Waterford defender Calum Lyons has said that its time for Waterford to push on and win something.
The All-Star nominee was speaking this week as part of the New York GAA winter webinar series and asked how he stay's motivated throughout the year, the Ballyduff Lower man said "Its time enough now Waterford pushed on and won a bit of silverware. That alone has me motivated anyway. I'm mad to win. Prior to last year, I hadn't won any championship game with Waterford - minor, senior or under 21 - and it had just been heartache after heartache".
Lyons played a large part in heling the Deise side claim a spot in December's All-Ireland final. His goal against Cork ion the championship went a long way towards ending the 1,175-day wait for a win in Munster. With that run of loss after loss being front and foremost in the mind, Lyons wanted to change the perception of Waterford hurling.
"We knew that we weren't that bad to be getting hammerings like we were."
"It was just a mater of us pulling up our socks and kind of saying, who are we? what do we want Waterford hurling to be like?"
"Prior to this year, there was negative talk around Waterford hurling and I suppose I definitely wanted it to change. Motivation comes from that like, it comes from wanting to win, the will to win and obviously the love of the game as well."
"Jesus, my whole life I wanted to play for Waterford and now I'm here, so I may as well push myself to be the best I can be for Waterford."
Without the cup to show for the work, he says that the effort is without meaning - echoing the words of his manager before throw in against Limerick last December.
"You can get to all the All-Ireland finals you want, if you win none, sure they're pointless. All-Ireland finals are for winning, so when you do get there you have to start getting in the mindset of winning them instead of just getting there and being happy with that"
Speaking openly about the level of nervousness that comes with trying to make your mark on the biggest stage, the 24 year old is not one to shy away
"There's a level of anxiety in hurling that a lot of people don't see like. I recall seeing a ball when I was playing Under 21 and thinking 'Oh My God, All I want to do is play for Waterford. Don't mess this up. Don't mess this up'"
"When I'd see the ball in front of me, I'd start going 'Oh My God, Oh My God, there's the ball, there's the ball' instead of just going over and picking it up. Shur no-one else knew what was going on only myself about all this over thinking."
He credits his change from nervousness to confidence to team mate Kieran Bennett. Lyons had been of the mindset during his Under 21 days that "Jesus, there's even billion people watching this now and if you make a mistake the whole place is going to think you're useless".
It was Bennett who helped lift the doubt, telling Lyons that "Its not worth losing sleep over."
"That always stuck with me" says Lyons. "I always tried to remind myself that if you're losing sleep over it, you're in trouble."
