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.<\/p>\n
But there would always be a monster in that dream and it would turn to a nightmare.\u00a0 The monster would be a fit, rough and skillful being dressed in black and amber.<\/p>\n
Last year’s final was like a really unpleasant dream.\u00a0 I was at the match and was speechless for much of it.\u00a0 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!”\u00a0 Then after another few mintues:\u00a0 “Jesus Christ! We’re 10 points down already! If we could only get 2 goals now, we’d be back in contention.\u00a0 Tack on a few-… D’oh! Another %&$*ing goal!\u00a0 Are we really 13.. D’oh!\u00a0 14 points d… D’oh!\u00a0 Seventeen points!\u00a0 How are we going to get back from this… D’oh!\u00a0 Another goal ?\u00a0 I don’t believe it.”<\/p>\n
After that, things got really bad and my mind stopped fucntioning altogether.\u00a0 I didn’t expect to be reliving this sort of trauma again.\u00a0 Back in the early 1980’s, there was a threatened resurgence from Waterford.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I went to both matches and both matches ended in massacre.<\/p>\n
So to this coming Sunday.\u00a0 I don’t know what Ned Power would make of it all.\u00a0 He would probably say something like:\u00a0 “I’m afraid, they won’t win anything this year.” before adding “Still, you’d never know.”<\/p>\n
Catching them on a semi-final day instead of a final day will give them some sort of fighting chance, so I’m hopeful.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
Up the Deise!<\/p>\n
“My Father: A Hurling Revolutionary, the life and times of Ned Power” is out on paperback at the end of November 2009.\u00a0 Click here<\/a> for further information, pre-order and excerpt.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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 … Continue reading