Waterford 4.20 – 1.23 Cork
Four Waterford captains have claimed the National League. John Meaney, Michael “Brick” Walsh, Kevin Moran, and now, Conor Prunty, as the Abbeyside man lifts the Cup in Thurles.
It’s a third national final for Liam Cahill and Waterford, but the first one they’ve come away from with the goods in tow.
The first half was end to end, fast-paced, and at times messy, but Waterford led by six points at the break. The Deise were good value for their lead, while Cork had not turned up to any satisfactory standard.
Waterford didn’t play beyond their abilities early on, albeit they were clinical when they got their chances, and really as bad as Cork looked, Waterford didn’t allow them to play. Conor Prunty made life hell for Patrick Horgan, and Tadhg De Búrca was similar on Shane Barrett.
Shaun O’ Brien was called on twice and answered both of those calls. Alan Connolly in one instance looked a near certainty to raise a green flag, but the DLS man somehow stopped the ball with the twilight flickering across his eyeline making it very hard to see what was coming at him.
Dessie Hutchinson was reasonably quite for the first half but performed his role well keeping the Cork defence with one eye on who had the ball, and one eye on the Ballygunner man who wanted it.
The game got started in wild fashion. Stephen Bennett found himself down the right flank and shot for the sticks. The umpire went to hawkeye with the shot called wide – if the TV graphic was to be believed, well wide. Seconds later Shane Barrett’s shot hit the upright, dropped dangerously, and fell for Patrick Horgan who could have shot for goal, but pointed for safety. A hectic and uneasy opening three minutes. With nothing going to script early on, the nailed-on and precise free taker Patrick Horgan shot wide from what would normally be a sure thing for the Glen Rovers man. Stephen Bennett got his radar dialed in after six minutes when he pointed from the left-wing, making it look routine.
The intent was there from Waterford early on. No Cork man was going to have an easy day with Neil Montgomery chasing down a Cork attack to regain possession – they did lose it again, but the idea was there from the Abbeyside man early on.
Patrick Horgan came to realise that the Deise captain Prunty was going to make his life hard at every opportunity – the Abbeyside defender marshaled the Glen Rovers ace, ending up on his belly with Prunty clearing easily.
With Shaun O’ Brien left minding the goalmouth with the sun in his eyes, a Tim O Mahony dropping ball fell right into the danger zone after a quarter-hour, but the De La Salle shot-stopper batted it away to keep the ball moving towards the correct end of the pitch.
Cork had started to get a grip on the game after 20 minutes, scoring three of four points from play in what looked like a potential turning of the tide. Well, that tide was about to come up against a major breakwater as Abbeyside and Dungarvan linked up through Michael Kiely and Patrick Curran for the first green flag of the evening.
While Cork were still reeling from the sudden change in fortunes, a bad situation was about to get worse. Neil Montgomery took the ball on, ran right at the heart of the Cork defence, bided his time, and timed his pace to perfection for a waiting Stephen Bennett. The Ballysaggart man – who is at the very peak of his powers – was never going to miss.
Two goals in about 30 seconds. A six-point swing in Waterford’s favour and a hell of a lot of work for Kieran Kingston’s men in the second half.
Cork found themselves in a near-identical scoring chance before the break with Shane Barrett in front of goal and not a defender between him and Shaun O’ Brien, but O Brien batted it away - not once but twice - to deny the Rebels. Waterford retained the six-point lead.
Waterford pounced on a careless Cork touch just before halftime. Patrick Curran could have went for goal, and undoubtedly Liam Cahill would have loved to see the Dungarvan man shoot for the net, but he went high for Waterford’s eleventh score.
Liam Gordon sounded the halftime whistle with Waterford well and truly in the ascendency.
Cork had four chances to shoot at the post within the first two minutes of the resumption. Nobody took the chance, and Carthach Daly being fouled aimlessly gave the ball to Stephen Bennett who pointed easily.
Shane Kingston had started the second half in place of Alan Connolly. While Connolly had found the going hard, and failed to make an impact on the game – it was Kingston’s first touch that got him on the scoreboard, the manager's son would go on to score again minutes later. Another awkward conversation in the Kingston family home on Sunday.
Stephen Bennett, who like a fine wine, gets better with every game, was at his absolute pomp in Thurles. At one point in the second half he had Ciarán Joyce crawling all over him – but he rose into the air to field a ball that should never have hit a Waterford hand. He made his eleventh score of the evening off the back of it.
Waterford could have been well out of the sight by the 44th minute. If the referee had been a bit slower with his whistle we would be talking about a lovely sequence of play between Neil Montgomery and Patrick Curran but a free had been given for Waterford a blink of the eye before Curran struck for goal.
It took Cork until the 43rd minute to score in the second half. They looked to be beaten and short on options. A Patrick Horgan free was all they had to work on by that stage.
On WLR’s Big Match commentary, former Deise boss Michael Ryan felt that the Waterford legs were tiring, but as he admitted Stephen Bennett proved him wrong. A moment of pure magic saw him pick up the ball on the right well outside the D, he ran cross-field to the left and struck towards the bottom right corner of Patrick Collins’ net. An unreal bit of skill from a man who is at this early point of the season worth considering for hurler of the year.
While Bennett had done so much to take that green flag, it was nullified by Cork within four minutes as Cork would hit three consecutive unanswered points, but Waterford did still lead by 6.
Kieran Kingston had started emptying his bench early in the second half – with three attacking players brought on for a change (Jack O Connor for Conor Lehane, Shane Kingston for Alan Connolly, and Conor Cahalane for Seamus Harnedy) while Cahill held tight until later. Waterford legs were offering a little bit less but they were still holding Cork at bay.
With 6 or 7 minutes left on the referee’s watch, Waterford led by four points. Carthach Daly decided it was time to make that advantage grow. He ran down the centre of pitch rode the Cork tackle and hand passed to Dessie Hutchinson, who as always only needed one chance to strike past Patrick Collins to extend the lead back to seven.
Having scored 2.10 in the first half, Liam Cahill’s team replicated their performance in the second, again scoring 2.10.
A first league title since 2015 for the Deise and a marker laid down for the Championship when Tipperary come to Walsh Park on April 17th. The first of three national titles for 2022 has been sown up with Waterford drawing first blood. The focus now shifts to Munster and the chance at claiming provincial honours.
