Few expected Waterford’s season to end as early as May 22, but opportunity knocked once it did.
Having entered the Championship tagged by many as the most likely to take Limerick down after storming to the League title impressively, Waterford’s campaign unravelled badly after two defeats to Cork and Clare, which left them second from bottom of the Munster table and out of the competition.
Carthach Daly, although hindered by injury, played in three of their four games and his was one of many of the Waterford players’ phones that was hopping the day after the Clare loss. He spent the next couple of months in Boston.
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“I was playing for Father Tom Burke’s,” he explained. “There’s only two teams in Boston so there’s Galway Boston and Father Tom’s and it was the best of five and they beat us 3-1.
“Father Tom’s rang me the day after the Clare game, they are Laois and Galway, and just asked me to come over and I said, ‘Why not?’ It was a lifetime opportunity.
“It was nice to get away and recharge the batteries but I actually picked up an ankle injury over there and came back then and played for the club with an injured ankle which wasn’t ideal.
“But I’m only coming back from that injury now and hopefully I’ll be back in a week or two.
“It was after the League final I picked up a stress fracture in my ankle, and actually made the injury worse over in Boston and then playing with the club hurling for Lismore made it even worse then.
“I had a CT scan on it then I’m doing rehab now at training and hopefully in a few weeks I’ll be able to come back,” he added, with Waterford opening their Co-Op Superstores Munster Hurling League campaign against Tipperary on Tuesday, January 3 in Dungarvan.
And now that the itch has been scratched with regard to spending a summer overseas, Daly doesn’t wish for any further gaping holes in his schedule in the near future.
“That’s the thing, I’ll be hoping there are no trips to Boston over the next three years and hopefully we’ll be right in the thick of things come the 21st July, or be there or thereabouts.”
When asked as to why they weren’t this year after expectations were so high coming into the Championship, he replied: “I suppose there’s a lot of people in the panel and around the county that can’t really wrap their fingers around what happened.
“It wasn’t as if we weren’t playing well in the championship either, we beat Tipp and put it up to Limerick in the Gaelic Grounds. We were only within three points of them.
“We just didn't show up against Cork and that kind of ruined our confidence, I felt. Hopefully next year will be our year, the round robin hasn’t really happened for Waterford in the last few years but hopefully next year it will happen, and I’d be confident that it will as well.”
Their first outing of 2023 will be against their recently departed manager Liam Cahill, who has now taken charge of his native county, with Davy Fitzgerald back as Waterford boss more than 11 years after he brought his first tenure came to a close.
“He [Cahill] felt it was the best move for him I suppose and that was kind of it really,” said Daly.
“Thankfully Davy is after coming in and everyone is just training well and buying into what he is all about. We are not really looking back at what happened in the last few years, we are just looking forward to what the next few years will bring.
“I was only around six years of age when Davy was first there, I remember going to the 2010 Munster final when Davy was there and it was a brilliant day out, it went to a replay and extra-time and we went on and won it,” he recalled.
“I suppose that’s the good memories I have of Davy, I’m lucky to be playing under him and training is going well. We are always pushing each other on, which is always a good sign.”
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