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

PTH2009

A win is very important tomorrow

Can see Kilkenny going on too win the league now. I'd love another go at them in a semi or something but don't think we will get to the semis TBH

Horseboxhead

i don't think Shane fives is a corner back, he is a wing back hurling at corner back, having a very good year to date,and has had a good run in the position last 3/4 years, but V a tipp or Kilkenny in the championship, he has leaked scores that if he had natural corner back instincts , positioned himself a bit deeper would be so much more effective in his current position, now i think shane is part of a very well functioning full back line, just in my opinion he's not a natural corner back, like eoin murphy or noel connors, they both played the man first ball second, had the nous, feet and ability to destroy corner forwards, shane always plays the ball first , wing back instincts, and not knocking him, to me the fact he is doing so well in the position, shows how effective a hurler he is. its like Paul murphy from kilkenny, any where outside corner back he looks as if he can't position himself, like his reading of the game is off, his instinct is in the full back line, Shane the opposite.,Again not a critism.

robopaddy2

chookiearlaw summed it up above. Everyone is putting a lot of energy into talking about our defence but its in the forwards where our problems are. We don't score enough. People were expecting the likes of Patrick Curaan to make the step up to senior level easily but it hasn't happened, he's still very raw. Equally Shane Bennett has been finding scores hard to come by. Paurice Mahony's frees, and hope Maurice can rekindle his 2015 form. Other than that were struggling. Stephen Bennetts 2 goals last week were as a result of horrendous goalkeeping. Take Gleesons scores out of the 2 KK semi finals last year would have been curtains a lot earlier. Id like to have seen some more experimenting done with our defence in the league but its still been solid.

tomwaterford

robopaddy2 wrote: »

chookiearlaw summed it up above. Everyone is putting a lot of energy into talking about our defence but its in the forwards where our problems are. We don't score enough. People were expecting the likes of Patrick Curaan to make the step up to senior level easily but it hasn't happened, he's still very raw. Equally Shane Bennett has been finding scores hard to come by. Paurice Mahony's frees, and hope Maurice can rekindle his 2015 form. Other than that were struggling. Stephen Bennetts 2 goals last week were as a result of horrendous goalkeeping. Take Gleesons scores out of the 2 KK semi finals last year would have been curtains a lot earlier. Id like to have seen some more experimenting done with our defence in the league but its still been solid.

Tbf it's somewhat difficult to score when you've only 1 forward?

It's hard to be overly critical of the forwards until they've been given a chance to prove themselves at a minimum

dubcat51

Lads watching tipp v kk tonite dont you wish mc grath would kiss goodbye to the sweeper.brillant entertaining game.all thats good about hurling.

carter10

PTH2009 wrote: »

A win is very important tomorrow

Can see Kilkenny going on too win the league now. I'd love another go at them in a semi or something but don't think we will get to the semis TBH

Will you stop, just stop. jesus wept

cul beag

dubcat51 wrote: »

Lads watching tipp v kk tonite dont you wish mc grath would kiss goodbye to the sweeper.brillant entertaining game.all thats good about hurling.

Don't mention the war!

chookieourlaw

tomwaterford wrote: »

Tbf it's somewhat difficult to score when you've only 1 forward?

It's hard to be overly critical of the forwards until they've been given a chance to prove themselves at a minimum

Obviously, there is a certain amount of truth in what you are saying about the system but if you read what I said, I wrote that there is no comparison between our forward unit compared to Tipp's - AT THE MOMENT. I'm not saying the young lads dont have potential or that they couldnt be more effective if they were set up more conventionally. But, lets be honest, we have yet to see any evidence that they are comparable to Tipp's forwards. Even if you look at recent games like KK and Dublin. In the first game, our forwards scored just one point from play between them. In the second, the entire team only scored one point from play in the first 24 mins. Now compare that to last night - all of Tipp's forward scored from play. And yes, the system is strangling our ability up front, but I suspect it doesnt fully account for our lack of penetration up there. When we have to put the likes of both Kevin Moran and Brick - both of whom are among our best players but are not scoring forwards - in the half forward line, then you have a problem.
While Coughlan isn't perfect, I do feel that some punters tend to focus on him after bad performances or losses when a lot more attention should be focused on our lack of scoring ability - whether that is due to the way we are set up or our lack of options up front.

KevIRL

Looks like a couple of changes for cork based on the warm up. Stephen mcDonnell and Lorcan McLoughlin togged off

KevIRL

KevIRL wrote: »

Looks like a couple of changes for cork based on the warm up. Stephen mcDonnell and Lorcan McLoughlin togged off

Confirmed

PTH2009

Being out fought and we're in right trouble

KevIRL

That was the worst half of hurling from this team since Munster final

IanVW

Absolute woeful stuff

mickmackmcgoo

Regardless of playing into a breeze that was a shocking first half performance. Some players going through the motions , others just not good enough.

Dick phelan

WTF was that beyond dire we're on our way to relegation based on that. Going to be incredibly hard to beat Clare in Ennis and it's a must win.

PTH2009

Lads were ****ed

That was dire, flat, passionless,brainless. Cork were much hungrier and we now face a relagation playoff with possibly Kilkenny. We won't beat Clare in ennis esp when they will have the ballyea lads back

dirkmeister

There's no play off this year, it's straight relegation.

Loser of KK v Dublin goes down.

Dick phelan

dirkmeister wrote: »

There's no play off this year, it's straight relegation.

Loser of KK v Dublin goes down.

Really? Got a source.

Deskjockey

So we are safe?

PTH2009

Always thought there is a playoff but still our league cud be over after losing in Ennis as 5th means **** all ?

dirkmeister

http://www.gaa.ie/news/allianz-leagues-condensed-2017/

Brian017

It was the Promotion/Relegation Playoffs between Div 1B and lower that was removed (the top team in each division now gets promoted automatically). The relegation playoff between the 2 bottom teams remains in place

Dick phelan

So are we actually safe? Never heard anyone say there's no relegation playoff. Regardless that was a shocking performance i'v said before i don't care about the League as long as we don't get relegated but that was near enough a full team we had out and we got hammered at home off Cork shocking stuff.

mickmackmcgoo

PTH2009 wrote:

There is a playoff

There is no play off this year . Bottom team is relegated. Extra time for quarter and semis if needed rather than a replay.
As regards today's performance it was gutless, embarrassing and not good enough. We get 2 or 3 home matches a year and people pay good money to watch that rubbish today !
Mcgrath and his system is a busted flush, other teams know how to play against it and we are regressing not improving . We have 5 or 6 top class players , the rest are just not of the quality to win an all ireland.
I'm not over reacting to a bad performance today and people will say it's only the league etc but ultimately we simply do not have the players or the manager to win an all ireland

PTH2009

dirkmeister wrote: »

http://www.gaa.ie/news/allianz-leagues-condensed-2017/

It's only the 'promotion/relagaton playoffs' that are being scrapped example (Div2 winners vs 1B last team) there is still the 1A relagaton playoff between 5th and 6th in 1A (loser replacing Wexford in 1B for 2018)

Greensoup

Relegation playoff is on gaa master fixture list for Sun April 2nd.

Martin567

dirkmeister wrote: »

http://www.gaa.ie/news/allianz-leagues-condensed-2017/

There is a playoff. The master fixture list says so and your link doesn't contradict that in any way.

PTH2009

Yeah its on the master list

So Kilkenny,Clare and Tipp wins R5- ourselves and Dublin in Walsh Park in the playoff

Dublin,Clare and Cork win R5- we go through in 4th place (head to head vs Dublin goes in our favor).

A win or draw for us in Clare will be enough for a QF spot

Dick phelan

We can forget about winning an AI this year with this management and system. Haven't played well for a full 70 mins all year, disgraceful 1 4 in the first half is embarrassing

redlead

We don't seem to be taking the league too seriously this year but have been pretty rubbish throughout apart from the Kilkenny game. We struggle so much to get scores and I haven't seen any signs of that changing or improving. The type of players we have up front just aren't suited to McGraths muck hurling system.

It's hard know how good we are really because the system stifles any sort of decent forward play but the reality is that we are lacking a couple of all star quality forwards that you need to have a chance at winning something. Beginning to get that same feeling heading into the championship that I had during the Davy years, I.e. we are set up not to get heavy beatings instead of a win. If we go into a Tipp or Kilkenny game in championship playing the same defensive style I'm going to go nuts. I don't know how many times they have to beat us for it to become blatantly obvious that it just won't work against the top teams in championship.