Clearing final hurdle is a perfect start

National Hurling League final: Ian O'Riordan talks to Waterford captain Ken McGrath, who is focused on winning tomorrow's final against Galway despite the distraction of facing Clare in the championship on Sunday week

In the book of How Not To Prepare For The Championship you might find a situation like this: play hard to reach a league final; play for the title won once, and once only, 41 years ago; seven days later play the match that could ultimately define the whole season.

As non-preferable as that sounds it is the route embraced by the Waterford hurlers. Tomorrow it's Galway in the National League final. Next Sunday it's Clare in the Munster championship. It's hard to find a middle ground. Chances are the thing will work a treat or go horribly wrong.

What you don't have is any of the Waterford hurlers complaining. At least not out loud. Manager Justin McCarthy said this week he'll start thinking about Clare at "5.30 on Sunday evening", and team captain Ken McGrath looks at the schedule and sees more good than evil.

"Of course it's not ideal," says McGrath, "and being totally honest the only date we had fixed in our heads at the start of the year was May 16th. But we want to win it now and it's important that we do. It won't be a totally successful league for us if we don't.

"And I'd definitely see it as a great title to win and most of the other lads think so as well. Some people still seem to think that the league is a joke but who goes out to lose a league match? No one. Kilkenny won it the last two years and went on to win the All-Ireland and Tipperary won it the year before so that proves how much it has changed. We've been looking at that, and we feel if we win on Sunday it would be a great start to our championship."

Before you accuse McGrath of putting on a brave face remember this. Waterford have only once won a National Hurling League title, back in 1963. The last time they came even close was 1998, and McGrath is one of just six Waterford players who survive from that day. Like any major honour it's sometimes better to lose one to fully appreciate winning one.

"I thought the last league final was a great experience for us," adds McGrath. "I remember alright that Cork pulled away a bit at the end, but I think it set us up quite well for the championship that summer."

That summer six years ago did see Waterford play some memorable hurling. They forced Clare to a replay in the Munster final, came back to hammer Galway in the quarter-finals, and narrowly lost to Kilkenny in the semi-final. Only the Munster success of 2002 has since outshone that summer.

McGrath feels with added strength and maturity Waterford are far better prepared than their last league final: "Well I would say we'd have to be. A lot more of these players have been involved in bigger and harder games in the years since. Okay maybe we haven't won as many of them as we could have won. But we know we've come close a lot of time and we certainly all know what to expect from Galway.

"I mean Galway are flying. We always felt that they were the form team in the league along with ourselves. They've been getting great scores. We felt that ourselves that day in Walsh Park (Galway won 5-13 to 1-14) and we know what we have to contain. That full-forward line can be lethal."

The obvious irony in tomorrow's final is that Clare - their opponents in Thurles on Sunday week - came within a whisker of reaching the final, and thus taking on the dilemma now facing Waterford. Clare captain Seánie McMahon confesses it's a situation they too would have embraced.

"I suppose if you'd looked at it at the start the year," he says, "you'd have said the last thing you would have wanted the week before the championships was the league final. But when you get there, it could turn out to be the best thing possible, in that you're guaranteed a top-class match the week before. Normally we would have a serious match in training the week before the championship, so it could turn out to be a real benefit. And I can see Waterford going flat out for it. And of course Galway too. I expect it will a very good final.

"And none of this Clare team have any league medals, and we've been beaten in a couple of finals. It's still the second-biggest competition in hurling and I know every player would like to win at least one. That's probably the way Waterford are thinking."

While there is always a danger in trying to peak two Sundays in succession, McMahon seems to speak for all intercounty hurlers when he says form is not so transient. Players find and lose form over months rather than weeks. "And if you draw a game you'll nearly always be playing again a week later," he adds. "If you are in good form and playing well then there's no reason why you can't come out again the following Sunday and do it again.

"So it has its advantages. I mean we wouldn't have minded getting there. We certainly went out to try to get there. It wasn't the end of the world when we didn't get there, but we were disappointed. But then you really won't know until afterwards, to see how things have worked out. Generally though the timing of the whole thing is a little unfortunate, because I think the league would be a lot better off not being so end-to-end to the championship."

McGrath is just one Waterford player clearly in form. A cartilage problem in his knee required keyhole surgery earlier in the year and meant he missed the first-phase matches of the league. When he returned for the opening second-phase match against Limerick - complete with the captain's armband, compliments of Mount Sion's nomination - he was named in the half-forward line, but promptly moved to the half-back line. Waterford haven't lost a game since and McGrath's positioning seems long-term.

"It has worked out very well. I suppose it had been talked about for a while, and it probably would have happened a lot sooner had I not been injured at the start of the year through injury.

"But I would have played a lot of my underage hurling in the half-back line. And the odd game for the club there as well. I've done a lot of hurling at midfield as well, so it hasn't been a massive positional change in that regard.

"And I think it's been great. It's been a nice change of scenery for a start. Things have gone well so far so I can't complain, and hopefully it can carry on that way. The most important thing is that I'm enjoying my hurling as much as ever. That's all that matters to me."