In the 15 intervening years, nothing has surpassed the quality of the 2008 Fitzgibbon Cup final for Kevin Moran.
"Look, it was probably the best game I ever played in, to be honest," Waterford legend Moran said ahead of this week's Electric Ireland Fitzgibbon Cup semi-finals and final.
The 2008 decider between Waterford Institute of Technology and Limerick Institute of Technology was an all-time classic, one GAA president Nickey Brennan called the best game of hurling he'd seen at that time.
WIT won the game 1-29 to 1-24 after two periods of extra-time. The game saw Joe Canning end up on the losing side despite scoring 1-16, including four points from sideline balls.
1 March 2008; Waterford IT captain Kevin Moran lifts the Fitzgibbon Cup. Fitzgibbon Cup Hurling Final, Limerick IT v Waterford IT, Cork. Picture credit: Matt Browne / SPORTSFILE
"Looking back now on it you'd have fond memories," said Moran, who captained WIT that day.
"The calibre of players on display that day, you had Joe Canning and TJ Reid just to mention two, on opposition teams. It was just an incredible game.
"Any time you meet lads that you haven't seen in a few years that you won with back in 2008, it's the first thing that you want to go back to.
"We came in under the radar, I guess. I don't think we quite realised... We thought we were worse than what we were, put it that way. We got to the weekend and we played well against a really fancied UCC.
"Likewise, we then played an extremely fancied LIT team. Just from the get-go, it was score for score. Incredible skill levels from goalkeepers to Canning cutting over sideline cuts to John Dalton marking him and having an unbelievable game as well. It was just a top, top game throughout.
"We got the equaliser and we then just pushed on in extra-time. I think it was probably the best game I played in, yeah."
1 March 2008; Limerick IT are lead out onto the pitch by captain Maurice O'Brien. Ulster Bank Fitzgibbon Cup Hurling Final, Limerick IT v Waterford IT, Cork. Picture credit: Matt Browne / SPORTSFILE
That 2008 victory was the second Fitzgibbon Cup title win of Moran's career. He'd also been part of the WIT team which claimed the 2006 cup.
"It was a good stepping stone really," Moran says about playing third level hurling.
"It was different back when I was playing, you could play Fitzgibbon Cup as a fresher. So I would have been still minor when I was playing Freshers hurling and coming into a Fitzgibbon team that was a star-studded team and it just gave me an appetite then for it.
"I was only 17 or 18 and looked at top, top players from Wexford and Kilkenny. I think we were beaten in that first year by LIT and I just remember Eoin Kelly from Tipperary putting on a show that day. I think they had some super players that day as well.
"Then you just got a taste for it and you just wanted to try to make the team the following year and that coincided with getting a shout from [Waterfor manager] Justin McCarthy as well at the time.
"Yeah, it took off. Luckily enough we won it in my second year, my first year properly playing, in 2006. That got you up to speed straight away coming out of minor and going into adult hurling.
"I suppose there was some days that you learned a lot on the field of play moreso than you would have over the previous few years. Yeah, it was a really, really helpful way of making that transition from minor to adult hurling."
1 March 2008; Waterford IT players celebrate with the Fitzgibbon Cup. Fitzgibbon Cup Hurling Final, Limerick IT v Waterford IT, Cork. Picture credit: Matt Browne / SPORTSFILE
Colm Bonnar managed WIT to those victories during Moran's time at the college. The De La Salle man says Bonnar, with his flexible attitude, was the ideal person to lead them.
"Over the years, you'd hear crazy stuff about what colleges are doing," said Moran.
"Particularly if you have a big cluster of players who are training hard with counties, in that sense, less is more. Colm Bonnar was the perfect manager at the time for us. We knew that we had lads doing x,y, and z.
"Around Christmas, we always did an extremely tough training day, a bonding day. It got you involved. We went off out to Tramore running the sand dunes, and things like that.
"That was just a once off to say that, 'We're in this together. We're not going to kill you for the next two or three months'. Colm was top class. He was able to read lads. It didn't need to be a full-on, inter-county training session, two or three times a week because lads were committed to other things.
"He kept it very simple, and seemed to get it right as awful lot of the time. He prepared teams well by not overdoing it, getting them to really buy into it. I do remember having lots of good chats."
6 March 2004; Waterford IT captain J.J Delaney and coach Colm Bonnar celebrate after victory over UCC. Fitzgibbon Cup Final, Waterford IT v University College Cork, Athlone IT, Athlone, Co. Westmeath. Picture credit; Damien Eagers / SPORTSFILE *EDI*
Looking back now, TJ Reid is the standout name from the WIT team. Moran knew Reid was "gifted" at the time, but didn't realise how good he would become.
"I suppose you don't think that far ahead when you're that young," said Moran.
"You're only 19, 20, 21. He was an incredibly gifted fella. In fairness, he just kept getting better for the next 10 years. An awful lot of the time, you see players at that age, and they just hit a plateau, and don't push on. He just pushed the game to new boundaries.
"I'd consider him one of, if not, the greatest player I've played with or against. He was incredible. I admire him for how he was able to keep getting better when he was 27, 28, 29. We all knew he was going to be good. Did we know he was going to be that good? Probably not, to be honest with you. He was gifted.
"His brother was quite good as well at the time. Eoin was a top, top, player. Joe [Canning] was the real star player on the opposition team. You had two of the greatest ever players that have ever played the game in Joe and TJ, and that 2008 final was something you can talk about for many years to come."
This year, through its #FirstClassRivals campaign, Electric Ireland celebrated the unexpected alliances formed between county rivals as they come together in pursuit of some of the most coveted titles across Camogie and GAA.
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