Sure if you didn’t laugh you’d cry.
Let’s get the scoreline out of the way so we don’t have to mention it again: Tipperary 5-19* Waterford 0-13.
*Not a typo.
Sunday started out with hope. Munster final day. The Deise county having disposed of Clare, rolling to Limerick with anything possible. Waterford fans weren’t feeling like much was possible by the end of the day.
One fan was that low after the hurling that he decided to watch an astronomy show instead as some form of distraction. But all he found there was the inevitable end of the universe and all the life within it.
Not since 1959 have the south coast county managed to get their hands on Liam McCarthy and, as Chris O’Keefe brilliantly put it in the Irish Times, they could be waiting a while longer. A hell of a lot longer in fact.
All sorts of things have been brought up in the fall-out.
The Waterford warm-up was just 35 minutes long, it didn’t look as intense as Tipp’s, they didn’t seem to be using as many sliotars.
Their system was made completely redundant.
Austin Gleeson was kept on the periphery and, as Kilkenny legend JJ Delaney excellently put it in SportsJOE’s GAA Hour hurling podcast: “Go for the strong point. If that pillar falls, the whole foundation is gone.”
It’s all debated in the hurling show along with an explosive interview with Maurice Shanahan.
https://soundcloud.com/user-787320910/the-gaa-hour-hurling-with-colin-parkinson-tipps-glory-wexfords-joy-and-the-end-for-tj-ryan#t=0:05
