Waterford flex muscles

GAELIC GAMES:No lap of honour. No high fives. No garlands flung from the high seats. Waterford ended their tango with Cork in Croke Park yesterday and left it at that. Nobody needs a long memory to recall when Waterford would have jitterbugged themselves dizzy at the mere mention of going to the big dance in September. Yesterday they just shrugged and went back to working on the serene steadiness of their focus.

They advance to another All-Ireland semi-final, their fifth in a decade, and are spared the task of having to beat one of the ruling duopoly to go further. Beating Limerick next Sunday would see them to an All-Ireland final for the first time since 1963.

As a game this was decent and nourishing without ever refreshing the parts last week's game reached. The sides were level 10 times in the first 55 minutes but whereas the final quarter of an hour in the drawn game was a distillation of all that has been best of the recent relationship between the sides, yesterday's conclusion was all about Waterford flexing their muscles.

It wasn't beautiful, but this was a key chapter in the uplifting biography of this Waterford team. They didn't play as well as in last week's drawn classic or as well as on other occasions this year, but when the time was right they stepped up, took the key scores and closed out the game.

Almost inevitably, should they squeeze into the final their superpower neighbours Kilkenny will be waiting for them there just as they have been on the last three occasions Waterford have got that far. That's a concern for another day though.

Waterford have been getting through this epic season one mountain at a time. No pausing to enjoy the views at various peaks, to survey the land behind or the climbs ahead. Work is their watchword and their daily bread.

Their ethic is personified of course in the dedication and commitment to improvement of Dan Shanahan. Once scarcely taken seriously by the sciolists on the ditch, Dan has become the central character of this summer's drive. Yesterday he managed the great hurlers' trick of being the difference between the two sides without playing especially well. He scored 2-1 off maybe half-a-dozen clean possessions of the ball. Each goal was a picture moment so judiciously executed were the shots.

Dan's stats thus move from the realm of the impressive to the region of the unlikely. He has eight championship goals this summer. In four games against Cork, including the National League semi-final in April and three championship matches, he has taken the vaunted Cork defence for six goals. Having failed to score a goal in his first six seasons as a championship hurler he has scored 19-36 in his 19 games since 2004.

Nobody comes close.

For Cork this defeat undoubtedly leaves them at a crossroads. The nucleus of the side hand-reared by Jimmy Barry Murphy late in the last century is still there but the mileage on the clock is considerable. Yesterday they started well with three points in the first seven minutes and a couple of goal chances to regret, but when Waterford really opened up and played, Cork had nothing left.

Not that Waterford haven't big mileage run up also, but hunger keeps a team young.

Cork found themselves in an unusual position these past two Sundays. Having built a team on the concrete solidity of their defence they gave away five goals, a haemorrhage that left them struggling in other areas.

Yesterday Gerald McCarthy replaced four of his starting forwards and must have wished at times that Mrs O'Connor of Newtownshandrum had produced quintuplets instead of twins all those years ago.

Waterford will have been quietly pleased not just by their ability to survive their own fallibility, expressed yesterday through mistakes and not as in former times by self-doubt, and they will have noted the demographic spread of effort throughout the team. Stephen Molumphy was television's "man of the match", having set up both goals and worked heroically throughout; it was hard to argue. Brian Phelan at corner back had a splendid afternoon. And in the second half when his side needed something extra, Michael "Brick" Walsh provided it, and two fine points, from midfield.

The marquee names all chipped in too. Tony Browne eclipsed Pa Cronin for the second time in a week.

Ken McGrath got to grips with Timmy McCarthy after the latter's bright start (stained by two wides) and John Mullane, pumped and hungry, and Eoin Kelly took responsibility for key scores.

Barring replays this splendid hurling summer has two games left in it, and whatever happens the All-Ireland final will see novel and popular challengers tussling with Kilkenny for the crown.

Justin McCarthy, standing under the Hogan stand afterwards as his team filed toward the players' lounge for a few quiet sasparillas, placed the times in their context.

"You are seeing hurling at its best now, to be honest about it," he said. "I was here 41 years ago playing in an All-Ireland final. And all the great players? We were told all about them, that they'd played in the '30s and '40s and before.

"But the best players are here now; they are the best players of all time. Cork too and Kilkenny. At the highest level. The level is so high it is nearly at breaking point. This is a different ball game. The best hurlers are there now.

"That's the reality. I've been here for 40 years and I wasn't asleep. I've been awake every day for those 40 years of hurling. I know I can give a good honest opinion."

And on another sodden day in this damp joke of a summer McCarthy's words were an encouragement to enjoy it all and count the blessings.

These are the best of times for the best of games.