Following three Waterford SFC Final defeats in a row, Rathgormack won the 2023 title.
By Cian O’Connell
“You hit the nail on the head with the word – relief,” Rathgormack manager Kenny Hassett laughs when asked about the overriding emotion following the recent Waterford SFC Final triumph.
“That was my initial reaction when I was talking to Kieran O'Connor on WLR afterwards. Obviously, there is joy, but relief was the big thing after, we had lost the three previous county finals, so to get over the line, it was great.”
Relevant in Waterford recently, Rathgormack, who triumphed in 2019, had lost three deciders on the spin. Each loss was tight meaning regrets existed, but Hassett was fully aware of the work being carried out in the juvenile ranks.
“We are a rural area, the parish is made up of two villages, Rathgormack and Clonea Power,” he explains. “We are Clonea in hurling and Rathgormack in football, that is the way it works. There is a school in each village.
“Numbers wise we always field teams, we wouldn't be flush with numbers. If we were playing U12 we might have to go down to U10 to make it up, but at the moment, going into the adult grades we have a good retention rate. We are very lucky in that regard in both codes.
“Both clubs, Clonea and Rathgormack, have put in a third team in the last number of years, to help cater for the young lads coming through, just to give them games.”
A passion for football endures in Rathgormack, who have now collected 11 Waterford SFC titles. Six of those, though, were won before 1918, but the past couple of decades have brought some joy. “Rathgormack has always been a football club,” Hassett says.
“We are in an area - Kilrossanty are close to us, The Nire are close to us, two other big footballing areas. Clonmel is only up the road, we would be near south Tipperary with Commercials, Moyle Rovers, they are not too far away from us either. So, we are sort of in a footballing area.”
Hassett called in the help of an old friend, Declan Browne, too. The classy former Tipperary forward has added significantly to Rathgormack’s approach according to Hassett. “I went to college with Deccie so myself and Deccie go back a long way,” Hassett remarks.
“He is fantastic, he was a brilliant footballer, an unbelievable footballer. People talk about Gooch (Cooper) and (Peter) Canavan or whoever, Deccie was up there with those. It is great to have him in the dressing room.
Kenny Hassett continues to enjoy managing Rathgormack.
“Not only from a coaching point of view, but from the little things he spots, his calmness and coolness on the line. We are lucky to have him.”
Sunday’s AIB Munster Club SFC Semi-Final against Castlehaven is next on the agenda for Rathgormack. Ultimately, Hassett is adamant that there is potential in Waterford to make real strides under new manager Paul Shankey.
“Completely, best of luck to Paul Shankey too, he would have played football with us for a while in Rathgormack when he came down from Meath first,” Hassett recalls. “He played a few years with us.
“If you look at this year's club championship, the usual four in the last few years were ourselves, Gaultier, The Nire, and Ballinacourty.
"This year Gaultier were pipped by The Nire in the quarter-final, it went to extra-time, it was a fantastic game. Rinn got to the semi-final, they beat Ballinacourty.
“So, suddenly with Kilrossanty, you had two new teams in the semi-finals, they were high standard games - close matches.
“The quality was good, I saw them all, you can see there is fierce potential there. Hurling is always going to be number one in the county, but if lads who should commit, do commit, Waterford should be getting close to getting promotion from Division Four.”
For Rathgormack to be involved in a high stakes match against Castlehaven in the closing days of November is a challenge that will be embraced. “It is fantastic, we are 60 minutes away from a Munster Final,” he says.
“Previously in the 90s when we won three county titles, we lost to Laune Rangers, who were All-Ireland champions after a replay in '96, we lost to UCC after a replay in '99, both of them went on to win Munster.
“The lads in 2019 also played Milltown-Malbay up there, they put on a great show and went to extra-time. It is a competition we've always taken seriously. Not only that, it is a competition in which we have always produced and played well in, we hope to continue that on Sunday.”
