Two more games to become All-Ireland champions

One of the new breed, Dan Shanahan, with his number two barber's hair-cut, towers above most people in a Waterford dressing room that is more packed than Heuston Station on match-day. He's half-dressed, and accepting the kind of claps on his bare back from team hangers-on.

"I love this," says Shanahan, one of many inspiring figures in Waterford jerseys on Croke Park's sod just a few minutes earlier. "Last week, in Thurles, there was nobody in the dressing-room and the mood was quite depressed. But this is great, great for the people of Waterford, great for everybody connected with Waterford hurling. This is what it's all about." Winning.

Waterford yesterday rediscovered winning ways, and found it easier than anyone expected. Gerald McCarthy, the manager from Cork who has breathed new belief into the Waterford psyche, has a grin that was robbed from a Cheshire cat.

"When we lost to Clare in the Munster final I told the lads that was the end of one competition, and that we were moving on to a new competition and if we won three games we'd be All-Ireland champions," he says.

Many Waterford supporters would hail McCarthy as a messiah of sorts, but McCarthy is only too willing to pass on the kudos to the team's physio Jason Carberry. "He's a miracle man. He had Tony Browne and Sean Cullinane on the treatment table all week and got them right.

Honestly, when we met for training on Wednesday night, there was no way either of them would have been able to play a match. Look what they did out there today. It was an unbelievable improvement in their condition from the other day.

"Sean's performance shows the calibre of the man. He was a huge loss to us in the match against Clare [the Munster final replay], he was a colossus out there today, magnificent hurling really." McCarthy, however, was keen to pay tribute to Anthony Kirwan, named at full-forward but who lined out at centre-half forward in one of a number of pre-match gambits that paid off.

"Anthony's grandmother died over the weekend and it was a terrible blow to him. He was very upset. But it shows the character of the man that he played that game today. "Overall, it was a very good team performance and I'm delighted with all the lads. I'd said during the week that it was our biggest challenge. Once I had a look at the lads at training last Wednesday and had the meeting with them, I knew they would bounce back after Thurles.

"The one thing I wasn't sure about was Galway's performance. The question mark was whether their lack of real hard games would tell against them, or whether all the hard games would tell against us. It was in the melting pot really, but it came out our way.

"I don't know what capacity this team can reach. I honestly don't, but I do know they are playing very well and they are very, very hungry for success. They're willing to do anything for it. When a team walks into the unknown, you sometimes really don't know what to expect, but I know these lads have it in them to respond in the right way."

Stephen Frampton, the on-field leader of the team, felt they had a point to prove yesterday. "We hadn't played well in our last match and we were very determined."

What about the demands of three championship games in successive weeks? "There was a bit of tiredness, you'd have to expect that after so many hard games. But, I'll tell you, when you're playing that well you just don't feel the tiredness." Waterford's first-half display was, says Shanahan, "an outstanding" performance. "We knew we had to respond in a positive way after losing the Munster final, and I think that was the best way to answer anyone who cast doubts over us."

For a team who've been playing non-stop hurling for much of the past month, yesterday's win means that the summer has been extended although no one is in any doubt that Messrs McCarthy, Galvin, Fives and Ahearne (the coaching brains behind the revival) will find something to occupy their minds and souls in preparation for the semi-final encounter with Kilkenny, a point noted by Paul Flynn. "We've got to focus all our thoughts on Kilkenny now." Quite.