Not even Sun Tzu could make much sense of this, a new chapter in the art of war where two teams couldn’t decide which mattered more – the winning or the losing. So they slowly and dutifully settled it on a draw.
It won't just end with next Sunday's replay either, which will then leave the teams just four weeks out from their Munster championship date on June 5th: that might help put greater emphasis on the winning of it the next day, even if Waterford were the ones left snatching the draw in the end.
“We’re heading for the trilogy now,” agreed Derek McGrath, the Waterford manager the proper mix of emotions after a game that was pure hurling rallying. The teams were level on 11 different occasions, including of course at the end of normal and extra-time, when Maurice Shanahan’s monster free summoned the PA announcement for another rendezvous back in Semple Stadium next Sunday.
They were never separated by more than a few points, that consistent balancing act reflected in the fact Clare were the ones who snatched the draw at the end of normal time. No wonder McGrath duly described the draw as the fair result.
“And there’s a great buzz in the dressing room there,” he said, “and to be honest I thought our effort was heroic. Any day a team gives it everything they have there can be no fault, and that was the case again here. And I’d imagine that’s the same feeling in the Clare dressing room.
‘Brilliant exposure’
“We’re just happy to expose our lads to that type of game. It is brilliant exposure, and we’re happy to go again next Sunday. It’s very welcomed.”
So, nothing about the ever closer proximity of their championship date bothered him: “Look, we’ve been very consistent on this, our approach to the league. This match was everything to us. Next Sunday will be everything to us. Then we’ll refocus, regardless of the result. And think about June 5th after that. But we’re not thinking about that now. We’re thinking about the replay, areas we can improve. And we’ll have to improve.”
No prizes for guessing where the number one area of improvement will be: after shooting 12 wides in the first half, it appeared as if Waterford were shooting themselves in the foot, but still McGrath saw more positives.
“Well you’d always be disappointed with wides. But I wouldn’t be overly disappointed, because you’re in possession, you have the ball in hand, so you’re creating chances. As the game progressed guys took it on a bit more before shooting, because maybe the shot selection in the first half was poor.
"But we're all learning, I'm still learning, and it means Patrick Curran and Shane Bennett are exposed to the whole process, and have to learn, on a day where there's no hiding place. But they're not alone in missing frees. We'll see how it goes next week.
“But Shane came into the game again. Nothing phases him, and nothing effects his confidence. We’ll need him to be better again next Sunday like we’ll need them all to be better.
“That’s more a thinking, more than the wides. There were opportunities to go, and they didn’t. But when you have the ball in the hands it means you have possession.
“Maybe we were bit cagey at the start, maybe, but then it opened up, and any thought that this game didn’t matter went out the window. It went out the window beforehand, to be honest.”
It was only in the second half, when Waterford began running more at Clare, that they looked likely winners, although McGrath wasn’t taking any great credit for that.
“Well I’d like to tell you in was a change in tactic, but it wasn’t, really. It was more just a decision, of the players, not being around the break as much. It’s always intriguing to see the way that plays out, because I think we did open up Clare a bit more.”
The liveliest encounter of the first half was probably McGrath’s sideline run-in with Davy Fitzgerald, not that there’s any lasting feelings: “It’s grand. No fear. It was very obvious that two teams wanted to win the match. We’ve only three national league titles. That’s the nature of it. But we shook hands at the end like we always do.”
Corner back Noel Connors described it as “a fantastic game of hurling to play in,” and again has no fear of the replay date pressing into their championship calendar: “It was always going to be a close battle like that, an intriguing battle, and I expect it will be the same again next week.
"At this level, regardless of who you're playing, there's a lot of movement, players coming on and off the bench, and we brought on the likes of Tom Devine and Maurice Shanahan, and they're every bit as important as the players that start.
Waterford selector Dan Shanahan agreed, mostly: "It's possibly another game we didn't need, but we're still in the hunt for the trophy, and you saw the emotion at the end. This is not shadow boxing for the championship. We want to create history, the first Waterford team to win two leagues in a row, and that chance is there again next Sunday."
