Waterford GAA Discussion Thread 2011-2012

Haven't heard anything yet...I presume Iggy will be on goal?

Mountainlad wrote: »

How come Mahony is available?

I wasnt aware he was available.. are you sure Mountainlad??

looking forward to seeing how that full back line performs. very youthful but great potential. i suppose its the silver lining of the cloud that is noel connors and ringo being injured. heard shane o'sullivan just has a virus nothing serious. maurice was walking around at training tonight handy enough so there's nothing broken there anyway so hopefully he'l be back for next match in two weeks. shane walsh trained last two sessions so he looks good to go. cant wait until tomorrow now, really hope the lads get off to a good start.

Mountainlad wrote: »

Team

1.Iggy
2.Stephen Daniels
3.Darragh Fives
4.Philip Mahony
5.Jamie Nagle
6.Kevin Moran
7.Declan Prender
8.Paul O'Brien
9.Steve Molumphy
10.Seamus Prender
11.Brick
12.Paudie Mahony
13.Martin O'Neill
14.Shane Walsh
15.Shane Casey

Why the f**k would you come on here posting a fake team. You're some moron. The real team is

1. Ian O’Regan
2. Noel Connors
3. Darragh Fives
4. Aidan Kearney
5. Jamie Nagle
6. Kevin Moran
7. Shane O’Sullivan
8. Stephen Molumphy
9. Paul O’Brien
10. Maurice Shanahan
11. Michael Walsh
12. Paudie Mahony
13. Martin O’Neill
14. Shane Walsh
15. Shane Casey

The Waterford side to face Cork in the first round of the NHL has been announced.

The Decies travel to Pairc Ui Rinn to take on the Rebels in their own back yard in an all-Munster Division 1A opener and Michael Ryan has named a team of interesting dynamic for his first league game at the helm.

Twelve different clubs are represented, with only Mount Sion, Ballygunner and Tallow providing more than one player (two each).

Stradbally's Michael 'Brick' Walsh captains the side from centre forward, with former captain Stephen Molumphy (Ballyduff Upper) and Tallow's Paul O'Brien forming the midfield axis.

The full forward line comprises Martin O'Neill (Mount Sion), Shane Walsh (Fourmilewater) and Shane Casey (Dunhill).

Waterford (NHL V Cork): Ian O'Regan; Noel Connors, Daragh Fives, Aidan Kearney; Jamie Nagle, Kevin Moran, Shane O'Sullivan; Stephen Molumphy, Paul O'Brien; Maurice Shanahan, Michael Walsh (captain), Paudie Mahony; Martin O'Neill, Shane Walsh, Shane Casey.

Seems like Michael Ryan and co, are not above a little gamesmanship..

Don't bother their getting hammered.Really bad

Despite the poverty of their overall display, were it not for some terrible shooting by Waterford and Seamus Prendergast’s deflected shot going the wrong side of the post, for all Cork’s fancy play this game still could have been very close at the end. Three of Shane Casey’s misses are simply unacceptable at this level and Pauric Mahony was also guilty of some bad misses.

The poor shooting was itself one symptom of Waterford’s very poor first touch and striking on the night, in contrast to Cork’s sharpness in these areas. There are two normal explanations for poor touch and striking. One is that the team hasn’t been doing enough hurling on the training field. The other is that the team just wasn’t psychologically up for the game.

The latter explanation seems the most obvious to me, as also reflected in the team’s lack of physicality and alertness, as they repeatedly gave Cork the freedom of the park to do what they liked with the ball. It is virtually a law of nature that if you allow Cork to play, they will do precisely that. The best way to beat Cork is to get stuck into them, as they tend to have a lot of flashy players with no real stomach for a physical battle. Players like Pa Cronin and Cathal Naughton are notorious for disappearing out of games when the going gets tough, but nobody was getting up close and personal with them tonight. And their newcomers should have been given an appropriate welcome to the world of senior intercounty hurling but this didn’t happen.

Not having the team in the proper frame of mind is itself a poor reflection on the team management. What was even more worrying was further evidence of the lack of any tactical or strategic approach to how the game should be played. Cork were playing to a well thought-out plan and everyone knew what to do with the ball when they got it, no matter where they got it. Of course it was easy enough to put this into effect given their good touch and striking and the amount of freedom they were allowed, especially in the first half.

Waterford, by contrast, seemed to be making it up as they went along. Their poor touch frequently meant that they were under pressure most of the time when in possession. They usually passed the ball just to get out of trouble, whereas Cork were much more creative with their passing. Waterford, by contrast, were generally inclined to just hit the ball upfield and hope for the best.

The clueless nature of the Waterford performance was never more in evidence than when Eoin McGrath replaced Shane Walsh at the start of the second half. This meant that Waterford had no target man near the goal in the third quarter, but despite this, the Waterford outfield players kept driving high balls into the goal area where they were gobbled up time and again by Cork’s bigger and stronger defenders. You would imagine that the mentors might have told the players going out for the second half: “We’re bringing on Eoin McGrath for Shane Walsh at full forward, so play low balls into the corner to stretch the defence, and don’t be lobbing high balls in”. But there is no evidence that such basic advice was given.

Things did improve a bit when the penny finally dropped and the selectors moved Seamus Prendergast into full forward, but after he went off and Waterford ended up with an even smaller full forward line when Tomás Ryan came in, the outfield players continued to hit long balls into the goal area rather than try to open things up by playing down the wings.

Of course, it is hard to take seriously a management that appears to think that Eoin McGrath has anything to offer at this level, and it must break the other players’ hearts to see him either starting or coming on as a sub.

One is always wary of picking on individual players when the whole team is playing poorly, and I would be particularly slow to criticise the full back line, given the amount of quality ball being sent on them, especially in the first half. My concerns about Iggy O’Regan’s lack of physical presence were borne out again as he failed to make himself big for any of the three goals and actually turned is back on Cathal Naughton for the second. If he had saved even one of the goals, it would have made Waterford’s task in the second half much more manageable. In the second half, he also opted to belt a ball he had collected on his goal line out over the sideline, rather than taking on the incoming forwards as Adrian Power would have done.

We had two wing backs playing tonight who both lack pace and are unable to win their own ball in the air, and Cork certainly exploited this. It also meant that Waterford didn’t have the platform to control the game in the middle of the field, although things did improve in the second half when Cork slackened off somewhat.

Like in Dungarvan the previous week, the one bright light was provided by Gavin O’Brien, who appears to have the priceless knack of making scoring look easy. However, what was the point of taking off Martin O’Neill to make way for him and leave Eoin McGrath on the field? At least O’Neill is capable of offering a scoring threat, something you would never say about McGrath, and being twelve years the younger, surely O’Neill has more long-term potential which needs to be nurtured.

I felt rather sorry for Shane Casey tonight, as he did win an amount of possession and could easily have had four or give points. However, at this stage his self-confidence appears to be at an all-time low.

Poor showing from waterford last night, not so much the result considering the amount of player missing, more the lack of intensity, poor first touch and inability to create any space up front, had really hoped that the new managment would be concentrating on these aspects of our play after the last few years, Can forgive fitness at this stage but I dont feel that explains preformance anyway , Also some poor sideline decisions before and during game even considering limted bench. Jamie Nagle is not a back. Eoin Mcgrath is not a super -sub, Shane walsh was not fit to play,

On a positive Thought fives didnt do to bad considering, the cover being provided from rest of defence, Gavin o Brien looked promising and Martin O Neil still showing potential (presume taken off over bang on elbow) Mid field was decent enough, i wonder though considering the options we will have there when injurys clear would Paul o Brien be a option at corner forward , has a bit of pace, able to score, good awareness and fights like a dog for the ball ?

Congrats to colasti na Deise , great win, thats 3 strong preformances in a row, not always a Waterford trait

Based on what we've seen from Waterford in the game:
- Eoin McGrath not up to it.
- Brick HF experiment has to continue because we have no choice.
- Seamus Prendergast is no longer up to it and hasn't been for a long time.
- Start Gavin O'Brien.
- Start/keep starting Martin O'Neill.
- Drop Nagle (please, never play him in defense again).
- Drop Iggy. It's easy for keepers to hide because 80% of the time they are not expected to save shots. But good keepers pull off saves. Iggy made himself so small for those shots that I couldn't imagine him saving any of them, not if you replayed the situation a thousand times. Where is Power?

Pretty poor stuff.

Coláistí na nDéise 2-14 Nenagh CBS 1-10

Coláistí na nDéise (CnD) made history when seeing off a strong Nenagh CBS challenge to capture the Harty Cup for the first time in Cashel today. A combination of Dungarvan CBS and St. Augustine’s of Abbeyside, CnD are a very talented and well-balanced team which was full value for their win in front of a very large attendance.

The game was played on a reasonable (if slightly short) pitch, in overcast but otherwise good conditions, with a strongish diagonal wind which favoured CnD in the first half. CnD got off to a super start when corner forward finished to the net at the end of a good passing movement in the opening minutes, and five minutes later, his older brother and man-of-the-match Cathal confidently smashed a 20-metre free to the back of the net to put CnD very much in the driving seat.

With Colin Dunford in midfield and Michael Harney at centre forward winning possession time and again, CnD began piling on the points, mainly via Cathal Curran frees as the pressurised Nenagh defence committed foul after foul. After about 20 minutes Nenagh managed to lift the siege and gain territorial dominance for a period, but they found it very difficult to make any impression on a watertight CnD defence in which left half back Tadhg Burke was magnificent from start to finish. On the one occasion Nenagh did get through for a shot on goal, CnD goalie Eoin Kearns brought off a super save. CnD regained the initiative in the closing minutes of the half, and a flurry of points saw them going in at half time leading 2-10 to 0-5.

With wind assistance, Nenagh enjoyed the bulk of second half possession but were ill-advised in seeking to score goals right from the restart, sending a stream of balls, many from scorable frees, into the CnD goal area without fruit. Meanwhile, CnD continued to look dangerous on the break, and actually outscored Nenagh in the third quarter. Cathal Curran was desperately unlucky not to put the game out of Nenagh’s reach when he got on the end of a long delivery but his flick past the goalkeeper agonisingly went the wrong side of the goalpost.

Nenagh finally got some points on the board in the final quarter, but their search for a goal was repeatedly frustrated by the CnD defence’s combination of skill and resilience. When they finally got the ball into the net in the dying moments, it was little more than a consolation score.

CnD now go on to an All-Ireland semi-final against the Leinster final losers (St Kieran’s College or Kilkenny CBS) on March 17. They will have long-term injury victim Kevin Sheehan (who made a brief appearance as a late substitute today) and Kevin Daly (out today due to suspension) available for that fixture. Nenagh CBS remain in the All-Ireland competition in which they play the Ulster champions in a qualifying game.

Coláistí na nDéise: Eoin Kearns (St Mary’s); Kealon Looby (St Oliver’s); Tom Tobin (St Mary’s); Seán O’Donovan (Modeligo); Evan Collins (Abbeyside); Tom Devine (Modeligo); Tadhg Burke (Clashmore); Colin Dunford (Colligan) (0-1); Cormac Curran (Brickeys) (0-2, one free); Cathal Curran (Dungarvan) (1-9, 1-6 frees); Michael Harney (Bunmahon); Ryan Donnelly (Dungarvan); Michael Kiely (St. Mary’s); Kieran Power (Kilrossanty); Patrick Curran (Dungarvan) (1-2). Substitutes: Kevin Sheehan (St Mary’s), Eamon Crotty (Abbeyside).

kkdela6 wrote: »

Why oh why oh lord tell me why is Eoin McGrath still on the panel. He isn't fit to be the waterboy for the passage U-14's team

Well considering he's a Mount Sion man,he'l never be fit to be the passage waterboy :D..

He's a very committed fella who trains hard and gives it his all,Ya cant blame him for being picked in fairness, i personally wouldnt have him in my 24 but i wont knock him for effort year in year out.

PTH2009 wrote: »

The more I think about it the 2010 de la salle team must of been better than the current Waterford team if Michael Ryan could lead them to county and Munster glory.

Well I have two observations about that DLS team. The first is that they played a very attractive brand of hurling. The full forward line had excellent movement and interplay, and would often drag the full back line out of shape, creating room for attacking players to run in from deep. There was very little aimless ball hit from what I saw of them. None of that from Waterford yet.

The second observation was that it took a while for DLS to come good under him from what I can remember. I think they were winning group games but not producing great performances. Then in the quarters and semis they exploded and blew a couple of teams off the field by 20 odd points. He won't get to do this with Waterford.

kkdela6 wrote: »

Fair enough i don't mean any disrespect, i've met him on occasion and he seems to be grand chap but it just really grinds my gears that he is being picked before better younger players even though he continuously proves his inability to deliver. To be fair just because he got a point doesn't make him a better player, im sure if someone from the under 14 squad got a good ball and was in the right position he could score a point too.

Controversial as this might sound, i just cant help but sometimes feel he is there due to who his brother is. Granted there are many players who are below his standard, but then there are many more who are above who should be out there before him. He may be admirably dedicated, but thats not going to get scores and wins

If it was a 100m sprint waterford vs cork then mcgrath would be my first man

****e talk