It's fifteen years since the Waterford hurlers beat Limerick at the Gaelic Grounds, a 1-19 to 0-18 win under Justin McCarthy.
On St Valentine's Day 2015, the Déise earned a valuable draw against the Treaty men in Division 1B as Paudie Prendergast hit an injury time equaliser. Three months later, Derek McGrath's side were crowned league champions. Recently retired Waterford forward Brian O'Halloran said that they treated it like a championship game.
"We went back very early that year; we trained very hard in October, November and December. We played Clare in a challenge the week before, a serious enough game, and we were gung-ho for the Limerick game. Derek knew the significance of the league that year, he made no bones about it. It certainly paid off that night, going hard for it."
He feels that Waterford's poor record at the venue is down to the opposition rather than the surroundings. "You can't make any complaints about the field or the dressing rooms or anything like that. I think a lot of days we've come up against a fairly decent Limerick team up there and had a few poor matches against Tipp as well. You can read a lot into grounds but it's a perfect surface and it's a perfect stadium. We've had no excuses, it's not down to the grounds it's just a little hoodoo that we'll have to get over on Saturday night."
O'Halloran is enjoying the spare since he announced his inter county retirement last summer. "Little things like joining a golf club the other day and going to Cheltenham that you wouldn't have time for when you're playing."
Listen back to the full interview with Brian O'Halloran from WLR’s weekly GAA show Lár Na Páirce with thanks to PWC Waterford.
https://www.spreaker.com/user/11231943/larnapaircefebruary14part2
