No confusion this time. No contention and no controversy. Waterford skipped through to their second consecutive Munster final with a curiously straightforward 1-21 to 0-17 win over Clare that left most of us wondering if we'd imagined the suffocating closeness of the two games it took to decide the league final.
If you’re talking third legs of trilogies, this was far more Godfather III than Return Of The Jedi. In front of an unexpectedly poor crowd of 19,715, Clare were anaemic and ponderous, unforgivably wayward in their shooting and increasingly shapeless as the afternoon went on. They were never able to pick a thread loose in the Waterford defence, where Tadgh De Búrca and Barry Coughlan were exceptional again.
Conor McGrath (six) and Tony Kelly (four) had 10 wides between them out of Clare's total of 14. Both of them did most of their shooting from deep, which could only make you wonder why they weren't stationed closer to the posts. One of umpteen knots for Davy Fitz and friends to disentangle ahead of the qualifiers.
For now, that’s none of Waterford’s concern. They are unquestionably All-Ireland contenders after this and the progress they’ve made even since qualifying for last year’s provincial decider is obvious. That day 12 months ago, Derek McGrath ran into his father coming off the pitch and had to scold him for saying at least they were guaranteed an All-Ireland quarter-final. That won’t be anywhere near enough this time around.
“There was a bit of hurt there initially,” said McGrath of the days after the league final replay defeat. “Disappointment. But hurt or disappointment stagnates you; you don’t move on. We tried to change the bit of hurt to a bit of anger but not to the point where it becomes hate. We let the anger flow into the performance.
“It’s all very well saying that like a wordsmith but that’s what materialised. We let them take over in terms of where they wanted to go with it. Not how they wanted to play but there actual motivation. We had five days in Fota where everyone put everything into it for the five days. Everyone pushed each other like never before. It’s extremely satisfying that a group of players take five days of work in an amateur capacity and work to the bone.”
They did a thoroughly professional job here, scudding out to an early 1-1 to 0-0 lead thanks to Maurice Shanahan’s goal on four minutes and reacting coolly when Clare nipped them back to be level after 22.
John Conlon made it 1-6 to 0-8 with his first involvement of the day on 32 minutes - that it took so long for the Clare full-forward to get into matters is telling in itself - but from there on out, Waterford took over. They scored the next six points in a row either side of half-time, gradually and methodically putting clear water between them and Clare. For the last half-hour, the gap never got smaller than four points.
When it was over, Austin Gleeson barely had time to flip off his helmet before he was lost in a cloudburst of Shanahans. Dan and Maurice galloped in from the sideline - Shanahan the younger having been called ashore to a hero’s ovation shortly before the end - and the pair of them engulfed the team’s young totem.
And with good reason. Gleeson had a day of days, potting six points in total. Five from play and one gorgeous sideline cut in the second half just as Clare had scored three in a row and were threatening to make a contest of it. Gleeson has threatened days like this before and McGrath has always encouraged him to keep shooting even when spilling wides just because he knows it’s in him. The boy prince won’t be 21 for another three weeks - imagine what he’ll be when he grows up.
“I’m delighted for him because I push him hard,” said McGrath. “I had him in class and he probably sees me as taking the old headmaster-type approach because I do push him so hard. He’s at his best when he’s angry and bitter. That’s when it just flows from him. He doesn’t need much instruction from us.”
For Clare, the day held very little consolation. All their big guns misfired and the contrast between what they brought to the league final and what they showed up here with couldn’t be starker. The qualifiers obviously hold no fears for them but this was another terrible outing in the Munster championship, the latest in a litany. Davy Fitz was at a loss to explain how it could be but vowed to fix it all the same.
“Let me make this clear, we’ll be fighting in this championship,” said Fitzgerald. “Clare are better than that. Wouldn’t it be great to meet down the road, ourselves and Waterford, I’d love that. Whatever the difference was, there isn’t that between the teams. That’s a fact.
“Waterford had the best of it today. Last day I thought we were better than them by a margin. We gave away two soft goals and a few points the last day. Today, no doubt about it, Waterford were the best team. The way they’ve things organised, they’ll be hard beaten if they play with that tenacity, that fire they had today. From Clare, we have no gripes with anything.”
Elsewhere, Monaghan's defence of their Ulster football championship got off to a terrific start with a 2-22 to 0-9 win over Down in Clones. Despite a tight first half in which Down were well up to the task, Monaghan eased clear in a facile second period with goals from Kieran Hughes and Owen Duffy condemning Down to a record championship defeat.
