Waterford GAA Discussion Thread 2011-2012

our "ageing team" did it again,

4 'elderly' championship debutants :rolleyes: + the aging twomey, o'neill, connors, tommy ryan change the game

theres a lot of miles left on our aging team.

F*ck RTE, F*ck Cyril Farrel, F*ck the media... this team is going to be around for the long haul.........and last but not least F*CK Michael Duignan and his "neutral" commentary


GO ON THE DEISE

themandan6611 wrote: »

jaysus, davy looks like sh^t

Yeah, he looked like the manger of a team who'd just lost a tight game by a couple of points.

cornerboy wrote: »

I think this one meant more to Waterford. Clare probably have a brighter future.

yeah because we have so many old fellas on our team it probably stands as a bit of a last hurrah for us......... me eye

Intermediates:

Was very suprised how this game went. The team was well out of it's depth and left themselves a huge task going 0-8 to 0-0 score down in the first half. The main problem seemed to be the half forward line which was far too small, really. They brought Gavin Crotty out from full forward to midfield to creat space inside, and it seemed to work better. Seamus Lawlor got a very good point to get the team going, which was added to by Finan Murray from play and then Brian O'Halloran made a good run through the middle and offloaded to Jake Dillon who received the pass and scored a goal. Clare tagged on another point as did Waterford and I think there was 4 in it at half time.

I was bemused to see Seamus Lawlor had been taken off at half time, but obviously the Management saw something I didnt unless of course injury was the cause. Waterford were very sluggish at the start of the second half too, and Clare picked off plenty of easy points. Clare then goaled from a penalty to leave 11 between the sides. Waterford fought back, however, and outstanding finish by O'Halloran was matched by and outstanding solo effort from Eamon Murphy. Ray Barry then pointed and there was only four in it but at that late stage there was time for no more.

Clare probably took the foot of the gas but the two key instigators in Waterford's comeback were Eoin Madigan (excellent second half) and Ray Barry, who really raised questions as to why he didn't start. Disapointing performance overall it must be said.

Senior:

What can you say about this team really? Time and time again they prove the critics wrong. RTE said they'd lose on their website, as did Gizzy Lyng, John Meyler and Vincent Hogan on the Comittee Room, and Eddie Brennan in the Sunday Times (he also thought Offaly would beat Galway) and I have no doubt the Sunday Game panellists didn't make much of our chances. There is some resilience in this team, no question about it.

First thing I'll say is it should not have been a penalty. Kelly pulled the helmet off of Cian Dillon's head and I can't believe the ref missed it. Kelly took it well, but that was about as much as he did for the entire match and a competent referee (if there is such a thing) would have given a free against him, and what you say about his performance then? Felt he should have been brought off before Shane Walsh, who scored 1-1, though injury may have been the cause there as he went down a few times.

Thought the backs in general were outstanding. Daniels would be either man of the match or next in line for it, the way he marshalled Conor McGrath was very impressive. Liam Lawlor did well enough when he was involved. Ringo was doing alright before he came off, and Moran was catching great ball with Brick solid in the Centre as always. Didn't think Foley had a great first half I must say but he did battle hard. Mahony was excellent first half and was good through out, himself and Daniels really proved a point to Fitzgerald who didn't give them much of a look in the past two years. Then we come to Molumphy, who I guess probably was the man of the match. He's just immense the way he gets in players faces and intercepts and gobbles up balls when there are a few players trying to win the ball, got a good point to boot.

I didn't think Seamus was playing well but then I guess I wasn't really taking into consideration what his job was. He disrupted McInerney so well he got taken off, and did get on a lot of ball as well as scoring a point. The interchanging of the forwards gave Clare a lot of problems in the first half. Maurice was solid on frees and did well I felt. I though Gavin O'Brien did well on his debut too, also contributing to the scoreline and giving his man enough to think about. Mullane caused a good deal of damage on the wing and caught two great balls, another impressive performance from him.

Paul O'Brien did well when he came on, winning those two frees and Martin O'Neill did well too. Was impressed with Tommy Ryan's workrate as he setup O'Neill, and unlucky he didn't get a goal, maybe he should have stuck it over but he's good player to have when the game opens up.

Stephen O'Keeffe is a great keeper and made two excellent saves. It was fitting that from the second one it was Molumphy that came out with the ball as the full time whistle blew.

On the ref, I think he was very poor. He definitely favoured us first half, gave us one or two soft ones, the penalty and also denied Clare a few frees they were entitled to as well.

Thought he shifted into favouring Clare second half, dunno where he pulled 3 minutes of added time from, and there was definetly some frees I wasn't happy with.

On balance, we deserved the narrow victory I think but we've plenty to work on in terms of winning primary possession in the forwards. I was happy to note that we seemed to be using the ball fairly well and there wasn't too many instances of really wasteful ball played out of the backline which is something I think we have been guilty of the last few years.

Anyway, delighted with win, UP THE DÉISE!