'Dan? He's a bit of a legend isn't he?'

Not now Dan. Not now. We fretted yesterday as to whether Dan Shanahan, the most garrulous and open of post-match quotes suppliers, had gone Hollywood on us. Dan put his bag on to the team bus, pulled his trademark baseball cap down over his face and made his way quickly to the VIP lift without so much as throwing a bone to the paparazzi pack.

We couldn't talk to him, so we talked about him instead.

"Dan is so cool the way he waits for the chance," said Waterford manager Justin McCarthy. "Dan Shanahan's two goals really were the difference between the two teams. Our fellas tried very hard to keep Dan under wraps today but in fairness he came up with two goals," said Gerald McCarthy.

"Yeah, Dan has done the business," said Ken McGrath.

"Dan? He's a bit of a legend isn't he?," said Stephen Molumphy.

Really for today and for the rest of the summer it could be all Dan, all the time. Eight championship goals and eight championship points from four games, not one of which was in the qualifiers against tomato-can opposition, give Dan a scoring average from play of eight points per game. With a record like that Dan Shanahan could buy his way on to any team in history. Yesterday was about more than one man however, especially as that one man had scored 2-1 without playing as well as he can.

Justin McCarthy saw lots of other things that gladdened his heart and looked ahead to things which would set it racing. "The backs were great today. Cork scored no goals. There is a bigger game next week. We know from Munster that Limerick were very hard to get over. We will have to be at our best again. Cork is done and dusted. Limerick is a game in itself. We have to be on our toes. If Waterford are to have success we will have to do it the hard way."

Three successive Sundays in Croke Park playing knockout hurling. A good thing or a bad thing?

"Well," said Justin, "we like games. This team is mad for hurling. They are down the field at night. We train at half six and they are down there at half five. They don't want to come off the field at the end. There is huge enthusiasm there. That's not an issue."

Justin's friend and counterpart Gerald McCarthy was on his way to the Waterford dressingroom to offer his congratulations and best wishes. Friendship and Waterford's season of excellence served as anaesthetics on a difficult day. "We fought very hard. It wasn't to be our day. In fairness you would have to say Waterford were the better team on the day. The spurt they put in the second half really gave them the lift they needed at that time and it eases the pain a bit when you know you were beaten by a better team."

Cork had begun promisingly but succumbed slowly to Waterford's impressive power.

"Maybe our goal chances came too early. We were a little cold. We did open up their backs and it was looking pretty good for us but Waterford came to grips pretty well with our full-forward line. They played a good brand of hurling. They moved the ball intelligently to each other. The forwards themselves move very well off the ball. Everyone in Cork, every man, woman and child I would say, will now be supporting Waterford and hoping they can go on and win an All-Ireland."

And as for Cork? "Cork will recover. Cork have great hurlers coming up and there are great hurlers out there. This isn't the end of Cork hurling."

Molumphy, detained by the TV people to accept the man-of-the-match bauble, a tribute which could be joined by the young hurler of the year award this winter, was ambushed when he emerged from the bright lights. "Justin spoke to us at half-time about how we were only in second gear, how we had a lot more in us. He said, step it up. We did that. We had hunger on our side. I would say that spurt we had in the second half (from the 55th to the 63rd minute Waterford scored 1-4 for the loss of a point) was what we needed to push up. We were hungrier. We wanted this. We are waiting 40 years for this. Every match to us is like an All-Ireland final."

And any sense that, having beaten Cork in a big game in Croke Park, Waterford have come over the mountain top and can start enjoying life? "No! We have a big battle next week. We have been here before. We need to make this extra step. Every game is the biggest game for us. It's something new. The last step. It means everything to get to an All-Ireland final. We have one more mountain to climb. We faced Limerick in the Munster final and only the last few minutes separated us. We know it will be a ferocious battle. All or nothing."

Ken McGrath, who has been on the forbidding north face of many final mountains without seeing a peak, stuck with the same theme. "We have a bigger game next Sunday. We didn't hurl in the first half today. There was a bit of tension and things weren't flying. In the second half we upped it. A lot of lads did the business. Molumphy got man of the match on the Sunday Game I think. It's great for a young fella. This is our fifth semi-final. Every year is different, if you kept thinking about past failures you'd give up hurling altogether. Next Sunday is our biggest test."