A further small excerpt from Conor Power’s forthcoming hurling book:
The Waterford News & Star’s report on July 31st looked forward with some relish to the September All-Ireland final and reflected the confident mood in Waterford as well as the choice of opponents:
“Equally certain is the fact that, given the choice of opponents for this year’s final, Waterford, to a man, would plump for Kilkenny. The disappointment of ’57 is still fresh in the memory of Waterford, and now they have a golden opportunity of reversing the decision of that fateful year. Defeating Kilkenny in the final would add extra lustre to the big gold medal with the harp in the centre.”
Well done! Ald R Jones Mayor of Waterford congratulates Ned Power
The front page carries a great photo of my dad – looking his most handsome, I think – shaking the hand of the Mayor of Waterford just after the Munster final against Cork. The mayor is looking very smooth in a fine suit and hat. My dad is obviously saying something to him; it looks like his thanking him for his kind wishes, but the mayor’s eyes are wide and looking straight into the camera lens. I don’t know what kind of person the mayor was, but in this shot he looks the epitome of the politician who has just found a great photo-opportunity.
Meanwhile, the Waterford team continued their preparations for the big final. Training in those days was a very different approach to the semi-professional style of preparation that teams engage in nowadays. Training at an official level consisted of preparing players physically for the match, but had nothing to do with honing their skills. For that, some of the players who were perfectionist in nature took it upon themselves to literally train themselves. Midfielder Philly Grimes was one of them and so was my father and the two would often engage in setting up end-of-match do-or-die scenarios, testing one another on their respective skills.
Training nights would normally take place in Waterford, or occasionally in the Fraher Field in Dungarvan. All members of the 1959 team speak of the special bonding that the team had. One important element of that bonding was that the men from the west of the county would usually travel together in a hackney car that was invariably driven by Mick Curley (who himself of course had been a goalkeeper on the Waterford panel on the 1948 All-Ireland winning team). Austin Flynn remembers how important a part those trips played in the bonding process:
‘Part of that process – although it might seem strange now – was the hackney driver. Fellas didn’t have cars at that time, so you had Mick Curley of Tallow bringing Ned and they’d be picking us up in Dungarvan going to training. So there was always a laugh and a joke and we felt very free with each other. Now, we thought that that was normal but it was years afterwards that somebody told me about other teams where people travelling in the same car weren’t on the same wavelength at all…’
“My Father: A Hurling Revolutionary, the life and times of Ned Power” is out on paperback at the end of November 2009. Click here for further information, pre-order and excerpt.