Waterford have secured their passage back to Croke Park for an All-Ireland final for the first tie since 2017 having beaten Kilkenny 2-27 to 2-23 at GAA HQ last night.
Liam Cahill’s men trailed the Cats by seven points at half time with Kilkenny striking the net on two occasions either side of the water break thanks to Martin Keoghan and the imperious TJ Reid.
Stephen Bennett proved to be the force keeping the Deise in the game with the Ballysaggart man’s five first-half frees keeping some respectability on the scoreboard. Ballyduff Lower’s Callum Lyons has surely sealed an All-Star already, but his charging runs into the heart of the Kilkenny defence made all the difference throughout the first half of play.
Only the fly on the wall and the team of players will know what Deise boss Cahill had to say for his halftime lecture as the men in blue and white emerged for the second half ready to claim back the deficit they had earned in the first half.
The second half fightback against their South East neighbours saw Waterford outscore Kilkenny 2-17 to 0-12 with that man Stephen Bennett again proving his worth, hitting the back of the net on 37 minutes.
Having put in a mostly quiet first half, Mt Sion’s Austin Gleeson began to find his groove in the game and contributed some spectacular scores throughout the 3rd and 4th quarters, while Jack Prendergast and Shane McNulty also made themselves known up and down the Croke Park surface.
As it last ten minutes began, the Dungarvan man Darragh Lyons rattled the net to put Waterford ahead by five – a lead that the Deise men who not relinquish.
Despite the efforts of Ballyhale’s TJ Reid and his superb free taking – taking 1-14 in all (12 from frees) it wasn’t enough to real in the men from Suirside.
Speaking after the game, the Deise boss Liam Cahill wouldn’t indulge the media on what it was that he’d said to light a fire under his charges, “it wasn’t down to anything dramatic I can assure you that, it was down to the players really. Just our decision making was costing us big time in the first half, we left quite a number of easy plays or chances behind us. I know Kilkenny missed quite a number as well but we seemed just to be off it a little bit, but I thought it was more with our mindset than with our legs”
Asked if the nervousness could be attributed to the poor first-half showing, the Tipperary man was not in agreement, “I don’t think so. Some days fellas are feeling it and some days they’re not. A real good sign today was that fellas didn’t give up on it and that’s the most encouraging part for me that they kept backing themselves and willing and wanting to turn it around – you know, that’s what decent teams are made of and thankfully it worked out and I’m very proud of the players today”
With the stands empty and silence around the players with the only exception being encouragement from teammates and management teams, the atmosphere is very different to knockout championship games that we are used to, Cahill was pleased to have a bit of calm in the stands last night “I can assure you I was happy enough at half time that there was no crowd there because I’m sure I would have got plenty of advice going down the tunnel. It is strange but I think it's not taking from the intensity on the field, you can see that. I don’t know if the people at home can get a proper grasp of it when they’re watching it on the television, but when you’re there on the line and you see the hits that are going in and the ferocity that’s there - its incredible.”
If you want to listen back to the full match commentary you can catch it here
https://open.spotify.com/episode/60IVvgIxmi8Wr5QU4yaDG5?si=lUi0JC-gQRKNHXrWcBGL0Q
