award winner: Waterford senior hurling captain Kevin Moran has led the front this season
Speaking to WLRfm’s ‘Big Match’ commentator Kieran O’Connor, the De La Salle clubman, who was in fine form during his side’s badly needed SHC win over Ballygunner on Tuesday last, reflected on what’s already been an eventful hurling year.
“I’m absolutely delighted to receive the award,” the Waterford captain told Kieran ahead of next Sunday week’s Munster Hurling Final showdown with Tipperary at Semple Stadium.
“It’s been a few years since I got one, and I’m really collecting this one on behalf of the (Waterford) team and our management team. It’s been a good start to 2015, and it’s been nice to get our hands on some silverware and I’m absolutely over the moon to receive this award, so many thanks to the adjudicators for presenting me with this award.”
Reflecting on the National Hurling League Final victory, in which he was named man of the match, Moran stated: “It was a huge day for us; we’d had a couple of bleak years in which we didn’t operate at the level where we wanted to be. We’d had a disappointing 2014, we put a lot of hard work in during the build-up to 2015 and thankfully it’s gone well so far.
“To win the National League, a first national title since 2007, was a huge accomplishment for the team, particularly given the new set-up that was in place and the many new faces that had been introduced.
“To be captain of a League winning team, sure I was over the moon about that but this was a huge team and management effort in the six months prior to that and we just hope we can keep we can continue this good form going into the summer and reflect on it all come the winter when everything is done and dusted. But look, it’s going to great and it’s great to be involved in the team and panel at the moment.”
A sense of ‘much done, more to do’ has been to the forefront of many Deise fans’ thoughts given the team’s phenomenal winning streak, but there’s a maturity and humility about Derek McGrath’s men which bodes well for this year and beyond.
“There’s a great old atmosphere around the city and county now, and that had been lacking for a number of years, but it just shows that the Waterford public are mad hurling supporters, and it’s been great to give them something to shout about,” said the skipper.
“The Munster semi-final victory over Cork was a really important game to win. Obviously, we’d beaten them four or five weeks earlier in the League Final so it was that little bit more difficult.
“They’d had, I suppose, a little bit of a backlash and more of a hunger, people would say, coming into a Munster semi-final, but we produced a decent performance, but a performance that we know we’ll have to improve on again in order to be victorious come to the Munster Final but we’re really looking forward to the 12th of July…it’ll be all guns blazing and we’re all looking forward to it.”
We’ll have lots to ponder over in next week’s Munster Hurling Final special ahead of Waterford’s clash with Tipperary in the ‘Field of Legends’ at Semple Stadium – you will not want to miss it!
