Leaving Cert student Shane Bennett marked his Championship debut with two points
and Shane Fives both dedicated Sunday’s
win over Cork to injured talisman
Pauric Mahony, as they set their
sights on the Munster Hurling Final
on July 12th.
Speaking to RTE just moments after
the full-time whistle, the Lismore
attacker described the Ballygunner
man as “irreplaceable in our team…
and that’s who we did it for today”.
Maurice, who struck 1-9 against the
Rebels, told Clare McNamara: “We
saw (a video message) on that bus
today from Pauric Mahony to drive
us, and he drove us on today.”
Shanahan added: “We started slow
but Cork were always going to hit us
hard in the first 10 minutes following
the League Final but this Waterford
team never panicked and we got the
goals when it mattered…
“It’s fantastic to be in a Munster
Final. The League is gone, we’ve
forgotten about that now. A Munster
title is what we want now – but Limerick
or Tipp will be a different story
again the next day.”
According to Shane Fives: “We’re
not looking back on history – we’re
thinking about this year and this year
only. We’re a young team and all we
want to do is work hard for each other
and hopefully come out the right side
of the result.”
Admitting that “it took us a few
minutes to get into the game,” the
Tourin corner-back added: “We
showed great heart to plug in there and
keep going. The last 10 minutes of the
first half, we really started showing
our own game and we pushed on in
the second half.”
As for the injured Pauric Mahony,
Fives commented: “Pauric’s a huge
loss. We all know that. We just went
out and said we have to do it for
Pauric. We hope to be in there come
September and hopefully he might get
back for that.”
