SCORING two goals to fire your county to a first Munster championship win in 14 years would warrant the wildest of celebrations.
Tom O’Connell had other ideas when he twice netted to lead Waterford to victory over Tipperary on the weekend before last.
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Prior to the game at Fraher Field on April 7, the Deise had not won a game in the Munster SFC since defeating Clare in 2010.
Their last championship victory over Tipperary, meanwhile, had come way back in 1988.
It was a drought that seemed likely to continue when Paul Shankey’s side went into the break trailing 1-2 to 0-1, despite playing with the breeze.
The second-half turnaround in Dungarvan was inspired by Tom O’Connell, who scored 2-3 on the team against which he made his senior debut in 2022.
The Brickey Rangers man toasted both goals by putting his arms out in a fashion similar to Real Madrid superstar Jude Bellingham.
He revealed: “During the week, after training, I was messing around with a few of the goalkeepers.
“I kicked a few penalties and I started doing that after scoring, just to p*** one of them off. I said I would do it [if I scored].”
It was a day of vindication for Waterford and one on which O’Connell wants to build when they face Clare on Saturday.
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Their Allianz League campaign was difficult – losing six of seven games to finish bottom of Division 4.
The Deise’s only positive result was a 0-16 to 1-13 draw in Tipperary, although the feel good factor from that evaporated in defeat to London and subsequent hammering at the hands of Laois.
The 20-year-old added: “There was a small bit of relief because we haven’t got results.
“Results haven’t been going the right way for us in Waterford football in the last few years so maybe a small bit of relief that in future games we can go out and there won’t be that kind of burden on us.
“I would say we were a bit nervous and that we are rushing our play.
“Hopefully, we’ll realize that we are good enough to compete and win games so we don’t have to put ourselves under that same pressure in future games.
“Even though the results weren’t coming, the performances were improving and maybe losing to London knocked the stuffing out of us for our last game against Laois.
“We knew that after the result against Tipperary in the league we had a decent opportunity coming into championship.
“We had a few bodies back from injury and so forth so maybe just looking at things more positively.”
SLIOT HAPPENS
The Waterford footballers have been residing in the basement tier since 2012, their success contrasting with that of their hurling counterparts.
In the 12 years since, the hurlers have gotten to two All-Ireland finals (2017 and 2020), four Munster finals (2012, 2015, 2016, and 2020) and won two national leagues (2016 and 2022).
And yet there have been moments of positivity to hold on to, with O’Connell pointing to the nature of Rathgormack’s defeat to Castlehaven in the Munster club semi-finals last November.
The UCC student said: “There was maybe a small bit of doubt that we wouldn’t change our fortunes around.
“A lot of us on the team and a lot of football people around the county know there are really good football clubs in Waterford.
“Waterford clubs are well able to put it up to any of the teams in the Munster club championship.
“Rathgormack weren’t too far away from beating Castlehaven and they were missing three or four of their more important players.
“We needed to improve on last year. Unfortunately, we haven’t this year in the league but we weren’t doubting ourselves that we can improve.
“Not a lot of people outside the group are expecting big things from us. We have to take small victories when we can.
“I think we have a pretty positive group. I know there is a lot of player turnover and we have lots of new players each year but I think we are a fairly tight group.
“Everyone playing in Waterford is committing the same as somebody playing in Cork.
“We’re all making the same sacrifices players – travelling from college or work and so forth.
“I don’t think we will have anyone putting us down. We do take it serious and we do put in the work.
“We are grateful that we’re after getting a bit of change in our luck.”
WATER WORK
And O’Connell is hopeful Waterford’s luck will carry into Saturday evening when they welcome Clare to Fraher Field.
“If you’re on a roll, you don’t know what could happen and I think we are after building a small bit of momentum.
“I won’t say the last few weeks of the league have been tougher training because we are losing a bit but the boys are training and the buzz within the group is a bit more excited after winning a game.
“You will come to training a bit more eager. We can knuckle down now and get ourselves right. Let’s see if we can put up a performance against Clare.”
