Dan's eyes are on the prize

There was fire in Dan Shanahan’s eyes in the Granville Hotel on Friday last as we looked ahead to next Sunday’s All-Ireland Hurling Semi-Final meeting with Kilkenny. You sensed he’d have loved it if the match was starting as soon as our conversation ended!
“I think we deserve this bit of luck we’re after getting,” said the Lismore clubman. “You make your own luck in life, we’ve made our own luck and we don’t want our season to end on Sunday week.
“Some people have said to us that, and I disagree 100 per cent, that we’ve already had a successful year on the basis that we’ve won the League, played in a Munster Final and reached an All-Ireland semi-final. That’s a load of nonsense as far as I’m concerned. We want to go out next Sunday week, perform against Kilkenny and if we get a rub of the green have done enough over the 70 minutes to beat them.”
Dan has no time for the defeatist talk, and struck a similar tone to that which Derek McGrath adopted following the Munster semi-final win over Cork. Hurling well and thinking big don’t have to be alien concepts, even in a county crying out for an All-Ireland title.
“And he’s dead right. We have to believe that we can beat Kilkenny and yeah, we might need a bit of luck to do that but we have to believe that. Derek has stressed that to the players, the need to believe in ourselves and that’s worked fairly well so far this year.”
Pitting yourself against the best is what it’s all about, according to the former Hurler of the Year, who said supporters shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that Waterford were still competitive in the Munster Final with six minutes remaining.
“We created two goals chances against Tipp, we had 13 wides, we were beaten by five points that day – and we were very disappointed to have lost that day in Thurles,” he added.
“But we parked it straight away. We went back to the Horse and Jockey, we had our meeting and that was the end of that. And that’s what we had to do.”
A sense of requiring something different in the armoury has been suggested by more than one analyst during Waterford’s Championship run, and for me we saw a subtle change to a more offensive mindset against Dublin.
Was that opening flurry after the second half break the best spell of hurling Waterford have produced to date this year? Dan was non-committal on that point but proffered the following.
“We got 1-4 in the first 10 minutes – maybe that’s not something we’ve always done down through the years but whatever the lads said to themselves at half-time, on top of what we had to offer as a management team, it certainly seemed to work alright,” he replied.
“But it wasn’t only down to that. Dublin came back at us again after that and then we tightened up again and saw out the match very well and it was great to see us finishing strongly in a game again.
“And to see Stephen Daniels coming in the way he did after Noel Connors got injured and so such a good job on Paul Ryan was another big plus for us on the day, and having Darragh Fives back too and producing such an outstanding display – it was a really good day for us all round. And people shouldn’t forget that that was a really good Dublin team we got the better of as well. We matched them and we beat them.”
On a day when Derek McGrath confirmed that Waterford have adopted a squad numbering system this year (hence Maurice wearing 21 and Tom Devine 9 for example), Dan also said he disagrees with limiting a match day panel to 26.
“We’ve 30 to 32 lads training with us every night and to leave six lads out of your matchday panel is very, very tough because they’re all training as hard as each other. I don’t see why all the players shouldn’t be named and I really feel it’s something the GAA should look at.”
Kilkenny, said Dan, have been “phenomenal” in maintaining the winning mentality despite the recent spate of retirements.
“Sure you have to hand it to Brian Cody. What he’s done for so long is just incredible, to keep that level of hunger within a group the way he has. I can assure you they’ll want to beat us inside out next Sunday but, again, once we work hard and give them a hell of battle, and maybe get a bit of luck, you just never know what might happen.
“I’m delighted for the lads. We’re back in Croke Park for the first time since 2011 and it’s where you always want to be with your county team. And we’re going up there to win.”