THERE was more than one Clare man wearing a blue and white top in the Waterford dug-out last Monday. While Davy Fitzgerald was directing operations for the Munster finalists, Naomh Eoin man Michael Liddane was also experiencing close up what Munster championship hurling entails.

The Naomh Eoin footballer is one of Waterford’s physical trainers. He played in a challenge game with his club on Saturday evening and left with mixed well wishes from his club colleagues. While ideally they didn’t want to see Waterford hurlers bursting out of their XXL jerseys and Liddane blamed for it, they definitely wanted Clare to win.
“There’s been fierce banter back around Cross and Kilbaha. Martin Downes, in particular, is great for the one-liners. But it’s good-natured banter. We had a challenge game Saturday evening and they wished me well. But a half-hearted kind of wishing well. But I took that in good stead anyway,” Liddane explained in Thurles on Monday evening.
“As a Clare man it was weird but not as weird as Davy’s situation, obviously. But I just saw it as a job to do to try and get the lads fit and I think they came through in the end,” he added.
Having worked in the fitness industry for about 15 years and played football at a high level for Tralee IT and Clare, Liddane was still agog at the pace of the game in Thurles.
“It was unbelievable just looking in on it. Davy says his heart is bad, mine should be 10 times better but by Jesus I was fair shook towards the finish. But I probably brought it on myself. I never realised the game was so fast and that it could be so tense. I know Naomh Eoin games can be nail-biters at times but this took it to a whole new level,” he laughed.
“It woke me up to how gripping Munster hurling is. Fair play to Clare. After the Wexford game, they could have turned over and not turned up but they’ll really run people close in the qualifiers and hopefully come through to the quarter-final again,” Liddane suggested.
Part of the Waterford management team’s task was to convince their panel that Clare would throw everything at them.
“We were trying to instil into the lads, for the last couple of weeks, that Clare were going to come down and make a battle of it. Everybody had written them off. I knew they were going to be up for it and I was trying to instil into the boys what was ahead of them,” he explained.
“I don’t think they realised it until 10 or 15 minutes in, when Clare went up four or five points. I think once we were four points down at half-time, with the breeze to come, we always had a chance of coming out strong in the second half. I think our big boys came to the fore. Declan Prendergast came on at half-time and scored three points. Deccie was disappointed when he was dropped but to come back in and do that, he’s staking a claim for the next day,” the Clare man concluded.