By Dermot Keyes

Year three in Waterford colours has yielded a trophy for Liam Cahill. A National League campaign full of industry, craft and goals yielded the Déise’s first silverware in seven years thanks to an impressive dismissal of Cork at FBD Semple Stadium. And they may not be finished yet when taking the pending Championship into account.

“We’re delighted,” said Cahill following his side’s 4-20 to 1-22 victory over the Rebels. “It’s been a good League for us, it was great to get to the latter stages of it and obviously then to reach the final tonight. When you’re in a final, it’s good to perform. The game was a bit cagey early on from both sides; it maybe wasn’t a great spectacle but we’re delighted to win. It’s a good little confidence boost for everybody, myself included.”

The old adage about goals winning games is clearly resonating in white and blue ranks. Not since the pomp of Paul Flynn, John Mullane and Dan Shanahan has a Waterford team looked so potent in green flag raising terms.

In the 64th minute, Cork’s hopes were elevated as Shane Kingston’s third point reduced their arrears to just four points. But Waterford’s next attack immediately took the wind out of red sails as Dessie Hutchinson found the net following a barnstorming run by the impressive Carthach Daly. Such ruthlessness could yet take this team to much loftier heights.

“They’re beginning to get it,” Cahill admitted. “But the real test will be starting Easter Sunday – let’s call a spade a spade – that’s the real judge. Championship hurling is where you really find out whether the jigsaw is coming together or not. We’ve to try now and get ourselves in the best shape possible again for that, get fellas back on the pitch and get injuries sorted out. There’ll be a lot of learnings from tonight as well; there were a lot of ball handling errors, a lot of mistakes, a lot of ball that didn’t go to hand that could have created more openings. But it’s all stuff that Mikey (Bevans), Tony (Browne), Stephen (Frampton) and I will work on with the boys over the next couple of days and nights.”

Carthach Daly has emerged as the find of the season thus far for Waterford. The Lismore clubman stepped into the breach following Austin Gleeson’s semi-final dismissal and took his opportunity with both hands last night in what was an outstanding performance.

“He’s a great young man,” said his manager. “He’s not even 20 yet and showed form like that with his club when I saw him early in the championship last year so I’m thrilled that he’s stepping up. You never know when you bring in these guys whether they’re able to step up or not especially when there as young as Carthach. It was a great baptism for him tonight and he’s definitely a guy who’ll have a big future once he stays lucky and stays sound.”

Cork boss Kieran Kingston, while not concealing his disappointment following the result, stated: “In a way we might learn more from tonight than the other games in the league…but in a way the pre-Leaving Cert is over now. We’ll have to review this tomorrow, recover, press the reset button and get ready for the start of the Leaving Cert in two weeks’ time.”

He added: “You can’t concede four goals in a national final and expect to win, and you can’t have the conversion rate we had tonight, less than 50 per cent and 17/18 missed chances – you can’t have those stats and expect to win a national title. We’ll just have to take learnings from those.”

Casting his eye on the challenge just a fortnight away when his adopted county take on his native Tipperary at Walsh Park, Liam Cahill said: “The evenings are getting long and the bumble bee is starting to come back out again so the summer is coming. It’s high tempo, the ball is going to get faster and the opposition are going to get really tightened up. It’s going to be a big ask again now, what’s coming at us down the tracks. But we’re looking forward to it now as the long evenings come into play.”