By John Harrington

The sights and sounds of the epic 2004 Munster Hurling Final between Waterford and Cork still replay in glorious technicolour in the mind’s eye 16 years later.

The spine-tingling rendition of Amhrán na bhFiann by a heaving Semple Stadium before the ball was thrown in.

The way the sun burst through the clouds at the start of the game after a wet and dreary morning to give us stage befitting of the drama to come.

The relentlessness of the contest that left supporters as emotionally exhausted as the players were physically.

The happy marriage of pure skill and raw physicality that made every minute of the match something to really savour.

It was a privilege to be there to witness the game, and for the players themselves there was an immediate realisation they had been part of something very special indeed.

“I think it was the best game, and standard, of hurling that I’ve ever played in,” Waterford’s captain on the day, Ken McGrath, told GAA.ie

“You had a Waterford team at its peak, you had a Cork team at its peak.

“That final to me, was as good as any game played and it would stand over any game played even played now.

“We felt we had a point to prove. We were champions in ‘02 after beating Tipp. In ‘03 we lost to Cork. Mullane scored I think 3-1 the same day.

“We didn’t play well in ‘03 and it was basically the same teams for the two years. It was a massive game for us and we were really looking forward to it and we were very confident going in.

“We were after training very, very hard in ‘04. We were much fitter than we were in ‘03 as well, and fellas couldn’t wait for that game.”

Cork went into the match as slight favourites. They had beaten Waterford in the 2003 provincial final and were unlucky to then lose the All-Ireland Final to Kilkenny.

But as good as the Cork players were feeling about their own preparations, they were also wary about the quicksilver brilliance that always made Waterford such a unique threat.

“They had very marquee, maverick players like Paul Flynn, Dan Shanahan and Eoin Kelly,” former Cork player, Tom Kenny, told GAA.ie

“You could study them before a match or at half-time and say 'this is what they’re doing'.

“Then they could come out in the second-half and do something totally different yet still be successful at doing it. It’s very hard to play against them.”

And, yet, Cork supporters and maybe even the players too may have thought this would be a more straight-forward afternoon than they expected when the Rebels raced into a 1-3 to 0-1 lead after just eight minutes.

The goal Waterford conceded was a deflating one, as goalkeeper Stephen Brenner allowed an innocuous first-time pull from Garvan McCarthy run under his hurley and into the net.

“It was a bad mistake out of Stevie (Brenner) but these things happen at times in games,” says McGrath.

"That game was so fast and the ball was moving at so much space you couldn’t think too much about what went on,” says McGrath.

“I remember that goal, and even running out the pitch saying ‘right, this is one of these things that can happen’.

The sun was really shining now and Cork were making hay. Ben O’Connor was torching Eoin Murphy every time he got the ball, Brian Corcoran was giving the Cork attack another significant beach-head with his ball-winning and point-taking ability, and Joe Deane was typically clinical too.

But against the general run of play, Waterford managed to keep themselves in the contest by hitting two first-half goals.

First, Eoin Kelly outflanked the Cork defence with a turbo-charged solo-run before driving the ball brilliantly to the net from a tight angle.

Eleven minutes later Dan Shanahan scored their second goal to reduce the gap to two points when ghosted in behind the Cork full-back line and to collect and then dispatch a dropping ball.

Waterford trailed by 1-14 to 2-8 at half-time, and could have considered themselves fortunate to be only three points in arrears.

“At half-time we just said, ‘look, there is more in us’,” said McGrath.

“We didn’t hurl to our full potential yet and we can’t let this slip again.

“If we lose two Munster finals in a row to Cork it would be hard to get over. Fellas were mad to get out after half-time. We were eager to get back out and perform again."

John Mullane gave Waterford the perfect start to the half with a typically audacious point ten seconds after the throw-in, but a couple of minutes later was red-carded for an off the ball tangle with Brian Murphy.

You presumed being reduced to 14 men would be a mortal blow for Waterford, but instead it inspired them to redouble their efforts.

“I suppose Mullane could have been too eager to get out (for the second-half,” says McGrath.

“Then the game took on a life of its own in the second-half. It went up another two or three levels. It was absolutely crazy.

“I think the players to a man all stepped it up and kept on working harder and got back into the game.

“Then the turning point came, I think Dan caught a great ball and maybe got a lucky enough free off Sean Óg (Ó hAilpín) and Flynners buried it. That was the turning point in that game really.”

Even before Paul Flynn’s goal, the flow of the game had altered.

Cork had run through the Waterford defence with ease for much of the first half, but changed tack in the second-half and suffered for it.

They used Diarmuid O’Sullivan as a spare man and supplied him with short-puck outs.

He would then more often than not drive the ball down the field as far as he could, but this played into Waterford’s hands who were much more comfortable contesting 50-50 deliveries than dealing with Cork runners from deep.

Ken McGrath started hurling up a storm at centre-back and his colleagues in the Waterford defence soon rallied to his leadership.

The Flynn goal came after 52 minutes and it was a moment of genius perhaps only he of his era would have been capable of.

Striking frees with top-spin so they’d dip at the last moment was something he worked on a lot in training, but it’s one thing executing a trick-shot in training and another thing entirely pulling it off in a Munster Final.

Flynn was 35 yards or so from goal and you presumed he’d just tap it over for a point, but instead he unleashed a corker that dipped over a thicket of hurleys and into the top corner.

“If it had been stopped I’d have looked a right eejit but I calculated that the worst thing that was likely to happen was one of their hurleys would put it over the bar or it would go over the bar anyway,” said Flynn in an interview with the Irish Examiner in 2014.

“I felt we needed a goal. If I tipped it over the bar with us playing into the wind, down to 14 men and still a point down, we were going to struggle.

“A goal and we had a right chance. The actual goal changed Cork’s mentality more than ours. Ronan Curran started shooting on the run along the wing. Diarmuid O’Sullivan came out and shot from his own 45.”

Even the normally unflappable Cork defender Sean Óg Ó hAilpín was flustered by the concession of a goal in such unexpected circumstances.

In an interview with Newstalk Radio in 2017 he admitted he was sorely tempted to ‘deck’ Dan Shanahan after Flynn’s shot rattled the net.

“It was about 35 yards out and in my head there’s no way he’s going to go for this,” recalled Ó hAilpín.

“We were a man up, gale-force wind behind us, so you’re thinking that Cork should be passing the Horse and Jockey with the Cup at this stage on the way home.

“When Paul was lining up for that free, Dan was in the middle of us trying to make a nuisance of himself.

“All he was saying was, ‘Lads, he’s going to go for it, I’m telling ye, he’s going to go for it’. We’re all thinking, ‘Yeah, sure. He’s never going to go for it, he’s about 35 yards out. He’s just going to tap this over’.

“Then, lo and behold, Paul Flynn does a Roger Federer forehand up the court, triple top-spin, beats us, and then Dan turns around to me and says, ‘I told you, Ógie, he was going to go for it!’

“And I just wanted to deck the man because the truth hurts!”

Waterford were surfing a wave of momentum by now. Even when Ben O’Connor briefly put Cork back into the lead with a ’65, Waterford responded immediately when Eoin Kelly struck a brilliant point from the right wing.

Both teams hit some poor wides as nerves started to jangle, but whenever Waterford did score it was always something spectacular that gave the players and their supporters even more of a lift.

Paul Flynn landed a classy over the shoulder point from the left wing and then Seamus Prendergast hit another cracking point seconds after his brother Declan foiled a Cork goal-scoring chance at the other end of the field.

Diarmuid O’Sullivan moved into the Cork attack in a desperate last throw of the dice, but, when the ball was hit down on top of him, out came the by now irresistible Ken McGrath to rise hightest and catch it in spectacular fashion before winning a free.

The final whistle blew seconds later, and every Waterford supporter in the stadium as well as the players on the pitch went various degrees of buck-wild.

“It was unreal,” said McGrath about hearing the final whistle. “You always want to play in them games. It was brilliant, and look, being the captain, it was special.

“You’re on a high straight away and I suppose back then crowds were allowed on the pitch. It was like a mini All-Ireland really for us. It was definitely the best game that I’ve ever played in.”