Big Dan's rise to the occasion makes the wait worthwhile

HE’S BACK. The tats. The cap. The skipping rope grin. Big Dan in the tunnel in Thurles with the microphones around him. A sight you thought you would never see again.

Pleased? “Yeah! To come on and get 10 minutes, six was it? and to make an impact. I was disappointed that I didn’t come on earlier but the lads that came in ahead of me did their jobs. When I got my chance, I said to myself I’d take it and I did. That doesn’t mean that I’ll start the next day but if I can keep doing what I did when I came in, that will do me grand.”

Slightly redundantly we asked him if he had a point to prove? Player of the year two years back. Invisible man ever since. Surely.

“I owe Waterford nothing,” he said defiantly. “It’s my 13th year of county hurling so I don’t think I owe anyone anything. I do it for myself and my family and the lads that are a big thing in my life, inside in the dressingroom there.

“It’s not about me or them – it’s all about us. We’ve been knocked this week in our own county and in other counties. We proved a point today. With 10 minutes to go we were probably beaten, but we came out and won by a point.”

So where have you been? Have you been, how to put it, struggling for form? “I don’t think so. I don’t think I’ve struggled for form this year . . . It’s hard to know. I can’t say what the selectors and management are thinking. All I can do is train hard and work hard and support the lads.

“If I’m not starting, I go around the dressingroom and give the lads the best support I can give them, the younger lads, Noel Connors, Maurice, Shane Casey. Maybe they’ll learn something off me.

“We have a young team, a young panel. The minors won (Munster final), the under-21s won (Munster semi-final). They said hurling was dead in Waterford – it isn’t dead yet.”

And the next day. Now that we know that there will be a next day.

“If I start the next day, well and good. If I don’t, well and good. There’s loads left in the Waterford tank, I can assure you of that. The next day will be different.

“Kilkenny are All-Ireland champions and going for four in a row. They’ll be red-hot favourites. We won’t have any hang-ups. We’ll be underdogs again. Everybody will expect us to be hammered again.”

Davy Fitzgerald’s was another plucked from the lists for redemption. You heard the whispers. Waterford would lose. Fitzy would move on. Cold. He stood with his back to the wall at the end of the long corridor and faced down all comers.

“We’ve received a lot of stick over the last year both as a management and as a team, and I think we answered that today. We fought hard, never gave up the ghost. Things went against us and we kept coming back, kept coming back, kept coming back.

“I’m just delighted Dan came on and got a goal and a point. It’s not been easy sitting for him on the sideline, but he came on and turned the match in the end.”

Has it been tough for Dan sitting on the bench? “It has to be hard for Dan. He was player of the year two years ago, and I can’t say enough about Dan and his training and his effort. It’s incredible. It isn’t a thing that I like to leave him off.

“Whatever the story is, I have to do my job for Waterford. If I feel the best 15 go out on the pitch, that’s what will go out, end of story.”

And the ticklish one saved for the end. Will it be hard to motivate Waterford for a semi-final? Do the words “23 points” ring a bell? He lets his tired face crease into a smile.

“Ah! You have to give me a break. I don’t really want to talk about the semi-final now, I want to talk about today. We’re after playing a helter-skelter of a game outside there, now you’re asking me about Kilkenny: do you want me on the floor altogether? You’ll have to give me a day or two to relax.”

Up the corridor John McIntyre seemed perversely to have more energy left in him than Davy Fitzgerald had. Things were still hitting him. When he wakes up this morning it will be the same.

“With three or four minutes to go I thought we were there. Their goal was crucial and knocked the stuffing out of us having done so much right against the wind. You have to hand it to Waterford. They have put up with so much in the past 12 months.”

We offered McIntyre several chances to give himself a break. Cut loose on the fixtures. Point to the infirmary. He was honourable.

“No recriminations or excuses. We overplayed ball a few times, a few bad wides but those players gave their all for the maroon jersey. I dread waking up in the morning.

“Maybe we lacked the killer instinct but give credit to Waterford, we are not making excuses. It was there for us. We let it slip – that is what will torment management and players. We just didn’t drive through. We left them hanging on and we paid the penalty.”