Tom O’Connell was living the dream last weekend in Fraher Field Dungarvan, scoring 2-3 as Waterford secured their first championship win since 2018.
The Brickey Rangers man, who was on the Déise under 20 hurling team last year, took inspiration from England and Real Madrid star Jude Bellingham for his now iconic goal celebration as he revealed all to Tómas McCarthy of the Waterford News & Star about the historic win and the support he had and hadn’t in the stand.
“I told the boys that I would do something mad if I scored a goal! I copied Jude Bellingham!”
“My mother, my father, my aunt and a few cousins. I have a few cousins away. They’re over at the Munster match. They’ll be delighted now that’s the one they missed!”
This was his first championship win in a Waterford shirt.
The Brickey Rangers man first played for Waterford as a leaving cert student; this was his first win in the Déise jersey.
“We’ve had a lot of tough battles with Tipperary in the last few years, and we’ve always come out on the wrong side by a point or two every single time,” O’Connell said.
It’s great to get one over them and have a shot now at Clare. You never know what could happen now!”
“We were killing ourselves more so than anything. Getting into good positions and either fluffing our shots, giving away a bad pass or running into trouble. It was more what we were doing to ourselves than what Tipp were doing to us,
Gooch (Stephen Curry, who already has a nickname; sorry to disappoint the Sunday Game lads) scored a point straight after halftime, and that set us on the way. We were in a good place after that.”
Waterford will welcome the Banner to Fraher Field on Saturday week. For all the doom and gloom in Waterford, they're just one win from the Sam Maguire knockout stages.
Manager Paul told RTÉ his men would be celebrating the famous win, and he's right too.
