Waterford GAA thread - mod warning post #1 and #51

Having just watched Ballygunner lay waist to any challengers over the past few years, you have to wonder about the state of Club Hurling in Waterford. First off this is not an attack against Ballygunner, they are the standard bearers in the county and its not just numbers that make them so good there is a very efficient operation running behind the scenes (much better than the county board). But somebody has to take a look at the over all picture and come up with a solution to enhance the whole championship, games are non events (with a few notable exceptions) but in the main there is no cut and trust in Championship in Waterford. Evidence of this is the paltry attendance at games, supporters have given up. More people attended the 2017 Kerry Hurling final than attended the Waterford Final which is a sad reflection on things. We need to be creative about making the championships more competitive such as creating Divisional Teams EG.. St Marys are together underage and then they go back to playing a poor standard of hurling when they go past Minor, if they were allowed to compete at Intermediate level in the east and if they were to win it they could go up to senior giving us a team with successive decent minor teams to choose from. This would eventually lead to the emergence of another senior side in Waterford, the aim of which is to expose good players to a higher standard. This could be repeated around the county in Rural areas. Scheduling allowances would have to be made for their clubs who compete in Junior and Intermediate competition's. This happens in other counties for example this weekend coming East Kerry, South Kerry and St. Brendan's all play in the Quaterfinals of the Kerry Championship. St. Brendan's have duel players from Ardfert. I Know we probably have more duel players but in all honesty the Senior football championship does not need to be as convoluted as there are only about 6 clubs at senior standard (Im been generious here). We need to look at the thing as a whole and not put individual preferences first. My solution get a complete outsider to look at the whole thing and make recommendations based upon what is in the best interests of Waterford Hurling and go with them. Any thoughts?

JP McManus donate 100k to every county in Ireland for the development of Clubs.

https://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/2018/0924/995814-jp-mcmanus-donates-100-000-to-every-gaa-county-board/

Presumably county board will apportion this back to all the clubs that paid their levies over the last few years & not take it for the running of county teams or development of Walsh Park!

every Senior, inter & junior club should be apportioned back whatever they paid in levies for last few years. Assuming they all paid the levies!

willbeuptuesday wrote: »

Having just watched Ballygunner lay waist to any challengers over the past few years, you have to wonder about the state of Club Hurling in Waterford. First off this is not an attack against Ballygunner, they are the standard bearers in the county and its not just numbers that make them so good there is a very efficient operation running behind the scenes (much better than the county board). But somebody has to take a look at the over all picture and come up with a solution to enhance the whole championship, games are non events (with a few notable exceptions) but in the main there is no cut and trust in Championship in Waterford. Evidence of this is the paltry attendance at games, supporters have given up. More people attended the 2017 Kerry Hurling final than attended the Waterford Final which is a sad reflection on things. We need to be creative about making the championships more competitive such as creating Divisional Teams EG.. St Marys are together underage and then they go back to playing a poor standard of hurling when they go past Minor, if they were allowed to compete at Intermediate level in the east and if they were to win it they could go up to senior giving us a team with successive decent minor teams to choose from. This would eventually lead to the emergence of another senior side in Waterford, the aim of which is to expose good players to a higher standard. This could be repeated around the county in Rural areas. Scheduling allowances would have to be made for their clubs who compete in Junior and Intermediate competition's. This happens in other counties for example this weekend coming East Kerry, South Kerry and St. Brendan's all play in the Quaterfinals of the Kerry Championship. St. Brendan's have duel players from Ardfert. I Know we probably have more duel players but in all honesty the Senior football championship does not need to be as convoluted as there are only about 6 clubs at senior standard (Im been generious here). We need to look at the thing as a whole and not put individual preferences first. My solution get a complete outsider to look at the whole thing and make recommendations based upon what is in the best interests of Waterford Hurling and go with them. Any thoughts?

agree with most of what you say. Good logical points. However this is Waterford we don't do things the logical way.

We prefer the way things have always been done. Eastern and western boards in one of smallest counties size, population and club size wise in the country.

We don't like change, demolishing these boards will ring the death knell for this county, countless officers will have to pay for tickets for matches! We can't have that!! Clubs and players will get extra games but thats not really relevant.

Group sides would infinitely improve standard of hurling, as would properly structured leagues and grading systems. The county would be better served with a hurling board & a football board as opposed to the current antiquated structure.

With the current growing population out the Dunmore road there's surely room for another club that direction? ...although this usually only occurs after an internal rift e.g. Roanmore!

PTH2009 wrote: »

Who did Roanmore drift away from ???

Mount Sion.

I would first like to see structures which provide enough games for players in existing clubs, and adherence to a proper season, before starting new clubs.

To think that a guy could be playing less than 10 games in a season is scandalous. I'm not sure what happens in rural areas, but in the city it means that you play soccer.

whiteandblue wrote: »

Is Ballinacourty and The Nire this weekend?

its down for this weekend on the website but might not be on with Abbeyside in the Hurling final sunday week ???

keep on eye on the Waterford GAA site id say

Ballinacourty v The Nire has been put back until after the hurling final.

Here's a suggestion, Gaultier should go it alone and give hurling a try, they would pick up some amount of Hurlers that have fallen by the way side. They should maintain their football ethos and stand on their own two feet. By playing both codes with the one panel they will develop a good squad capable of playing both codes and competing in both competitions. The up shot of not relying on other clubs is that they will have full control of their players and this will help their football improve instead of just competition as they are doing now.

willbeuptuesday wrote: »

Here's a suggestion, Gaultier should go it alone and give hurling a try, they would pick up some amount of Hurlers that have fallen by the way side. They should maintain their football ethos and stand on their own two feet. By playing both codes with the one panel they will develop a good squad capable of playing both codes and competing in both competitions. The up shot of not relying on other clubs is that they will have full control of their players and this will help their football improve instead of just competition as they are doing now.

I dont think a Gaultier hurling club would realistically get any spill over from ballygunner.. people easily forget that Gaultier is in dunmore east... 15km from ballygunner/waterford city

mountgomery burns wrote: »

St Pats, St Mary's, St Oliver's and an Gaeltacht also all underage amalgamations. Clashmore is one club, Nire and Fourmilewater still two I believe much like John Mitchell's and Kilmacthomas. Thought Abbeyside and Ballinacourty were the same though maybe not.

What have the mitchells and kilmac got to do with each other?

hardybuck wrote: »

Ballygunner offer hurling only and cover the village of Ballygunner, and the kids from the Dunmore Road area who end up going to Ballygunner school.

As neither Ballygunner or Passage play football, and as Dunmore East doesn't have any GAA club, Gaultier actually covers a large amount of ground in the area east of Waterford City and Tramore.

If Gaultier started playing hurling, Passage and Ballygunner really ought to start playing football.

I think if Gaultier formed a hurling club they would make steady progress up the grades very quickly.

Passage and Ballygunnar should offer Football and the GAA should end the practice of players playing Hurling with one club and football with another (it's too messy)

Passage and Ballygunnar should also have their own Camogie teams, something that would again drive on improvement in the code which has made huge strides lately,

http://hoganstand.com/Waterford/Article/Index/290753

Fraher field or nothing

hardybuck wrote: »

Ballygunner offer hurling only and cover the village of Ballygunner, and the kids from the Dunmore Road area who end up going to Ballygunner school.

As neither Ballygunner or Passage play football, and as Dunmore East doesn't have any GAA club, Gaultier actually covers a large amount of ground in the area east of Waterford City and Tramore.

If Gaultier started playing hurling, Passage and Ballygunner really ought to start playing football.

Better chance of pigs flying or even a Kilkenny Football team. Downhill sking in Ballybricken!!