In some ways, the arrival of Dessie Hutchinson back into an already stacked Ballygunner squad was the last thing the Waterford championship needed.
n contradiction, his decision to ditch soccer for a career with the Dise has looked to be just the tonic for the county team.
Prior to 2020, Waterford had taken just a draw from their previous eight championships, a run of results that took its toll on morale in the county.
But Liam Cahill has rejuvenated the squad, with the introduction of former Brighton man Hutchinson helping to revive the county's fortunes.
Already, Waterford have seen off Cork and Clare and went stride for stride for long periods with All-Ireland favourites Limerick.
Tomorrow night, they face Kilkenny in Croke Park for a place in the All-Ireland final. It will be another step in the development of Cahill's team, and another step forward for Hutchinson's fledgling inter-county hurling career.
Of course, Hutchinson might have been lost to the GAA forever. With his contract expiring in Brighton, he looked to be heading in the right direction. He captained the club's U-23s and made his first-team debut in the League Cup.
Business
Hutchinson was set to move to St Mirren on loan in January 2018 to gain first-team experience but then the business end of soccer took over.
The deal fell through around the paying of his wages. An untimely injury followed and suddenly his time was done. It was cruel and swift but just the nature of the beast.
At home he played briefly with Waterford FC, but seeing his brothers JJ and Wayne collect county titles with Ballygunner had its charms.
In truth, the club had never been far from his thoughts. While in England, he'd often puck around with the likes of Aaron Connolly and Jayson Molumby.
The pull of home and people and place never left him. So when he came he played football with Gaultier and joined up Ballygunner training after they had won five in a row in Waterford. It was a major boost to Ballygunner, already the pre-eminent side in the county, but also a blow to the chasing pack.
Earlier this year, they made it seven on the bounce, winning those finals by an average of more than 11 points.
And not too many are betting against them to equal, or even surpass, the county record of nine consecutive crowns.
And if Hutchinson has now found his feet at inter-county hurling, it was football manager Benji Whelan who handed him his first Waterford senior jersey in early 2019.
"We became aware of him for two reasons," Whelan remembers. "One was he was playing football with Gaultier and they were starting back. And also his brother JJ was playing with us at that point.
"So we bounced it off JJ when we heard he was back around and he said, 'Yeah, he's a nice footballer' so we asked him in and he came.
"We had probably a couple of games under our belt in the league. So he came on in a couple of games and as you know, its going to take time to get your footing. But he started championship for us that year.
Talented
"He's very talented. There's no two ways about it. The whole soccer side of things would have given him the left foot and the right foot and he can pick a pass with either foot from any distance. We kept him closer to goal because he was very accurate and we didn't see the best of him because he just needed more time."
Whelan studied exercise physiology in Trinity and noted Hutchinson's pace and agility.
"He trades on mobility. His agility is probably in the higher level, close to elite. He can accelerate and decelerate really, really quickly and he can turn off left or right very sharply.
"And he's also very clever, the way he plays he can create space for himself. So in football he was a natural inside forward."
Despite missing so many formative years, Whelan isn't surprised he has stepped up to county hurling so quickly.
"The thing about Dessie is that he was an accomplished hurler before he left for the UK . . . but for the fact that Ballygunner had so many players of a high calibre, Dessie would have been a big loss.
"Like Dessie would have been a huge loss to any other club in Waterford I would say. But he was always known as an accomplished hurler in Waterford. And all of those guys, who can perform to a high level, tend to have natural talent with co-ordination, balance, movement skills."
Our statistics, collated by analyst Diarmuid Whelan in conjunction with DeelySportScience.com, show the impact he has made in the championship so far.
Hutchinson has taken 12 shots in his three championship matches so far, delivering 2-6 and four wides.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given his relative inexperience at this level, his best performance came in the most recent game against Clare, where he hit 2-2.
Both our touch and shot maps show that Cahill wants the Ballygunner man close to goal, as he gets on the ball and shoots from on or inside the 45-metre line a large majority of the time.
And that's likely where he'll be stationed against the Cats tomorrow.
Team-mate Stephen Bennett has been impressed with Hutchinson so far and insists he'll get even better.
"In fairness to him, he is brilliant, he trains very hard. He is obviously very skilful, but it's his movement.
"I suppose the four years over training professionally definitely helped him. I just think his first five steps are just brilliant. You'd love to take it off him. He's really good.
"He'll always give the option. We need to get better at actually using him, and all our other forwards."
From Ballygunner to Brighton and back again, Waterford can be thankful that Hutchinson is here to stay. And he'll only get better.
Read more:
- Cyberpunk 2077's Development Was Shorter Than Anyone Realized - CBR - Comic Book Resources - January 19th, 2021
- How Star Wars Could Bring Back A Weapon More Powerful Than The Darksaber - Screen Rant - January 19th, 2021
- How to Fix Some of the Bachelors Thorny Logistical Issues - The Ringer - January 19th, 2021
- JUANITA FLOYD: What testimony will you leave behind? - Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal - January 17th, 2021
- The Kansas City Chiefs can secure place among NFLs all-time greatest teams - Arrowhead Addict - January 17th, 2021
- Kumbh Mela 2021 dates: Everything you need to know - The Indian Express - January 17th, 2021
- WandaVision Featurette May Be Hiding Another Major Avenger | CBR - CBR - Comic Book Resources - January 17th, 2021
- What happened to Jack on Macgyver? Here is the characters fate in the latest episode - Republic World - January 17th, 2021
- Essenes in Judaean Society: the sectarians of the Dead Sea Scrolls - OUPblog - January 17th, 2021
- 'I'm Thinking of Ending Things' and 'Ham on Rye': Odds and ends - People's World - January 17th, 2021
- Lord Of The Rings: 10 Things About Arwen and Aragorn's Relationship That Make No Sense - Screen Rant - January 17th, 2021
- CRYPTOSIS Take You Behind The Scenes Of "Prospect Of Immortality" Music Video - bravewords.com - January 9th, 2021
- Holocaust Memorial Center hosts 'Soap Myth' online reading and discussion - The Detroit News - January 9th, 2021
- Ahead of the national championship, Justin Fields high school coach relives his dominance in Georgia - Saturday Down South - January 9th, 2021
- Inverted tulips, juniper trees added to Iran's national heritage list - Tehran Times - January 9th, 2021
- How are former Yankees doing in the Hall of Fame voting? - Empire Sports Media - January 9th, 2021
- how is the calendar and when are the long weekends in the year - Explica - January 9th, 2021
- Unexpected discovery about stem cell immortality study - News - The University of Sydney - November 29th, 2020
- MLB Hall of Fame: Breaking down the 2021 ballot - Call to the Pen - November 29th, 2020
- Mythical Beasts that Simply Scream Nanjing - The Nanjinger - November 29th, 2020
- Maradonas divine goal and worthy absurdities - Mint - November 29th, 2020
- Exploring the Last Green Valley: Beauty found in December evergreens - Norwich Bulletin - November 29th, 2020
- Amazing Cultivation Simulator blends Taoist philosophy with Dwarf Fortress - PCGamesN - November 29th, 2020
- The myth of the apple - Evangelical Focus - November 29th, 2020
- Diego Maradona did 'everything better and bigger, but fell more dangerously and darker' - WDJT - November 29th, 2020
- Maradona flew and fell. It is why we loved him - The Straits Times - November 29th, 2020
- #ComicBytes: The comic book origin of Nick Fury | NewsBytes - NewsBytes - November 29th, 2020
- Never Seen Before Tolkien Works Will Be Published In 2021 - Unreserved Media - November 29th, 2020
- New Lord Of The Rings Book Announced, Will Reveal Who Can Grow Beards - GameSpot - November 29th, 2020
- Reminiscing grandmother during days of coronavirus - Hurriyet Daily News - November 29th, 2020
- Sean Connery: Bond and superstar - Frontline - November 29th, 2020
- Divock Origi has gone from unstoppable to invisible - Rousing the Kop - November 29th, 2020
- A Year of Free Comics: Immortality isnt all that it seems in LIVE FOREVER - Comics Beat - August 26th, 2020
- Under Ben Bulben: Neymar And A Saga Of Resurrection And Immortality - World Football Index - August 26th, 2020
- Rick and Morty plot hole: Rick's ride on the Whirly Dirly creates huge immortality blunder - Express - August 26th, 2020
- Sleeps With Monsters: Into the Woods With Emily Tesh and Carrie Vaughn - tor.com - August 26th, 2020
- Emily Dickinson is the unlikely hero of our time - Fairfield Citizen - August 26th, 2020
- Doom Patrol Leaves the Fate of the Whole Team Up in the Air | CBR - CBR - Comic Book Resources - August 26th, 2020
- Parenting in a pandemic? Your teen is counting on you more than ever - Your Valley - August 26th, 2020
- ALLEN IVERSON PAYS TRIBUTE TO KOBE Greatness needs company, and we needed each other. - Basketball Network - August 26th, 2020
- Lovecraft Country: Why the Sons of Adams Ritual Failed | CBR - CBR - Comic Book Resources - August 26th, 2020
- Lord of the Rings: 10 Things That Make No Sense About Orcs - Screen Rant - August 26th, 2020
- Hakuho may be on path to becoming great stablemaster if latest recruit pans out - The Japan Times - August 26th, 2020
- The Unbelievable True Story Of How The Memphis Pyramid Became A Bass Pro Shops - Forbes - August 26th, 2020
- American Horror Story: Every Immortal Character In The Show - Screen Rant - August 20th, 2020
- A look back at the faces of 170 years ago and more - Key West Florida Weekly - August 20th, 2020
- Moussa Dembele and the YouTube obsession that has Celtic icon on verge of Champions League immortality - Daily Record - August 20th, 2020
- Words from the Heart: The Message | Columnists | thesuntimes.com - Heber Springs Sun-Times - August 20th, 2020
- Eagles, the worshipped bird of prey of the ancient civilizations - Egypttoday - August 20th, 2020
- 'Burgh's Best to Wear It, No. 13: From midgets to the NFL, Dan Marino wore lucky number - TribLIVE - August 20th, 2020
- Ashton Kutcher Burned an Original Artwork to Promote a New Blockchain Marketplace Where Art Can (Kind of) Live Forever - artnet News - August 20th, 2020
- Aug. 19, 1951: Before Eddie Gaedel went to the plate, the Post-Dispatch got a heads-up - Houston Herald - August 20th, 2020
- 10 Questions We Have After Watching The Old Guard | ScreenRant - Screen Rant - August 20th, 2020
- Emotional character study 'The Truth' opens at the Ross this Friday - Daily Nebraskan - August 20th, 2020
- Astrology 2020: Message of the Day (August 20) - NewsroomPost - August 20th, 2020
- Why This Russian Billionaire Is Creating A Virtual Reality World For Music Festivals And Concerts - Forbes - August 20th, 2020
- Immortality or Bust - Film Threat - July 21st, 2020
- Keanu Reeves New Comic Book Is About An Immortal, But Its Not Autobiographical - Comic Years - July 21st, 2020
- Here's how you can win over 83 years of free Netflix service - Retail News Asia - July 21st, 2020
- Meryl Streep's Funniest Movie Characters and Their Best Moments - Showbiz Cheat Sheet - July 21st, 2020
- A Conversation With Director Gina Prince-Bythewood : 1A - NPR - July 21st, 2020
- ATEMS graduation allows Class of 2020 to rise from the ashes of a broken year - Abilene Reporter-News - July 21st, 2020
- Looking at nature, death, and immortality with a famous poet - McDonough Voice - July 17th, 2020
- The Old Guard: Why Andy Loses Her Immortality | Screen Rant - Screen Rant - July 17th, 2020
- Netflixs The Old Guard: A revolutionary, ancient gay romance - Vox.com - July 17th, 2020
- Where father, son correspond - Featured - The Island Now - July 17th, 2020
- Rockfield Studios: Where Ozzy, Oasis, Queen and Coldplay took off - BBC News - July 17th, 2020
- American Vampire by Snyder & Albuquerque returns this October with '70s setting and vibe - GamesRadar+ - July 17th, 2020
- The Old Guard ending explained and sequel news - RadioTimes - July 17th, 2020
- Fun, Guns, and Mum: New Stuff to Watch! - Omaha Reader - July 17th, 2020
- Warrior Nun Ending Explained What Happens to Ava and Adriel at the End of Warrior Nun? - Esquire - July 17th, 2020
- The 8 desires of human life and how to fulfill them - Times Now - July 17th, 2020
- Decade's best No. 1: Loyalsock's baseball team won 2013 PIAA Class AA title in one of state's most exciting finals | News, Sports, Jobs - Williamsport... - July 17th, 2020
- The only shame is that Liverpool brilliance will escape history books - Football365.com - July 17th, 2020
- The Old Guard revs up the senses with great action and fascinating story - culturemap.com - July 17th, 2020
- When There is Despair, There Will Be Hate Too. And That's Not a Bad Thing - The Wire - July 17th, 2020
- The Old Guard's New Trailer Dives Into the Painful Side of Immortality - Gizmodo UK - July 6th, 2020
- Charlize Theron in The Old Guard on Netflix: Film Review - Variety - July 6th, 2020
- Doctor Who Theory: How Rassilon Fits Into The Timeless Child Retcon - Screen Rant - July 6th, 2020
- Its Negligence: Young People Hosting Coronavirus Parties, Betting On Who Gets Infected First - CBS Pittsburgh - July 6th, 2020