Déise can rally after ‘huge bump in road’ says captain Kevin Moran

What to do with being a Waterford hurler this week? Heroes after recovering from the league final defeat to banish Clare when it really mattered, they then flatly refused to face Tipperary in a Munster final in Thurles.

They paid for it on a level everyone, including themselves, presumed was a meltdown confined to history. In actual fact, Tipperary made light of their famed sweeper system to inflict the same margin of defeat (21 points) in 2016 as happened in 2011.

No way being a Waterford hurler has been too hot a privilege during this fortnight journey, which ends with a resurgent Wexford waiting in Semple stadium on Sunday afternoon.

"I suppose in 2011 it was a completely different team, completely different personnel now," says Kevin Moran of that seven-goal humiliation.

Moran, of course, remembers the experience up close and personal.

“2011 was worst to be honest because conditions were perfect, yet we were under the cosh from the first minute.

“I don’t think this was a system failure.”

Now he has two horrid days to sit alongside two Munster titles, for club and county.

Embarrassing

“We just have to park it. It was a bad half an hour at the office. We have to go back to what’s served us well in the last two years.”

But more questions than answers linger in the wake of the 5-19 to 0-13 Gaelic Grounds massacre (as it will forever be now known).

“Obviously the magnitude of defeat is more disappointing, nearly embarrassing, for the players and backroom team and family and friends because people just didn’t see it coming.

“We have to accept it, learn from it.”

It’s the goals that don’t add up. Waterford under Derek McGrath had seemingly made a promise to themselves to ensure the type of goals scored by Tipperary, by Kilkenny, by teams that win silverware year upon year, would not be the allowed anymore. They promised to unsettle the status quo of hurling.

Shatter system

And then came five Tipp goals to shatter the Waterford sweeper system, which, as Moran explains, does not actually exist.

“People have been giving us this label of sweeper, but we don’t actually play with a sweeper system. We just try to get back and pack the spaces and protect our defenders. It just didn’t work (against Tipperary), it just didn’t happen and they caught us out four or five times. They were sucker-punches each time.

“It was strange to be honest with you.

“Not conceding goals was something we were conscious of not doing, so when five goes in in one day you are scratching your head going ‘what’s going on here?’

“Look, it is what it is.”

What was it though? "They had a strong wind with them in the second half and Darren Gleeson just hit 100-yard puck outs up high into the air, very difficult to catch, and they were on the breaks, they were feeding the runners on the outside.

“We have to look at ourselves and ask why weren’t we following those runners and I can’t quite put my finger on it but we have to learn from our lesson.”

A victory for hurling perhaps? Too cruel?

“I don’t know how that could be a victory for hurling – when a team is hammered like that,” argued the 29-year-old.

“A team which has come from nowhere in the last number of years to be quite competitive and bringing some exceptional young hurlers onto the scene. No, I wouldn’t agree with that to be honest.

“We can’t let it define our season,” Moran continued. “It is a huge bump in the road but there is no point dressing it up in any other way.

“We are still in the All-Ireland series; we can still put in a huge performance against Wexford.

“It is everything for us really. We have to get everything right. We have to stop the threat they have in the likes of Conor McDonald, Lee Chin and Liam Óg McGovern. It is important that we work hard. Get the Munster final out of the system as it is a huge opportunity to get back to Croke Park for an All-Ireland semi-final.”

That, and perhaps only that, should bring the supporters back in their droves. Only 26,000 made the journey to Limerick.

“The Waterford people have been hugely supportive of this team and I sure Sunday they will travel to see us against Wexford.”