Ballygunner's Shane O'Sullivan says that the All-Ireland champions have "massive respect for everyone we play" as they prepare to do battle with Ballyhale Shamrocks again on Sunday.
Last February, the Waterford kingpins scored an injury-time goal to deny the Kilkenny side a first club hurling three-in-a-row.
In his victory speech 10 months ago, Gunners co-captain Barry Coughlan praised Ballyhale as "the best club team ever" but also added the seemingly innocuous observation that "we robbed it today, you know. I suppose ye have done that to other teams so I suppose it goes around, it comes around.
"But I mean that with most respect. You're on the road a long time and hopefully we'll see ye again next year if ye do get out again."
That didn't apparently didn't sit well with Shamrocks forward Colin Fennelly however, and speaking recently ahead of this weekend's rematch in the AIB All-Ireland senior club championship semi-final, he mentioned that "Their speech at the end of the game, it's not something you want to hear."
"You want that little bit of respect but, look, we’ll keep our heads down, we’ll do what we can do over the next two weeks."
Speaking to RTÉ Sport today, Ballygunner defender Shane O'Sullivan said: "People were mentioning it to me, I didn't read the comments. I'm not sure what Colin meant or what he said, but I do know what Barry said in the context of last year's speech.
"As part of that speech he was extremely complimentary to Ballyhale. I think he spoke about them as one of the greatest club teams of all time, but people tend to misconstrue or take elements out of [it].
"Somebody else told me it something [that was] was hard to listen to Colin was referencing. I don't know the quotes, but obviously if you're on the field after losing an All-Ireland final it is hard to listen to anything - the context of that. You have to empathise with how his experience was as well too at the time and moment he was experiencing.
"We have massive respect for every opponent we play, we have the utmost respect for all teams left in the competition. One thing that has served us really well in the past, nine years - is the humility we have as a group to disrespect nobody. Every day we go to play we go to turn up, we never disrespect anybody and we never will. I think that is our line."
Ballygunner have just completed nine-in-a-row in Waterford but 37-year-old O'Sullivan lost his first three county senior finals. Though even then, the ambitions were sky high.
"My dad passed away two or three years ago," he said. "All he ever talked about was an All-Ireland club. That was the one.
"Now he was talking about this when we weren't even competing for county championships. I remember being at dinner dances and people looking saying 'Who is this lunatic? He’s talking about All-Ireland clubs and we can’t even get out of our county!’
"So when I was very young that was absolutely drilled into me. Even the letters from the founding member of our club Jimmy McGinn, the dying letters he sent to my Dad. Him reading those out to me as a young man, I would nearly get emotional speaking about it. Talking about the vision of the club and what it meant.
"It’s an about an identity and a sense of place. When Mr McGinn came in and founded the club, it wasn’t about All-Ireland clubs at the time. It was about just giving people identity and hope.
"There was no team in our area. They used to call it the dead centre of Waterford because we had the biggest graveyard in Waterford. He just wanted to give people an identity and that’s where the club came from. Then they started to build on that and build on that.
"Then, over time, the vision transformed into ‘We want to be the best’. So for me, that belief and conviction was nearly subconscious. Even if I was not playing, I would be doing everything I could for this club to take them to the highest level because it was bred into me. I was lucky in a sense that I had that."
"There is definitely a subconscious belief system there saying we have been there and done that"
O'Sullivan lost four Munster deciders before Ballyhale finally got over that hurdle in 2018. Ballyhale accounted for them in the All-Ireland semi-finals the following February.
The Gunners lost their provincial crown to Borris-Ileigh in 2019 but reclaimed it last year and recorded a memorable triumph over Shamrocks in what was their maiden All-Ireland appearance.
"There is definitely a subconscious belief system there saying we have been there and done that," admits O'Sullivan.
"So there might be a little bit more freedom in the context of having - not that monkey off the back - but having achieved that level.
"It is a new year, a new team, it has new opportunities, it is going to be a completely different game. The four teams that are left are stronger than they were last year in different parts of the game.
"It isn't something we have paid any conversations to. It is in the past, although it was great, we have to move on."
O'Sullivan retired from inter-county duty in 2017 but nine years before that he was part of the Davy Fitzgerald-managed side that reached the All-Ireland final.
How does he feel about Davy's second coming with the Déise?
"It is really good for Waterford on two counts," he says. "First of all there weren't too many internally that were really going to take on the role. Obviously if you had somebody of a high calibre within the county it would be beneficial. I don't think there was anyone there, in that context.
"Wherever Davy goes he brings success. He has evolved phenomenally since his first experience with Waterford. If you remember he took us to an All-Ireland final, we hadn't been at one since 1963. That was in his first year in inter-county management. Since then he has obviously travelled, went to Clare won an All-Ireland, went to Wexford, won a Leinster Championship. He has been really successful, he does bring that enthusiasm and passion.
"The second thing I'd say is as he has evolved he has brought a really good understanding about who he can get in to help him. In Clare he had Paul Kinnerk, in Wexford, the same, he had a number of really good people around him. No doubt, if he brings that into Waterford with the players we have and obviously the players we have coming - there is a great abundance of talent that we can definitely progress."
Can Davy take them one step further after final defeats in 2017 and 2020?
"One hundred percent. It's there for Waterford. I mean, it's not easily done, it might take two or three years, but they're knocking on the door now four, five, six years, and there's an abundance of talent coming that I think if it's managed right, definitely we can win an All-Ireland with Waterford."
