A step at a time but final focus is clear

Interview Waterford captain Eoin KellyIn the week before the biggest game of his career to date, Eoin Kelly is hounded, quizzed, recognised on the street, and told this is the year to win the All-Ireland. When you're only 23 and carrying the captaincy of a Waterford hurling team widely expected to be playing in Croke Park at the end of the summer that's a lot of pressure. As if playing Cork in your first match in the Munster championship wasn't pressure enough.

All the signs are that Kelly isn't just handling the pressure - he's embracing it. When he attended the launch of the hurling championship in Croke Park some people still had to be reminded that he was the Waterford Eoin Kelly, and not the Tipperary Eoin Kelly.

It didn't help when both players were selected on the 2002 All Star team but since then the Waterford Eoin Kelly has gradually made a name for himself. And that's the way he wants it.

"There is huge expectation on Waterford this year," he says, "but to be honest I kind of like that. Some players do and some don't, but I love walking down the street and hearing someone say there goes a Waterford hurler.

"That's what we're playing for. The profile of hurlers has gone huge, and all we want to be doing is performing to our best. There's pressure with that, but I like it. It doesn't bother me at all.

"The important thing is the whole team has the will to win. I wouldn't be there otherwise. We're all trying to win the All-Ireland for Waterford, and hopefully it will be this year.

"And we don't want to let anyone down, not ourselves, or our families, or our fans. They've paid their money to go in and watch the match, so none of us are going in to any match without the will to win."

Kelly's development as a Waterford hurler resembles the rise of a rock 'n' roll band. He got an early break, first coming to prominence on the Mount Sion team that captured the county title in 2000. Two years later he'd collected a Munster hurling medal and his first All Star.

He found it hard to live up to the hype in 2003, though, and, like a true rock star, found himself at the end of some greatly exaggerated stories of over-indulgence. Justin McCarthy dropped him from the panel at the start of last year, but that was the only warning Kelly needed. He's walked the line ever since.

Like most of his team-mates he's versatile enough to move about the field, but if he's not in the half-forward line, his best position is midfield. Kelly is perfectly comfortable talking about Waterford being All-Ireland contenders, because he knows it himself. Two Munster titles in three years has raised the bar, and now they want to clear it.

"Most of this team have got two Munster championship medals now, and there aren't many players in Waterford that even have the one.

"I was listening to Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh on the radio last weekend, and he was tipping us. We've been tipped a few times now over the last couple of years.

"But I don't think that has had anything to do with it, that we'd got it into our head that we were going to win. It's great to hear all the experts say we can win it, but we have to go out and do it, because we know haven't done it outside of Munster.

"And one of the things we have been working on this year is our mental attitude. I know in the Clare game in Croke Park three years ago we started out so well, and then threw away a big lead, and ended up losing.

"And then to start so badly last year against Kilkenny and lose again, well, I think it's been in our heads now that we have to perform in Croke Park.

"If you want to win an All-Ireland you have to perform in Croke Park. If we get back there again that's where we want to do it. There's no All-Ireland title been given out down in Semple Stadium."

Thurles, however, is where Waterford start the defence of their Munster title. Missing out on the play-off phase of the league was a minor setback, but by playing the All-Ireland champions, and the team they beat last year in the Munster final, they won't be long in finding out how their pre-championship preparations have gone.

"I suppose the game of the year last year was the Munster final. I'll never forget it, and as soon as I heard the draw for this year I said, 'Here we go again, another Thriller in Manila'. It should be a cracking game again. Waterford against Cork always are, and I've no doubt it will be the same again this weekend.

"It would have been nice to get three more competitive games in the league. But we just got on with it. We just put the head down, and probably trained even harder than last year."

It could be Sunday afternoon before Waterford supporters will know for sure if Ken McGrath and Paul Flynn will play any role at Semple Stadium, but Kelly dismisses all talk of them being irreplaceable.

"Our panel is not made up of 15 players, or even 13, as some people might say," he says "We have the players to come in. We work as a unit and not as individuals. It would be great to have the big players for every game, but there will always be times when that won't happen."