Waterford GAA Discussion Thread 2011-2012

Just looking at the program from Sunday, Waterford are the only team outside of the Kilkenny team(S) of the last 15 years to make 6 all-ireland semis in a row. Some achievement from that perspective.

daddydick wrote: »

Ronaldo has an unbelievably professional attitude.

Why shouldn't Kelly take a subs bib - anyone remember Peter Canavan coming back on in 2005 to knock Armagh out of the Championship? These 'rules' you speak of are not rules, they are merely things about Kelly that irk you. Get over yourself. Kelly is a fantastic player, his attitude is not great at times but he is a game changer.

To boot he was doing his celebration when the Clare full back ran into him, have another look at it

Was it not the 2003 All-Ireland final?

Kelly is not a fantastic player lads. A fantastic player is someone like Mullane who will perform all the time, no matter whether the team is getting beaten out the gate or whether he's leading us to victory.

A skilled hurler of limited use would be a much more accurate description of the Eoin Kelly i saw last Sunday. The only thing of value I can remember him doing a side from dispatching the penalty was keeping the ball alive for Shane Walsh's point. He tried to pick it up a few times and realised it wasn't happening so he shielded it back to Walsh. And that was his contribution for the entire game.

Some people say he worked hard, others don't. The way I see it is that if he did work hard well then he's not fast enough or fit enough because I don't have any recollection of him putting any backs under serious pressure. If he didn't, well that's just further evidence of why he's not the player he should be and will be no more at this stage.

Compare him to the other forwards. Maurice Shanahan scored 0-2 points from play, won at least one free that I can remember, setup GOB brilliantly for the goal chance and made a nuisance of himself in general. Seamus Prendergast tied up the centre back well and won good ball as well as preventing the Clare halfbacks from winning clean ball and scored a nice point to boot (although similar to Kelly I think he was luck his foul on McInerney wasn't spotted in the build up). John Mullane scored 0-3, he caught two clean balls and gave Clare so much trouble. Shane Walsh scored 1-1, and his goal epitomized his work rate. He chased Cooney about 30 yards and won a free as a result, setup one of Mullane's scores and worked hard in putting the Clare backs under pressure. Gavin O'Brien scored a point, got into space for the goal chance albeit he maybe should have passed it off, but he got out in front of his man and tried hard, not bad for a 19 year old on his debut. Who would you rather have on your team, any of them or Kelly?

Even the subs that came on, O'Neill was on the field 10 seconds and he had a point. That point was setup by Tommy Ryan, who should have passed to Maurice at the end, but didn't he do so well to make the chance in the first place? Paudi Mahony when he comes back has more to offer than Kelly, and I feel Brian O'Sullivan last year showed more than Kelly has done the last few years given he scored 0-3 points against Limerick and even winning one free in the final against Tipp with limited ball, he used his pace and had to be fouled to stop a goal.

So, in my opinion, he is at best the 10th most valuable forward in Waterford, and to be honest I'm not even sure he's that.

Frankly I don't care about whether he put on a subs bib or not, it's his attitude when he crosses the white line that annoys me as well as the lack of contribution to the team. He maybe flashy and capable of getting great scores at times, but I'd take Bonner Maher over him any day of the week.

KevIRL wrote: »

Ya the pairc is a hole. And we'll be majorly up against it against Tipp. But for sure id prefer to be down there as opposed to tullamore, portlaoise or whereever in a qualifier.

I agree whichever team had won it would be tough. Both forward lines are very free scoring. Tipp didn't create many goal chances today though, and I don't think Cork's backline is much better than ours at full strength (we'll have to sweat over the fitness of Connors and Fives I guess). Bonner Maher was immense and it'll be interesting to see is it him or Noel McGrath that lines out on Brick. Noel McGrath always causes problems when he plays there, but Bonner Maher I reckon could do a great job in disrupting Brick's momentum and stopping Waterford using him as a platform to build attacks. I'd put Moran on him if he plays on the wings.

Tipp's midfield looks a bit dodgy I must say. Lorcan McLoughlin excelled there today. Thought Brendan Maher looked better than Shane McGrath though, was surprised he was taken off first. Pauric Maher came into it in the end, but he wasn't the force he usually is and Cork did ok in the half forward line, and while it's a talented line, Cronin has a tendency to drift in and out of games as does Naughton and Lehane was playing his first championship match. It was Cork's first game so Tipp had the edge on them there, which definetly made a difference. It's in the full forward line that Cork caused most of the problems, though they've a very good inside line. We created quite a lot of goal chances against Clare. Three from open play, and there was potential for a goal opportunity the time Shane Walsh took an early shot that dropped short and when Maurice took his point.

I know Clare and Tipp are different animals but we can still gain confidence from that. I think we'll need goals because if it's a straight shootout Tipp would win every time.

One positive is that Kelly and Corbett didn't start today whihc is more their own doing than their replacements (not writing them off by the way), and they accounted for 6-7 from play of Tipp's score last year. Tipp will do everything to start Corbett simply for the fear and doubt it would put in Waterford's mind, but he'll need to improve a fair bit in training on what was seen today to manage to make in 3 weeks.

De La Salle 4-23 Roanmore 0-09. God help Dunhill.

Dungarvan led by 9 points in the other game about 5 minutes ago, under 10 mins left at this stage.

Something I noticed in the Observer and that has been confirmed by the Waterford GAA website is that the East and West u21 Hurling championships are due to commence on the 4th of July. On the same day, the county minor hurling championships are also supposed to start. A calamity waiting to happen.