It’s a little heartbreaking how Kevin Moran and Derek McGrath have dealt with All-Ireland defeat

As a supporter, it is absolutely devastating seeing your county lose an All-Ireland final.

What is more devastating has to be losing one as a player. That's sport, the good moments are great but the bad ones are awful. Waterford reached their first All-Ireland final since 2008 but were beaten by Galway at the start of September in a scoreline of 0-26 to 2-17, a tough pill to swallow. All the cold winter nights, the pucking of a ball every day, the miles run and all the hard work put in all to watch Galway lift the Liam McCarthy Cup, devastating. But life goes on, Waterford's captain Kevin Moran has to go back to his day job and so too does Derek McGrath. They work together in De La Salle college. They talk about hurling, they talk about their clubs but they don't talk about 3 September. Kevin Moran was speaking at the announcement of PwC's sponsorship of the PwC All-Star's where Moran himself was nominated for Player of the Year:

"I’ve seen him out and about in the school and things like that and being straight up I wouldn’t talk to him about it. Everyone wants their space," Moran said.  "We’d talk about everything else but – hurling or the club or things like that. "Look, I’m sure he’s equally the same as we all are if not more so but it’s very raw for him I’m sure and look I’m just going to give him time and space and leave him clear his head," the Waterford captain said. 

You can only wonder after a defeat like that how hard it would be to come back and do it all over again, there are always question marks over a manager returning, not because the players and the fans don't want him to but rather can they do it to themselves all over again. And Moran is unsure himself: "I genuinely don’t know, I really hope so but as I said we’re all disappointed, he’s disappointed and players are looking at next year," Moran said. "We’ll just see what happens over the next few weeks."