Waterford GAA Discussion Thread 3 ***Updated Mod Note Post 1***

Cronic performance from us. Looking like no semis for us if we keep playing like this

7-1 down now

cul beag wrote: »

2 points scored? Ah come on now that has to be a joke! 3 months training to kick 2 points? That's inexcusable,sorry now but I'm not taking any rubbish reasons why this happened its a complete waste of time and money. We have secured 2 points in division 4 of the football league and we still persist with the charade aswell? What happened to Paddy Joe's think tank that was going to sort all the issues with football in Waterford?
I wonder how did Kilkenny get on in their Leinster u21 football championship game?!!!!!!!

Long time reader, never post... find the board to be good but bad at times...Scrolling back through and found this about the terrible football played at U21, which was a disgrace. I dont think Ger Power should of got the job for a 2nd term after the whopping we got in Malbay off Clare... He should definitely not be returning. Id like to see Oran Curran of Dungarvan in it or Tim Lenihan of shamrocks. Think they are involved with the Co. Minors again this year. Oran was manager when we ran Cork close in the semis and was with the lads all the way through, should go for the job or a club senior manager. I do and I dont blame Ger Power, knew since November we'd get whopped wasnt quality involved... People say we should have more duals but at this age u21 + your not going to have many of them with seniors that aint natural hurlers. Only Duals be Conor Gleeson, Conor Prunty, Darragh Lyons, Cormac Curran that should be involved with the senior hurlers and the u21 footballers next year. Dont think they made enough effort to attract all the best players in the county.

From the team that togged against Cork id name 6 of them at a push to be the best 15 at u21 football. Realistically your quality footballers are coming from 6-8 clubs and Id rather of named a team that didnt train that are the best in the county than 15 that are not up to it. Fair play to them, they tried but there are beter quality. My club courty for next year you have, you have Kevin Dwane, Conor Prunty, John Elsted, Conor McCarthy, David Looby, Neil Montgomery... The Nire have Conor Gleeson, Jack Guiry, Dylan Guiry, Jake Mulcahy, Ciaran Looney... Brickeys have Cormac Curran, Cathal Curran, Carthach Barry, Paul Whelan, Darragh O' Grady, Ciaran O' Neill... St Oliver have Liam O' Connell, Michael Culoo, Mikey Phelan... Strabally have Michael Sweeney, Darren McGuickan, Jack Mullaney, Ciaran Cusack... Gaultier have Sean White, Dean Kearns... St Saviours have Keelan Cassidy... Rathgormack have Conor Murray... Ardmore have Eoin Conway... Killrossanty have Donal Fitzgerald...Dungarvan have Darragh Lyons... Roughly 30 players there maybe two more that come on form... have a panel of 33 roughly. Out of them players 8 were invovled this year on the u21 and 3 started. Of my list maybe 5 are minor atm. No training and naming a team youd see better results than this. Think Nire had a lad starting freshers UCC, Brickeys a lad UCD, St Oliver a lad UL... and not sure if Prunty player football for CIT, pretty sure there the colleges and not invovled u21. Says alot. Fresher teams are of a higher standard than co u21 football probably bar your kerrys and what have you. Even if the u21 co champions represented waterford youd see better scoring than two points. I dont know how they can complain about not been able to get the players together. McGuiness with Donegal trained Fridays nights and Sunday morning for u21... Hard running friday and skills sunday and they got to an u21 all ireland final with an average team. Lads be in college and working but every county is in the same boat, and cork, although bigger, they have lads away at college not all of them go to CIT/UCC... Every team is in the same boat.


Id name the following for next year based on what ive seen over the past 2 years at minor - senior:
1) Kevin Dwane (Balinacourty),
2) Conor McCarthy (Balinacourty), 3) Jake Mulcahy (The Nire), 4) Jack Guriy (The Nire),
5) Kieran O' Neill (Brickey Rangers), 6) John Elsted (Balinacourty), 7) Jack Mullaney (Stradbally),
8) Cormac Curran (Brickey Rangers), 9) Conor Prunty (Balinacourty),
10) Dylan Guiry (The Nire), 11) Conor Murray (Rathgormack), 12) Darragh Lyons (Dungarvan),
13) Michael Sweeney (Stradbally), 14) Liam O' Connell (Gerdlines, St. Olives), 15) Conor Gleeson (The Nire).

Id drop Darragh Lyons back to man mark the centre forward, Leave John Elstead free to boss that space and run forward. Play the strengths, long kick outs to too 6ft 5 giants in the middle of the field, who like to let the ball in quick. Push either Sweeney out to wing forward. Leave two quick lads O' Connell and Gleeson inside. O' Connell is minor this year and wont tog for them even tho he was the highest gers scorer from full forward last year.
Only concerns be full back, If Jake mulcahy be up too it great, if not Brickeys have a fresher who was full back at UCD either Whelan or Barry, probably play them at full or switch them with Jack Guiry. Other concern be Darragh Lyons and Cormac Curran not togging, think if Oran Curran was manager they'd tog Darragh being Orans club and Curran his midfielder during the minor championship for two years. Curran aint in with the seniors or if he is hes extended on the hurlers so he could be available even if he trained once a week.

Solid team, Decent bench too pull from aswell have a good 4- 6 players that could potentially start if needed. Curran tends to dominate 65-65 Prunty 21-21 they troubled Kerry and Cork cause they couldnt win the kickouts which is why we were competitive. Two of the best runners in the county of the wing, O' Neill and Mullaney, serious man markers who should be Co. Senior corner or wing backs. That team should be good enough to contest a Munster Final, long way out but it should. If that team is got together and 3 - 4 months training and we sore 2 points then ill conceed we are not a footballing county. However until I see that team played together there is still hope.

We will be decent enough in the years to come under the right manager, was no development structure that Lenihan, Curran and Kiely excuted perfectly...If they got half of what the hurlers got at underage we'd go farer. Probably in 10 years struggling div 2, maybe do a Limerick and get in a munster final or two... Get a serious manager be looking further but be hard to attract.

PTH2009 wrote: »

Ref might as well put a Wexford Jersey on .

9-8 to Wexford ht.

McGuiness said something similar to this, the league doesnt matter, but the league never lies. Trouble with cork is they always are too competitive in the league, they play how they want too play in Munster... Thats how they always lose in Munster. They reveal there hand too early on. Its better lose the league, try young lads, come in under the radar and not reveal the way you want to play the game until the all ireland qf semi if your lucky. Playing different versions of how you want to play. Its all psychological, Mickey Harte are the best at it.

Morale of the story, this is how Wexford will play in championship, this is not how Waterford will, if i was a manager going up against Wexford this be the game to analysis cause this will be the type of hurling, movement, space creating game they'll try to replicate all year.

No manager is going to look at this game and see how waterford played well, yet to put of the proper 15, they'll have to go back to last year to watch our play... And our play this year will be different than last year. Losing this game will be more benefical in the long run. We'll be a step ahead of the rest of the teams who performed in the league. Thats why you always throw the league but dont get relegated from the league, its the breeding ground for trying tactics and younger players... read nothing into this game, it happens.

conditioned games wrote: »

Kilkenny National League Champions;
2002
2003
2005
2006
2009
2012
2013
2014

Yea I see your point about throwing league games is better in the long run!!!!! We certainly don't want to be breeding a winning mentality in the whole county set up. Much better to come in under the radar and hope to trick the opposition come championship and then trick everyone on the way to winning the all Ireland.

You breed players have a team like Kilkenny you just are naturally going to win, he has won the league with half a team half the time... You show your hand in the league youll get caught. Happened to us against Limerick in 2007, the three games in a row didnt help but they were the same, they had us caught cause we tried to replicate the NHL league final. You can perform in a friendly, you can perform in the league but unless you perform in the championshp your nothing - Brian Cody

that was close

That's a very poor result. We should be beating Wexford pulling up but always seem to concede a goal whenever we have any sort of comfort room. Yet another game without scoring a goal too; this just won't be good enough in the championship. Would appreciate it if someone who was at the game could throw up a synopsis of how it went. RTEs coverage was crap as usual.

thesultan wrote: »

Question now, If Waterford beat Limerick is the club championship going to be changed?

Last year the first round of fixtures was put off, the games originally fixed for the second round became the first fixtures and the games originally fixed for first weekend were played the weekend after then. Probably be something similar again if were to reach league final again.

DiscoStew wrote: »

Last year the first round of fixtures was put off, the games originally fixed for the second round became the first fixtures and the games originally fixed for first weekend were played the weekend after then. Probably be something similar again if were to reach league final again.

Could the county board let the teams know

mountgomery burns wrote: »

The hurling is planned around Waterford being in the league final, first two rounds are scheduled for the two weeks after the league so they will go ahead as planned.

The senior football championship begins next weekend and will go ahead. He second round will be put back, not sure if just until the following week after the semi finals or if it will be pushed back longer.

The hurling will remain on the dates so?

Great coverage of the game on tonights 'league Sunday'. A 15 second review by Ken McGrath, only plus was we didn't have to look at him in his suit while he was talking bout it

mountgomery burns wrote: »

To be honest, was there much to see? Practically all our scores from frees.

Haha, fair point and well made

Professey Chin wrote: »

And it was just a terrible game in general. Wateford were sh!te, Wexford were sh!te, ref was sh!te. Pretty sh!te

We can't be as bad again. What did the ref have against us ?

Semis will prob be double header in thurles on the 17th April. Our match 2pm and kil vs clare 4pm I'm guessing

I suppose its just as well that RTE decided to send cameras to div 2 football matches rather than hurling quarter finals. Really was a terrible game today, Waterford were very poor and just about did enough to get over the line at the finish.

I'm beginning to get the feeling that management arent too pushed about winning the league again this year. The fist 3 games, especially against Kilkenny and Tipp, they showed far more hunger and focus. Just seems that after winning the first 3 games and confirming Division 1 status was the aim being achieved. There was a noticeable drop in performance for the Dublin game, against Galway we had an experimental side out and then today another very below par performance. I'd say management wouldn't be too upset if we were beaten the next day and move on to the Clare in championship.

This was a very lethargic and error-ridden performance by Waterford. Maybe they had another one of their heavy training sessions during the week. There may also have been a bit of taking Wexford for granted. In Waterford’s first attack, Colin Dunford had an easy tap-over point from in front of the goal but decided to take on the full back line looking for a goal and got hooked. There was a bit of arrogance in this, plus another example of Dunford’s poor decision making.

That set the scene for a Waterford display full of sloppy ball control, bad passes, waiting for the ball to come to them, aimless balls sent to unmarked Wexford players. Wexford were more alert, were working much harder, were winning the rucks (usually a key area of Waterford dominance) and showing much better ball control. There were 0-7 to 0-1 up after 15 minutes and 0-8 to 0-2 after 20. Waterford started Austin Gleeson at full forward but no ball came in as Wexford were on top outfield.

Waterford did steady the ship and got the score back to 0-8 all before Wexford took the lead again just before half time. Waterford were a bit unlucky not to score a goal when the Wexford goalie dropped the ball but it ended up going out for a 65. Wexford sent a lot of high ball into Conor McDonald at full forward but he had a stinker of a game and was well marshalled by Barry Coughlan. Wexford never threatened the Waterford goal with Tadhg de Búrca covering very well, although he was as guilty as anyone else of dropping balls and giving poor passes and clearances.

Waterford equalised two or three times after the restart but Wexford kept coming back to go ahead, and got some really good scores. However, once Waterford got their nose in front they stretched their lead out to four points, mainly because of some really terrible wides by Wexford. Then coming up to the end, Wexford got a goal out of nothing when McDonald managed to get his hand to a long free in to finish to the net. From the puckout Wexford engineered a lovely equalising point, and at that stage I was hoping we would get into extra time.

Then Waterford got a free on the right sideline about 35 metres out. It was an awkward enough angle, but Maurice once again split the posts. He had one more chance from a long range free which was signalled wide although it looked good to me. However, he was our saviour on the day with 12 points in all – nine frees, one 65 and two from play (one a real beauty). He missed his first free from distance and also the last one. Wexford missed at least five handy frees.

It didn’t help Waterford’s cause that Austin Gleeson hit four sidelines badly wide and also missed two long-distance frees, although he did hit two beauties from play. Philip Mahony, Brick Walsh and Patrick Curran were our other scorers. I thought Philip Mahony was our most consistent player throughout, while the full back line generally coped well and Kevin Moran also worked hard. Tom Devine replaced Patrick Curran midway through the second half and made an impact. Brian O’Halloran and Mikey Kearney came on up front for Jake Dillon and Shane Bennett while Shane McNulty got a few minutes near the end in place of Noel Connors.