had the occasional stutter but their collective talent still far outweighs that of the opposition. Tipperary are Manchester United, a force of the past that can still produce a performance when the stakes are heightened, and Clare are like Liverpool - now and again, they’ll win it out with a golden team, but in the intermittency, disrespect them at your peril.
So who are Waterford? Aston Villa? Spurs? Is that what Waterford coming out of Munster would equate to? One of them realistically competing for a Premier League title? Putting it up now and again, but ultimately fading away.
A lot of people have said to me in the last few weeks that the simple reality is that we aren’t good enough. I respect people that have come to that conclusion, but I think the evidence of what we’ve seen in recent weeks still shows Waterford aren’t all that far away. I’m a broken record saying a big win would be a catalyst for something even bigger in time - but that win hasn’t arrived and ultimately the summer will be spent soul searching.
Barring a surprise on Sunday, 2026 ultimately is going to bring another fruitless campaign in Munster and league relegation. That doesn’t happen without reason.
Maybe that’s the hardest truth of all for Waterford supporters to wrestle with right now. It’s not anger, it’s exhaustion. The emotional toll of constantly walking away from big championship days talking about effort, honesty and bravery instead of points on the board. Nobody can question the commitment of this group, but commitment alone doesn’t preserve your passage from Munster and it certainly doesn’t bridge the gap between competing and surviving.
These are trying times for Waterford hurling and it’s only natural that pessimism has started to creep in. Supporters are drained. Every summer seems to follow the same script. A performance arrives that restores belief, then a defeat lands that knocks the wind out of everyone again. The cycle repeats itself so often that people almost begin protecting themselves from hope altogether. That’s where a lot of the county feels at the minute. Not angry, not apathetic - just tired.
For all the talk about margins, refereeing calls, black cards, injuries or luck, Waterford ultimately can only point the finger at themselves when the dust settles on this championship.
The Munster Championship is a cruel beast, probably the most unforgiving competition in sport, but everybody enters it knowing exactly what awaits. Tiny moments decide everything and if you continually leave yourself relying on permutations, favours and miracles elsewhere, eventually the table never lies.
That doesn’t mean Waterford are miles off it. In fact, in patches they’ve shown enough to suggest they are painfully close. But close only counts for so long before hard questions have to be asked. League relegation and another Munster exit cannot be explained away by bad fortune alone.
At some point, the county has to stop talking about nearly arriving and start figuring out why it never fully does. Because in Munster, sympathy gets you nowhere.
Results are all that matter, and they are all that ever will.
Speaking of which, there’s a Munster Camogie final this Saturday where the Déise can create history. There’s a Munster ladies’ football final the following week.
It’s easy to forget, but it’s not all doom and gloom. Bad days are easy to get bogged down in, but they make the glory days all the sweeter.
