They didn't quite surpass themselves last Sunday. In the pantheon of Cork/Waterford clashes of the era, the nonpareil that was the 2004 Munster final naturally being untouchable, this fell a little way short of their 17 June meeting in Thurles. Cork didn't hurl with quite the same vibrancy. Waterford didn't hurl with quite the same poise. But Gerald McCarthy was correct nonetheless. "A joyful hurling match."

A joyful hurling match with a scorpion sting that a week later still prompts a disbelieving shake of the head. Cue Big Dan, the man who doesn't require a surname. "We were unlucky with the break too. It came out past me and Flynn was coming in behind me. Flynn had a go and it just hit O'Sullivan's fat ass and came out." What a man. What a collection of men. Another afternoon they've given us that we'll take to our graves.

Marvel of marvels, familiarity demonstrates no signs of festering into contempt.

John Mullane upended John Gardiner at one stage in the first half. What followed was a Cork free, not an eruption of Krakatoa. That said, it would be wise to avoid the assumption that peace and harmony will reign indefinitely.

The winners, existentially speaking, of a drawn game? Waterford. They took Cork's fury and frustration and best shots and remained on their feet. They trailed by four points with as many minutes left but lost neither their heads nor the match. They hit some rancid, psychologically crippling wides in the closing stages . . . in volume two of his memoirs Justin can take us through his thought processes when failing to instruct Ken McGrath to go short with the last free . . .

and survived. Dan's pal Diarmuid O'Sullivan has asserted, entirely justifiably, that Waterford will only deserve an All Ireland title when they've earned it. Last Sunday they deserved a draw. They'd earned it. Brian Corcoran will have approved.

For all the talk beforehand that Cork were on the law of averages due a victory, here was the fourth meeting of the counties since March in which Waterford finished unbeaten. That's a pattern, not a coincidence.

Only barely, mind, this being the most Waterlooesque of close-run things. With three minutes remaining, more than one occupant of the press box was on the verge of tears. A Waterford defeat last Sunday would have broken a thousand neutral hearts. A Waterford defeat today, by way of contrast, will merely result in the shrugging of a thousand neutral shoulders. Lose now after breaking out of Colditz and the Deise won't have deserved to reach the sanctuary of the semi-final. If you have tears, don't bother to shed them.

If on the other hand you have applause, give Cork an equal share of it. Semplegate and its aftermath, the provincial semi-final defeat, the collapse against Tipp: the combination would have broken the spirit of many a lesser team.

Being the Cork of Donal Og and Sean Og, they took arms against their sea of troubles and put them to flight. Were they the representatives of another county, an orchestral suite would already have been composed in their honour. Yet while their spirit remains fireproof, their petrol levels are a different matter. Today's will be the seventh outing of the summer for a team who've been pounding the treadmill since 2003. Waterford, in cold storage for the previous three weeks, will be a sharper proposition than they were on Sunday.

Was Donal Og unfortunate? Clearly.

Was he the victim of an outrageous miscarriage of justice? Clearly not.

Cusack might reflect that things could have been worse, indeed; that a man who's twice conceded converted 65's in big championship matches kept visibly straying outside the square with his puckouts in the closing 10 minutes was staggering. Cork had less to complain about than they imagined. Faced with the biggest decision of his career, Brian Gavin applied the rules and squarely avoided the temptation to cop out. Give him a medal as well as a pat on the back. One quibble, however. If Gavin is not refereeing from too far back, he gives the impression at times that he's refereeing from too far back. Same difference.

It could have been much, much worse for Gerald Mac's team, of course: imagine had it been Paul Flynn careering through with that last ball. Indubitably Eoin McGrath took the wrong option. The wrong option, the wild option, the testosterone option. Occasionally the right way . . . the only way - to be a hero is by not trying to be a hero. In the event that another late shootout ensues this afternoon, Waterford will have more guns in their armoury if they can confine McGrath, who was introduced after 22 minutes and couldn't have complained had he been returned from whence he came as early as half-time, to the bench till the closing quarter.

They'll also be well advised to stop messing Seamus Prendergast around. Much like Michael Walsh when tried . . . and wasted - there last year, Prendergast isn't and never will be a full-forward. The hands are too slow, the turning circle too wide. Anyway, Waterford need Prendergast out on the half-forward line, where he did more than most to crucify Cork in the air in the Munster semi-final, for another reason. In the same way that a DJ special was worth more than three points to Kilkenny a few years back, a score from Sean Og is worth more than one point to Cork. The obvious counterfoil is an opponent with the presence and the upper-body strength to prevent O hAilpin doing his battering-ram impression and hitting the gainline. Prendergast is perfect for the job. The aforementioned Walsh, incidentally, could do with a few sessions in a ball alley. Neatly though he's directing them, he's spooning diagonal deliveries that ought to be decapitating daisies.

The other Prendergast, who should study the power and precision that O'Sullivan works up in batting away incoming deliveries, has the build of a man suited to a tall and awkward marker. Kieran Murphy is neither. Donal O'Grady has long lauded Murphy's supreme intelligence and ability to set up scores as freely as take them. Having showcased his aptitude for the latter the last time the counties met, here the Sarsfields man demonstrated his other party piece, dropping off the edge of the square to roam the area behind the trenches and let off firecrackers. There he was unmarkable, in the second quarter alone drawing two frees, making a point for Ben O'Connor, creating an opportunity for Joe Deane and driving a wide. Fancy betting against Murphy handing off the sliotar to one of the Cork midfielders who comes storming through to stick it in the net?

Tom Kenny had the chance to do exactly that in the 12th minute but divested himself of a harmless shot that Clinton Hennessy had time and sight to gather as opposed to block. Hennessy, in what turned out to be his first sloppy championship display for his county, got away with it then. Not altogether astonishingly, a similarly slack parry betrayed him for Neil Ronan's second goal. Snakes, ladders.

It's half-time. It's still Waterford's to spurn.

The Tribune still believes they won't.

CORK D Og Cusack; S O'Neill, D O'Sullivan, B Murphy; J Gardiner, R Curran, S Og O hAilpin; T Kenny, J O'Connor; B O'Connor, T McCarthy, P Cronin; N Ronan, K Murphy, J Deane

WATERFORD C Hennessy; E Murphy, D Prendergast, B Phelan; T Browne, K McGrath, A Kearney; M Walsh, S Walsh; S Molumphy, S Prendergast, E Kelly; J Mullane, D Shanahan, P Flynn

ALL IRELAND SHC QUARTER-FINAL REPLAY CORK vWATERFORD Croke Park, 4.00 Referee B Kelly (Westmeath) Extra time if necessary Live RTE 2