If the Waterford senior hurling team was a man instead of an actual group of men, then it would go to sleep every night after a feed of bla and porter and dream of holding the All-Ireland Cup.

But there would always be a monster in that dream and it would turn to a nightmare.  The monster would be a fit, rough and skillful being dressed in black and amber.

Last year’s final was like a really unpleasant dream.  I was at the match and was speechless for much of it.  After 5 minutes, I was looking at the scoreboard and thinking “Okay, we could do with a goal now to steady the ne-…. D’oh!”  Then after another few mintues:  “Jesus Christ! We’re 10 points down already! If we could only get 2 goals now, we’d be back in contention.  Tack on a few-… D’oh! Another %&$*ing goal!  Are we really 13.. D’oh!  14 points d… D’oh!  Seventeen points!  How are we going to get back from this… D’oh!  Another goal ?  I don’t believe it.”

After that, things got really bad and my mind stopped fucntioning altogether.  I didn’t expect to be reliving this sort of trauma again.  Back in the early 1980’s, there was a threatened resurgence from Waterford.  They made it to 2 Munster finals in a row at a time when you had to get out of Munster to have a chance of progressing any further.  I went to both matches and both matches ended in massacre.

So to this coming Sunday.  I don’t know what Ned Power would make of it all.  He would probably say something like:  “I’m afraid, they won’t win anything this year.” before adding “Still, you’d never know.”

Catching them on a semi-final day instead of a final day will give them some sort of fighting chance, so I’m hopeful.  I hope that the referee is strong and cuts out the sort of brutish behaviour that sneaks its way into players from all counties unless it’s suppressed by a strong referee.

Up the Deise!

“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.