By John Harrington

By the end of the 2019 Munster SHC, self-confidence must have been at an all-time low in the Waterford hurling panel.

They’d lost all four of their provincial championship matches by an average margin of 13 points, and this came a year after a 2018 Munster campaign in which they’d also failed to win any of their four matches.

Considering that low base from which they were working, Liam Cahill and his management team have done wonders to turn Waterford into All-Ireland Finalists.

According to selector Stephen Frampton, replenishing the confidence levels in the group after 2018 and 2019 has been key to that transformation.

“Look, the players are playing with great confidence at the moment,” says Frampton.

“Confidence ebbs out of a team very, very slowly, but it can build much quicker the other way around when there is a couple of wins and they are training hard and see the results of it out on the field and confidence really builds very, very quickly then.

“That has been the case this year.

“Derek (McGrath) had been there for a few years and had really made fantastic strides and a couple of results went against him.

“At this level, believe it or not, a lot of confidence comes from winning and I suppose when things start to go wrong there is a little bit of impatience as well within the players and within the support as well, because the Waterford supporters are fantastic, but it’s been so long since we’ve won anything really, that there’s an excitement there when we win a few games and it starts to build.

“And at the same time there’s a massive disappointment and it’s not that they get hard on the players, it’s that the public become so disappointed and so disillusioned with it and that feeds into the players as well.

“And confidence starts to eb as well. It’s kind of a mix of everything.

“I think Paraic Fanning was a bit unlucky last year, to be honest. A couple of things went against him.

“Very hard to come back from that, so it has been a build-up.

“It hasn't been like a light switch that has turned off three years ago when we won our last match.

“These things, a bit like winning, they start to gather momentum and confidence falls and falls.

“That’s really what happened with the team. A couple of wins and that has improved already.”

The confidence in the group is very obvious by the way they’ve really grabbed games by the scruff of the neck this year.

Players are backing themselves to take the opposition on and run directly both in defence and attack, and seem to be enjoying implementing the attacking blueprint that Liam Cahill has laid out for them.

“The way Mikey and Liam have set up their teams previously, it has been that type of flamboyant running with the ball movement, very much an action-packed type of game,” says Frampton.

“They did that with the Tipp Under-20s/21 teams as well. So I suppose that probably suited us because Waterford - I don’t know why - but they are kind of associated with what you describe there, a kind of a flamboyant helter skelter type of performance.”

Waterford’s approach worked well up to a point against Limerick in the Munster Final.

They stayed with them for three quarters of the match, but were burned off coming down the home straight.

Frampton doesn’t mind candidly admitting that trying to reverse the result in the All-Ireland Final will be a seriously tough task against a team he believes is closer to the finished article than Waterford are.

“The massive lesson I suppose is, we saw it in their semi-final as well, Limerick are probably three or four years further down the line in their process than we are,” says Frampton.

“And they look very, very comfortable and the word I’d probably use is unflappable. They are very comfortable in their system. I think everybody around here and we know exactly what way they are going to play in the All-Ireland final.

“And the whole country knows the way they are going to set up, but they are not going to change that because it has worked, and they are so comfortable with it. Galway came back at them last weekend but they don’t seem to panic, they stick to their process, stick to their systems. That is very impressive.

“We did come back at them in quarter three in the Munster final, but again they drove on in the fourth quarter.

“So it’s something we’re going to have to try to deal with. They have been able to weather those storms very comfortably, they don’t look as if they are panicking at all. They are that further down the line than we are in the ageing of the team, I suppose.”

The manner in which Limerick hit the ground running and out-paced Waterford after the second-half water-break has given Liam Cahill and his management team food for thought.

Limerick have consistently used the water-breaks better than any other team this year to refocus and ensure they’re fully dialled into the game-plan once the match resumes.

“That’s a kind of a work in progress the whole year,” says Frampton of making best use of the water-breaks.

“I think every team has been trying to figure out these two water breaks in matches. Very difficult. The obvious result of it is the team going in and has momentum hates to see it coming, and the other team are delighted to get a break and regather.

“We, among every other team I’m sure, are trying to figure out how do we continue that momentum into quarter four.

“We did that, I suppose, against Kilkenny in the semi-final. I’d be lying if I told you there was a certain strategy there, our fitness levels were very good and we were on a bit of a roll. It’s very hard to put your finger on it, I think it’s human instinct that you take a few deep breaths and you reflect, and maybe you shouldn't really be reflecting, you should try and stay in the moment.

“It’s a really difficult one, I think everybody would prefer if it wasn’t there but needs must, we are in strange times so that’s the way it is. It’s a difficult thing to try and manage, and hopefully it will go right for us the next time.”