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

If/when Darragh Fives returns, we could move Austin Gleeson to the forwards. Imagine a forward line with Maurice, Pauric Mahony and Brick in the half forwards, Gleeson at full forward with Colin Dunford and Stephen Bennett in the corners. There would be a read goal scoring threat there and with that full forward line we could well afford to go 15 on 15 (given a half back line of Fives, De Búrca and Philip Mahony).

And that doesn't include Jake Dillon, Shane Bennett, Tom Devine or Brian O'Halloran. And in time we will have Patrick Curran and perhaps DJ Foran in the mix. Hopefully Stephen Daniels will also be returning soon. Could be a bright future for the Déise!

Cistercian College Roscrea 1-13 St. Declan’s Community College Kilmacthomas 0-11

It will offer little consolation to St. Declan’s, but they are to be applauded for their contribution to a marvellously absorbing All-Ireland Schools C hurling final in Carlow last Saturday. This was an excellent game of hurling and you wondered at the end that if is the C division, what must A division hurling be like?

While based in the town of Roscrea, Cistercian College is actually located on the Offaly side of the county boundary which runs through the town, and competes in the province of Leinster. In fact, the school’s rugby team won the Leinster Senior Cup for the first time this year.

Despite the five-point difference at the end, this was a game which St. Declan’s could well have won, given the amount of possession they enjoyed for much of the game. However, their inability to turn this possession into scores, especially in the second half, was to prove their undoing.

The game was dominated by a very strong wind blowing straight down the pitch. With the wind at their backs, St. Declan’s started very strongly, but initially found it hard to make an impression on the scoreboard. However, as their pressure began to force the Roscrea rearguard into fouls, excellent freetaker Jamie Murphy exerted full retribution, nailing five frees and a 65 (plus one from play) in the first half.

Led by their captain, Martin Phelan, at midfield, Cistercian College did fight their way back into the game to put some scores on the board, but St. Declan’s finished the half strongly to go in at half-time 0-11 to 0-4 ahead. Indeed, it could have been more, given that they also shot seven wides. In addition, full forward John Kennedy was unlucky to see his screamer for the top left hand corner go inches over the bar. Against this, at the other end the St. Declan’s goalie Ryan Murray was forced to make a brilliant save to deny the Cistercian College full forward in the 28th minute.

Cistercian College started the second half strongly and got the vital breakthrough with a goal in the 35th minute. St. Declan’s were desperately unlucky when corner forward Craig Fraher’s rasper went inches wide of the post in the 40th minute. Cistercian College drew level in the 43rd minute and just a minute later St. Declan’s bad luck continued when centre forward Ciarán Kirwan’s shot again went the wrong side of the post. Cistercian College were hitting some excellent long-range points and finally went ahead in the 48th minute.

St. Declan’s continued to take the game to their opponents with strong running from midfield and the half forwards, but shooting into the strong wind was difficult while the Cistercian College full backs had the upper hand when the ball was played into their area. At the other end, they made maximum use of wind advantage to tack on further points.

St. Declan’s last chance went abegging when substitute Kevin Cheasty made a great catch in front of the goal but his shot was deflected outside the post with the umpire, amazingly, signalling the ball wide.

St. Declan’s can feel proud, not only of reaching the All-Ireland final, but of putting in an excellent team performance here led by their outstanding centre back and captain, Calum Lyons.

St. Declan’s: Ryan Murray (Ballyduff Lower); Noah O’Brien (Clonea); Craig Tyrrell (Ballyduff Lower); Billy Power (Clonea); Conor Dalton (Clonea); Calum Lyons (Ballyduff Lower); Dylan Reade (Ballyduff Lower); Cormac Dunphy (Ballyduff Lower) (0-2); Eoghan Casey (Dunhill); Ciarán Kirwan (Kill); Jamie Murphy (Portlaw) (0-7, five frees, one 65); Jake Scanlan (Portlaw); Craig Fraher (Portlaw) (0-1); John Kennedy (Ballyduff Lower) (0-1); Eoin Bray (Clonea).

There were other substitutes apart from Kevin Cheasty but I didn’t take a note of their names. The full substitutes list was Niall Power (Dunhill); Alan Fitzsimons (Kilmacthomas); Ben Kennedy (Ballyduff Lower); Colm Dempsey (Ballyduff Lower); Ross Coffey-O’Shea (Ballyduff Lower); Gearóid Murphy (Dunhill); Jeff Halley (St. Mary’s); Jonathan Long (Kilmacthomas); Kevin Cheasty (Ballyduff Lower).

Cheers for the quick responses lads!

Do we have any outstanding debt after the 500,000 spondulics we got off the Munster council? Article in the Independent says half of it is goong into redeveloping Walsh Park, will that actually happen do we reckon? Proper terracing around the place would go a long way!

deiseach wrote: »

Proper terracing, as in steps, would be nice. Anything more than that is a vanity project.

I'd agree, one good stand and stepped terracing like a smaller version of Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney would be good.

blue note wrote: »

A pitch that took the water better would have been great. More comfortable seats in the stand would have been great. Proper terracing would have been great. A little bit more room inside for getting in / out / toilets / shop would have been great. And proper nets behind the goals instead of the chicken wire would have been great.

It wasn't about increasing capacity for vanity, it was about making it a better stadium for the players and fans. And it's possible that we could have had the odd championship match there if it had been upgraded.

It's embarrassing that this was offered to us and we couldn't agree to accept it. It's also embarrassing that a county of our size has two cr@p stadiums. In reality there isn't a need for every county in Ireland to have a stadium (of the size they're built to), let alone a county the size of Waterford having two.

Spot on. Whatever they spent the money on recently they have made it worse. Whatever cowboy job they did on the Ard na Greine terrace, the whole lot fell in on top of the peoples gardens (would have killed anyone standing on the other side) - and tt still looks a mess there!

At a very minimum there should be concrete terracing instead of the crap gravel with weeds growing out of it there and a wall with nails sticking out of it. The two planks of wood which are supposed to be seating are shocking too. I've been to many county grounds all over the country and Walsh Park is by far the biggest sh1thole around. You actually feel embarrassed when matches are screened live there.

deiseach wrote: »

I don't feel any need to be embarrassed about Walsh Park. It wouldn't take much to make it better (not setting the bar very high there) and it's frustrating when those minor improvements don't materialise, but it's actually fit for purpose. It rarely stages games of more than a few hundred, let alone a few thousand. The end point of all these discussions always seem to centre around building yet another white elephant. If the choice was between fulfilling all the wishes of the noisiest critics or doing nothing with the ground, I'd go for the latter.

No one is looking for another gaelic ground here, the capacity of the ground is fine as you say, but it is not fit for purpose. Just some seats that you can sit on for more than 20 mins without getting a pain in your arse and an even concrete terrace that is pretty much standard in every county ground is what is needed.

TGV wrote: »

Scrap the two of them and build something new in Kilmacthomas proper parking and facilities fit for the purpose run buses from city and west Waterford on big match days 20 - 30 k capacity max with training grounds available for all inter county, club, and school teams. Too progressive??

Worst idea ever. I've been on match day buses

fricatus wrote: »

Where would you play Tipp v Kilkenny if you wanted a neutral venue for example? I can only think of Tullamore, Wexford or Limerick offhand. Waterford is just as easy to get to for those counties

Croke Park. There's a thread on the GAA Discussion Board about capacities of inter-county grounds where the OP is doing a project for college with the intention of looking at 'the "optimal" location (i.e. minimal travel time) based on expected numbers and venue capacity'. Given the size of Croke Park and the ease of getting to Dublin from all points in the country, building another venue in Munster for the purposes of hosting the occasional big match seems like overkill.

fricatus wrote: »

Remember that I was addressing the point that Waterford city is "too far out of the way to be realistically holding neutral championship matches", so I was looking at it from a purely geographical perspective.

My point is that Waterford (as a city) is well connected with an awful lot of hurling territory, and that geography is not an issue. Obviously you would hold a big match in Croker, but Waterford is closer than Dublin for all of Kilkenny and most of Tipp and Wexford.

A suitable ground is, of course, another matter entirely!

For a ground to be considered useful it has to be within reason, neutral to both counties. Outside of Tipp v Cork there is no other Munster pairing that Walsh park could be considered useful. Even then the home and away arrangements in Semple Stadium & the new Pairc Ui Chaoimh would have to be ignored as well as the Gaelic Grounds which would be as good a neutral venue as any stadium in Waterford.

Here's all of the Munster pairings with what I believe is the best suited neutral grounds.

Tipp v Cork - Limerick
Tipp v Clare - Limerick
Tipp v Limerick - Cork
Tipp v Waterford - Cork
Cork v Clare - Limerick/ Thurles
Cork v Limerick - Thurles
Cork v Waterford - Thurles
Clare v Limerick - Thurles
Clare v Waterford - Thurles
Limerick v Waterford - Thurles

fricatus wrote: »

The rest of your post makes some sense, but this really doesn't. Waterford city is on a lot of key routes (including the M9) and is as easily accessible to a lot of the country as anywhere else that holds championship matches (Nowlan Park, Semple Stadium, Pairc Ui Chaoimh, the Gaelic Grounds).

If we had a decent stadium, it would be eminently suitable for neutral games involving Wexford v Anyone for example! Kilkenny v Cork or Cork v Dublin neutral games are generally best suited to Thurles location wise, but that's every bit as out of the way for those supporters as Waterford would be.

Where would you play Tipp v Kilkenny if you wanted a neutral venue for example? I can only think of Tullamore, Wexford or Limerick offhand. Waterford is just as easy to get to for those counties.

My own 2c is that Carriganore would be ideal, since it's got terrific road access to the rest of the county and beyond, plus plenty of space for parking and expansion.

and why only neutral games ,Tipp,Cork,Limerick,have home championship games ,not sure if im right ,but i think its a deal between their county boards ,also i heard Tipp county board get €50k for staging a championship game