1:53am, Sunday, November 29th, 2020: In the door home, the dogs are walked and fed and my mind is still racing.
Did that just happen? Did I just see that in the flesh? Was I one of the fortunate handful of Waterford natives who witnessed a Déise hurling team sensationally haul an All-Ireland Senior Semi-Final out of the ashes against our illustrious, heavily decorated neighbours from across the River Suir? Waterford 2-27 Kilkenny 2-23. Holy Moses.
The elation of this significant moment will fade. Of course it will. There’s still an All-Ireland Final to be played on December 13th. But right now, in this godawful bloody year, we Waterfordians can pleasurably hit the pause button and luxuriate in the greatest 35-minute display in our hurling history: Waterford 2-17 Kilkenny 0-12.
This was the most devastating half of hurling Waterford has ever produced at Croke Park, attaining a level of excellence that we press boxers envisaged potentially materialising in the wake of Minor and Under-21 All-Ireland victories in 2013 and 2016.
In both those seasons, Sean Power’s youngsters produced some sensational passages of play to bring home silverware that hadn’t come Waterford’s way for decades. They swashbuckled their way to glory, thus allowing fans to dream of landing the big one at long, long last.
At the heart of so much that energised those sides were the stellar talents of Stephen Bennett and Austin Gleeson in addition to the physical presence of Conor Prunty and the ceaseless work rate of Darragh Lyons. At Croke Park last night, all four made hefty contributions to an All-Ireland semi-final like no other previously held in the redeveloped stadium.
Like Maria Callas singing to an empty auditorium or Richard Burton performing Hamlet to a deserted theatre, Waterford engineered a stunning recovery that in any other year would have had tens of thousands of supporters out of their seats.
This group of players reached a performance zenith that no Waterford side in near memory has ever come close to reaching. That this was the greatest senior team performance at HQ since Frankie Walsh ascended the steps of the then new Hogan Stand to lift the MacCarthy Cup 61 years ago is inarguable. Despite a sensational contribution by Kilkenny talisman TJ Reid, a man born for a stage such as this, Waterford still did enough to bring about an about turn which, at half-time, looked highly unlikely.
Kilkenny punished several Waterford errors in the opening half, with goals from Martin Keoghan and, inevitably, Reid, helping steer them into a nine-point lead by the 31st minute. In hindsight, Waterford critically landed three of the half’s remaining four points to go in at the break trailing by 2-11 to 0-10.
While they still had skin in the game, there’d been little to indicate that they could not only stem the Kilkenny flow but fully reverse the tide. Yet that’s exactly what they did, due in no small part to the brilliance of Stephen Bennett and Austin Gleeson.
What they catalysed defied the history of this particular head-to-head and all known logic – but by God was it magical.
Bennett, who spoke openly to the press during the week (debunking another myth about such duties negatively impacting on performances), has taken on the talisman’s role with aplomb following Pauric Mahony’s knee injury.
The additional responsibility heaped on the Ballysaggart attacker hasn’t remotely fazed him and seeing him cut loose like this in Croke Park was akin to watching Paul Flynn, Dan Shanahan and John Mullane leaving opponents with twisted blood during the McCarthy era.
Gleeson’s second half showing was majestic. When his team was in choppy waters during the opening half, the Mount Sion came deep and demonstrated a willingness to make himself as relevant as possible to proceedings. Talk about leadership.
Gleeson in the opposing half of the paddock is an altogether more effective weapon for Waterford: as Jamie Wall rightly pointed out on ‘Second Captains’ during the week, ‘Aussie’ in attack has less geography to work with when it comes to long, mazy runs.
While this constraint has led to more prudent shooting options, Gleeson has also demonstrated a willingness to put ball into the paths of Jack Prendergast and Dessie Hutchinson, thus helping the Waterford attack to oscillate.
This had made Liam Cahill’s team harder to read from an opposing defence’s perspective and it’s also made them a more dangerous attacking unit as their 2020 Championship scoring level demonstrates: 1-28, 0-21, 3-27 and 2-27, a stunning 6-103 (121 point) haul to date.
Gleeson and Bennett have the ability to sprinkle stardust on any game and with such willing and potentially dangerous fellow forwards such as Jack Fagan, Dessie Hutchinson and Jack Prendergast capable of producing major plays of their own, Waterford look very, very dangerous.
From the bench, Niall Montgomery made a superb impression as did Darragh Lyons and both have firmly put their hands up with the All-Ireland Final in mind.
With the disappointment of that closing quarter in the Munster Final surely still irking them, Waterford were determined not to let a winning opportunity slip at Croke Park, although the superb TJ Reid ensured the contest remained in the balance heading into injury-time.
Critically and primarily thanks to Conor Prunty and Tadhg de Búrca, the offensive threat Kilkenny carried during the opening half never came close to replicating itself after the break, with the Cats largely dependant on Reid’s free taking to keep them in touch.
In his match programme contribution, Enda McEvoy wrote: “A knockout championship with only the one second chance (sounds like an oxymoron but you get the drift) for everyone affords a certain amount of scope for someone to come barrelling out of left field. In Championship 2020 Liam Cahill’s Waterford have been that team, a delightful and necessary blast of fresh air. They saw off Cork, something that remains an achievement for any Déise outfit, if only on the grounds of history. They performed far better against Limerick than either Clare or Tipperary had done.
"They had nine points in hand over Clare and were worth every point of it. They’re here this weekend because they deserve to be. It is hardly pushing it to suggest that regardless of the outcome of the first semi-final, Cahill’s Waterford will be heard of again.” You’ve got that right, Enda – and then some.
A golden generation of Waterford hurlers, many already with All-Ireland minor and Under-21 winners’ medals on their sideboards, are just one last push away from completing a clean sweep. What a winter they’ve already given us. Now they’re just 70 minutes from hurling immortality. But, for now, as this early morning grows somewhat later, we can bathe in the glory and quality that the men of Waterford produced at Croke Park last night. Oh, what a night…
Great piece, Dermot. What a night, What a team, Deise Abu