DEVELOPING the staying power required to go the distance will be essential if Waterford are to maintain their upward trajectory.
That is the assessment of skipper Emma Murray ahead of this weekend’s TG4 All-Ireland Ladies SFC opener against Dublin.
Murray and her team-mates were on course to deliver Waterford’s first Munster title in 23 years in the recent final against All-Ireland champs Kerry.
The Déise held a 0-10 to 0-6 lead entering the closing stages but had their hearts broken as Danielle O’Leary and Mary O’Connell netted late goals.
Murray told SunSport: “Obviously you’re a bit raw after losing a game like that when you know you’ve left a bit of silverware behind you.
“But you eventually see positives from the performance over 40, 50 minutes.
“We’ll certainly have to take huge learnings from it and bring them into our All-Ireland campaign. I suppose it’s about closing out games.
“The momentum shifted to Kerry in that last ten minutes and we struggled to get it back.
“The key message within the panel is the importance of making sure you’re performing for 60-plus minutes.
“The game isn’t over until that whistle goes. You have to sustain your performance until you get there.”
Despite that disappointment, Waterford are a team on the rise.
Wins over Mayo, Tyrone, Kildare and defending champions Armagh helped Tomás Mac an tSaoir’s side to a third-place finish in NFL Division 1.
They also advanced to the provincial decider by getting the better of a Cork team who eliminated them from Brendan Martin Cup contention last year with a ten-point win at the quarter-final stage.
Murray acknowledged: “We finished fourth in Munster last year so getting to a Munster final was huge progress for us.
“For there to only be two points in it against Kerry, and in the round-robin series it was only a point.
“Competing like that with the All-Ireland champions is absolutely where we want to be.”
