GAELIC GAMES:Some games grow to fit the occasion they are supposed to grace. Waterford and Limerick are unaccustomed to being asked to uphold the tradition of great Munster hurling finals, and yesterday through a dogged and tight first half it looked as if their honest endeavour just wouldn't be enough.
After the break though, the game defied the rain and the sceptics and caught fire. Waterford duly won their eighth Munster title, their third since 2002, and if the margin of nine points flattered them slightly there were no complaints from the customers.
Limerick, whose road to this final was long and winding and involved three bruising meetings with Tipperary, were beaten on a day when they were never seriously favoured to win. Their own benchmarking will tell them, though, they have made progress, and only for a few fluffed chances early on yesterday the narrative might have been different. They live to fight on in the quarter-finals.
This was a day of odd sights and bizarre visions. Those early birds among the 48,371 who paid in were treated to the sight of a minor final played out between the royal families of Munster: Tipperary and Cork.
The weather, as it has done all summer, refused to co-operate and the terraces were afforested with umbrellas for much of the game. Yet the tough honesty of Limerick's challenge and the persistent charm of Waterford's striving engaged us with increasing strength as the day went on.
As his colleague Paul Flynn had done a few years ago, Dan Shanahan scored 3-3 against Limerick.
Dan's story and his ethic of work, work and more work are almost a parable of Waterford's search for a first All-Ireland since 1959. Derided in his early days as a big, slow player with a moderate third touch, Shanahan has become a top-class forward whose legacy will be plain from the stats he leaves behind.
Yesterday's splurge leaves him with 16 goals in his last 17 championship games going back to 2004.
Shanahan's goals, all three opportunist, snugly fitted the final margin between the two teams, but there was more to Waterford's excellence than one man, and more to Shanahan's own contribution.
His three points were important and fine scores - the first came while he was under pressure out on the right sideline, the third while he was under similar duress out on the left sideline - and he gave the Limerick defence one of the more difficult afternoons they have endured.
As Shanahan was quick to concede though, games like yesterday's aren't won by a single player.
His first goal came at the end of a splendid move. Séamus Prendergast played the sweetest angled pass off the hurl to Stephen Molumphy, who handpassed to Paul Flynn.
The mind's eye was already celebrating Flynn's goal when Limerick's goalkeeper, Brian Murray, pulled off an astonishing save. Shanahan was on hand though to pump the breaking ball into the net and put Waterford two points clear.
There were 19 minutes left but it seemed like a turning point.
Shanahan's final two rapier thrusts came at the and of equally creative passages, a lovely ball from Michael Walsh setting up the second, a fine long pass from Prendergast again creating the third, a goal Shanahan noted with a grin he enjoyed because by then "I was able to relax".
"That," said his manager, Justin McCarthy, "is Dan Shanahan. I've seen him nights in training matches when he might score seven goals . He has the secret around his wrist: Work. Work. Work."
That secret is apparently widely available in Waterford.
The addition of players like Stephen Molumphy and Aidan Kearney has hardened the puritan ethic McCarthy imbues his teams with, and yesterday, though they were required to produce the panache with which they have decorated many games in recent years, Waterford gave us something else: guts and 70-minute commitment.
What aches most in the Déise is the thought of becoming the best team of recent times not to win an All-Ireland final. Indeed all their excellence of the past few years has not brought even a big day out in September.
"It's all about getting to an All-Ireland final for us," said Eoin Kelly, their mercurial forward.
"We'd never get tired of winning Munster titles, but the Waterford public deserves an All-Ireland. We'd fill Croke Park three times over on All-Ireland final day."
To that end the draw for the quarter-finals was made yesterday, and all that became clear was that Waterford will have to continue playing Munster opposition in the short term; they meet the runners-up in the qualifier group currently headed by Cork and Tipperary, who play in Thurles next week.
If form is any guide it would appear Tipperary will lose that one and face Waterford.
On the other side of the draw, Kilkenny, the All-Ireland champions and recently crowned Leinster winners, seem likely to play Galway, who were beaten by Clare on Saturday night in Ennis.
For Waterford, yesterday in Semple Stadium was a day of affirmation, and their progress and delirium were marked more than anything by 20 minutes either side of the final whistle.
While the game was still on, they closed out business in ruthless fashion. When it was over, they accepted the trophy and got back to thinking about September without any trace of delirium or exultation.
New provincial champions Waterford not out of the Munster woods just yet
In all likelihood, newly crowned Munster champions Waterford will have to overcome Tipperary, Cork and Kilkenny to win the 2007 All-Ireland hurling title.
Yesterday evening's quarter-final draw revealed they will play the losers of next Saturday's final Group 1B game between Cork and Tipperary, while the winners will face the Leinster runners-up, Wexford.
The other half of the draw sees Kilkenny play Galway, providing they beat Antrim on Saturday to finish second in Group 1A, in the quarter-final, with Munster runners-up Limerick up against the group winners - which will be Clare if they, as is generally expected, account for Laois in their last qualifier game.
The quarter-finals will be played over the last two weekends of this month.
The draw is laid out so the Munster and Leinster champions cannot meet until the All-Ireland final.
In round two of the football qualifiers, Derry received a home tie against last year's All-Ireland finalists Mayo as their reward for their surprise victory over Joe Kernan's Armagh yesterday.
Paddy Crozier's team produced a dramatic 0-10 to 0-9 victory that goes down as the biggest upset of the season, considering Armagh went into the game as third favourites to win the All-Ireland.
Mayo saw off Cavan 1-19 to 3-7 on Saturday night.
After their extra-time victory over Leitrim, the National League champions, Donegal, must travel to Mullingar to play Westmeath, after Tomás Ó Flatharta's men avenged a defeat earlier in the season to Longford.
Kildare host Louth in an all-Leinster fixture, while Meath will encounter further Ulster opposition, after beating Down, with Fermanagh going to Páirc Tailteann in Navan.
Fermanagh beat Wexford 1-12 to 1-8 over the weekend.
All the round-two fixtures take place next weekend. Times and dates will be confirmed later today.
The winners progress to the third round to play the provincial runners-up - Galway, Cork, Dublin or Laois and Tyrone or Monaghan.
The Leinster and Ulster football finals take place this coming Sunday.
-- Gavin Cummiskey
