Dan Shanahan: 'It's a big thing when a Waterford man is in charge of a Waterford team'

“I think it's a big thing when a Waterford man is in charge of a Waterford team,” Dan begins.

“It's very important. Not just for me. You see it in Cork, Pat Ryan in Cork, Brian Lohan's in Clare, Liam Cahill's in Tipp, the Dublin manager, Niall Ó Ceallacháin, again he's from Dublin, Micheál Donoghue is gone back to Galway, Keith Rossiter is in Wexford, Derek Lyng's in Kilkenny. All their own men in charge. I think that's massive that we got a Waterford man in charge.

“For me, a Waterford man in charge of a Waterford team, it gets more people out supporting the team, first of all, that maybe haven't been supporting the team. It is our job to get the people supporting our team, as well, playing proper, fast hurling, with proper tactical plans and whatever we come up with. Just to get the enjoyment back in the Waterford lads. I get a feeling already that these lads are going to enjoy this year.” 

Mention of enjoyment crops up elsewhere during our 20-minute conversation. Dan cannot labour the point enough.

Enjoyment and results are intertwined. There hasn’t been enough of the latter to sustain the former. Munster round-robin elimination has been their lot year after year after year.

Dan was Derek McGrath’s right-hand man for the first iteration of the current format. Waterford finished fifth and last in the province. In the four editions since, they’ve repeatedly failed to break into the top three. The potential that Dan is absolutely certain is there has not been tapped and tipped out onto the field.

“Results don't lie. We haven't come out of the Munster round-robin in a number of years when Liam or Davy was there. That hurts me.

“Great win against Cork this year below in Walsh Park, but it is no good winning [on one-off occasions], it is a moral victory, clapped on the back, next thing we don't come out of the group. Would you rather play bad, win, and come out of the group? Of course you would.

“The Tipp game, four up with a few minutes to go. Is that a mental thing that we couldn't see out the game? We went to Clare, '65 over the bar won them the game. It's hard to keep the lads motivated for the Limerick game, in Limerick, but again, it is just to get the enjoyment back with the boys.

“Please God, they will enjoy the training. They will work hard so they will. If we as a management can bring our workrate onto the field, with a lot of help from different people like Shane O'Sullivan who have been involved over the years, we feel that we can get over the line and push on in the championship.” 

The home record, for so long a noose around their neck, is improving. They’re unbeaten at Walsh Park in three of their last four championship outings. Of those three, mind, the aforementioned stalemate with Tipp at the beginning of May bore all the disappointment of a defeat.

“We have been losing games at home, we have been letting results not go our way, the Tipp game is a thing, you are not going to point the finger at Davy or the players for that. We beat Cork in the first round and they went onto the All-Ireland. But we beat Tipp and Cork are gone.

“Our first goal is the Clare game at home [in Munster]. The All-Ireland champions are coming to Walsh Park, it should be hopping. A fortress. The doors should be shut down the minute they come on the bus. Make it as hard as possible for them.

“I saw it this year for the Cork and Tipp games, the amount of people walking down from the Mount Sion club, it was like Thurles back in the day.” Come that Clare game at the end of April, it will have been seven years since he last stood on the sideline for a Munster championship fixture. The game has moved on and modernised further even in that short time. So too has Dan, though. Spells in the Laois, Waterford U20, and Bennettsbridge dressing-rooms were informative and educational.

“I am looking forward to the challenge. It is going to be a massive challenge. I could have sat down at home, relaxed for the year without doing this, and sat in the local criticising. No, I took it on the chin.

“A lot of people have their opinions. If we play poorly, you have to take the criticism. If we play well, you have to take the claps on the back. I have done it as a player. I have done it as a coach with Derek. Please God I am going to do it as a coach with Peter.” 

The new Waterford coach was speaking at the launch of the Brian Greene Cork-Waterford fundraising challenge game on Saturday, January 4. The two men were present inside the whitewash on the afternoon of Waterford’s 2002 Munster final breakthrough.

“It's kind of brought us all back together if I'm being honest with you,” Shanahan said of Greene’s plight and the determination of his old teammates to do whatever they can to offer support.

“The respect we have for each other lads is unbelievable, that's the key for me. As Sean Daly said, we're helping a friend.”