Saturday evening was a difficult one for Jamie Barron but Monday evening was perhaps worse. Still trying to decipher how, for the second time in a matter of months, Waterford had lost to Limerick by 11 points at Croke Park, he reached for the remote and turned on the tape of their All-Ireland semi-final defeat.
You suggest to Barron that something like that is akin to self flagellation but the Waterford midfielder has a different take on it. It’s a necessary evil, he explains, to understand what went wrong and what needs to be put right because Waterford are intent on eventually getting to the top.
“I actually felt it was something I needed to do, to see where things went wrong, why the game panned out the way it did,” said Barron, the PwC GAA/GPA hurler of the month for July.
“I think the days of kind of moral victories and being happy getting to semi-finals and things are done. At the end of the day now, we’re out to win an All-Ireland and if you don’t get to the All-Ireland and win it, the year is almost seen as a failure.
“I know some teams are out of the championship earlier than others but at the end of the day I think everyone is out to win it.
“Whatever way the All-Ireland pans out, I think whichever team loses will see their year as a failure, you know.
“I know Limerick are probably seen as the favourites at the moment and seen as being a bit further away from the pack than the rest.
“But every other team is chasing and every other team is out to win the All-Ireland and ultimately if you don’t achieve that goal, you are as disappointed as any other team.”
In time, Barron may be better able to unpack victory from defeat. Across two years under Liam Cahill, they've established themselves as genuine All-Ireland contenders, having failed to win a single championship game in 2018 or 2019. Defeat stings at the moment but the turnaround has been impressive, to the point that Barron still cuts an inconsolable figure, days on from losing an All-Ireland semi-final to the game's superpower.
“I think within our group, that’s the way the mindset has gone,” said Barron. “The older you get, and the more years you have on the panel, you start to realise that it’s about winning that elusive All-Ireland. When you start out and you’re younger, your aim is probably to get on the team, then to play well and stuff like that. But as you go on through the years, I think it’s totally focused on winning. We believe that we have a good enough panel and team in the next few years to really challenge and hopefully to get there. That’s absolutely our tunnel vision at the moment.”
Waterford hit Limerick with everything they had initially on Saturday, laying down markers all over the field as one pundit put it, but still they trailed at the water break. That, it turned out, was that.
“We just didn’t capitalise on the opportunities we were creating,” said Barron, referencing Waterford’s six wides in the opening quarter. “The intensity was high, the tackles were going in. You need to make it count on the scoreboard and unfortunately we didn’t do that really to the best of our ability.
“I think after that water break they tagged on three, four points in a row. It was kind of a killer for us as we were after having a good few wides previous to the water break. Once they get five or six points up on you, they are a very hard team to peg back.
“They are comfortable playing it short, long, whatever way you want. So once they got that lead, we did find it hard to break them down. They could sit back when we were trying to attack.”
Waterford didn’t make an issue of it being their fourth consecutive weekend of championship action but it hardly helped.
“We did everything we could, training was light, but yeah, maybe it does have an effect, I am not too sure,” said Barron.
“Look, it’s not an excuse from us. You would obviously rather a two-week break I suppose, or something like that.
“I know the Covid has kicked in and Tyrone are after getting a game pushed back there, so you kind of wonder could they give you an extra week, but look, that’s the way it is, we’re not in it to make excuses. It played out the way it did and we have no complaints.”
