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

Absolutely shocking performance, but unfortunately not exactly unexpected given what has gone on the last few weeks.

Possibly the worst display I've ever witnessed from a Waterford team. No urgency, work rate or effort which is unforgivable really.

Fanning has clearly lost the dressing room but the players have a lot to answer for too.

An absolute shambles this team has turned into. Absolutely gutted to see how this season has panned out

Deskjockey wrote: »

Desperate
Shambolic
Embarrassing

This team has seriously lost their way. The player's touch is abysmal.

How can players ‘touch’ go in reverse. Most of these guys played in an all Ireland final 21 months ago.......! Reasonable league apart form game v Dublin and final so signs were good enough coming into May 12th but wheels have fallen so far off the wagon since that it is farcical.......short passes into groups of players in tight spaces being dispossessed with ease.....horsed our of it physically.......messing up the basics etc. it’s just as well we don’t have to play Carlow in a relegation play off as it would be joe mcdonagh cup for us fairly quickly.......faced with possible defeats to Kerry etc.

Blame the mgmt, blame the players. The buck stops with the county board & until there is seismic change there this is our lot and worse.

Remember they put in fanning.

The players you speak of are former all stars & young hurler / hurler or year or dual all Ireland winners at minor & u21.

fanning has lost the dressing room & once that happens there is no coming back from it. Time to go & bring paddy joe & pat flynn with you.

Folks, was James Murray there today? I didn't see him but maybe he was up in the stand?

PTH2009 wrote: »

could be wrong here but if Kerry win the Joe Mcdonagh cup than they will face us in a Relagation/promotion playoff for a place in the 2020 Munster championship

horrible 2nd half with Walsh Park like a morgue. This home advantage bollocks was truly vanised.

We scraped into a league final due to Galway ****ing up (there draw vs Carlow cost them a bit). We beat Offaly, Laois and Carlow in mostly horrible conditions. Galway twice who could of beat us and Clare didnt try. It was a nice day out in Croke Park for the league final but the wheels fell off that day

Fanning wont walk away imo but players will. Were in serious trouble and something which we didnt imagine after winning the 2013 Minor and 2016 under 21

You think he'd stay? Jesus. That's worrying

The fanning interview after the match was poor. As inept as the performance on the pitch.

The new Walsh Park? Scrap the idea, what we have will do is fine for what we need it for.

Use the money too Build a training centre (s) instead in sensible locations in the county.

Use the money to target primary Schools

Use the money to target secondary schools

Score predictions v Cork next weekend. 5-31 to 2-8 like 1982 Munster final.......could be on the cards.....! Slight correction 1982 Munster final we scored 3-6.

I don’t know what to say after that. My ears are still ringing from the roars of the fantastic Limerick supporters who came and took over Walsh Park before their hurlers did the same.

What a miserable Waterford performance and no point naming players at this stage. We’re just not at the races and the blame has to lie with management. Yes the players are the ones who didn’t perform and they were embarrassing but it’s the managements job to get the best out of the team and clearly if hasn’t happened. I’m sure they did their best but unfortunately just not working out.

One thing that’s for certain is that we need to stop picking players on reputation and only pick players on form.

enoughtaken wrote: »

I was there and the following year in limerick where cork beat us 3-22 to 0-12. My brother threw his Waterford scarf and flag into the Shannon on the way out and has never been to a Waterford game since. True story 😂😂

Yes. Two finals and utterly annihilated in both.....’82 was sickening but to get a hiding the following year was almost worse despite the narrower margin. Difference in those days though we had an average team with a hand full of very players such as Galvin Mossie Walsh, pat mcgrath and Jim Greene.......fast forward to this crop who have all Ireland under age success. All Ireland final appearance etc and its probably worse to be getting beaten by cricket score twice within two weeks. Don’t know what future is but there is something fundamentally wrong.......can’t imagine what it will be like next year if fanning stays.......and I’m sure he will....support will be half what it is this year. Does this year vindicate ‘Mcgraths’ system....only one or two hidings in his tenure......Limerick today and to a less extent in league final just looked larger, fitter, better touch, tactics, etc. etc. typical waterford passage of play was a corner or half back to get a loose ball then attempt a ‘stick pass’ to a colleague surrounded by 2/3/4 limerick players......9 Times out of ten ball was turned over and a score for them materialized. Similar with puck outs. Soky was drilling low balls down the middle at speed nd higher risk of being intercepted.......:in first halt there Shanahan our ball winner and supposed target man hardly one any aerial ball.......The only conclusion to come to about Austin gleeson is that he is burned out lacks motivation or is carying some kind of injury......rant over.......

Minor match poor also........0-11 to 0-11. Was like a football match. Neither team apppeared as if they could deal with the windy conditions.

Rant over.

Lads/Lassies,
Everything we do in Waterford GAA is half arsed. Very little thought put into it because there is no forward thinking going on at any level in Co Board. Asleep at the wheel. Waterford haven’t won an All Ireland in 60 YEARS and no one has asked the question WHY???

A little bit about today’s game. We have team who are not
1. Playing as a team
2. Not trying hard enough
3. Taking no personal responsibility such as:
*Indiscipline- 2 sending off in last 2 games
*Players with Reputations going missing
*Missing Goal chances at vital stages
*Players diving, looking for frees or worse- walking off feigning injury. Where is the Leadership on the field??
But first port of call by players will be to blame the mgmt. Analyse their own performance first. How come the new players that came into the setup played well?? Namely Prendergast, Prunty, Lyons. There needs to be a clear out of players who think their too proud to wear the jersey.
With regards to the mgmt, the results will ultimately come back on them. But i have to say that the team didn’t really give them much chance to effect the game in any way by way if moves etc.. as they were never really in the game. Either Fanning gets in good people with him or he’ll be shown his P45.

Continuing on from my opening point, things are at an all time low and clibs need to start taking responsibility here. We have a co board who are inept with no forward thinking people on it and clubs are sending the same old same old to Co Board meetings with no progress being made or no ideas on how drive the thing forward or even bring it up to a level of that expected in other counties- half arsed!
Development squads are a disgrace- unqualified (& i dont care about what level coaching course levels attained) personnel driving the coaching and physical development of kids within the County for the last number- only punching in the time.
Solution:-
• Scrap Development squads and leave the kids with their clubs and friends where they will learn the basics. Stop making Gods out of these kids and handing them a Waterford jersey at such a young age. You have to earn that Jersey. The Good players at 14 are not necessarily the good players at 19/20. Allow for late developers
• Pump resources into Developing the Schools- Primary & Secondary like in Kk, Cork now and Tipp.
• Put in a proper Mgmt structure in place which is overseen by a committee which will include Former Intercounty players.
• Get in quality Coaches who are Capable and pay them well.
• Put in place a Training plan designed by experts in the Hurling, Physical areas- agree it, stick to it and after a period of time review it and update where necessary.
At the moment what we have is half arsed and the results reflect that. And don’t say that we won a Minor All Ireland and u21 All Ireland. Same bunch of players. We need successive teams competing for All Ireland’s to deem it a successful system. At the moment its Half Arsed!

Team Mgmt
My opinion here is get in Former players who have shown an interest in coaching teams to take over from u16 onwards. We had a situation a few yrs ago whereby Paul Flynn, Dave Bennett and Tom Feeney were keen to take over a team but were turned down because they wanted there own setup and not one that they would inherit. Imagine turning down these people, that experience and depriving those kids the opportunity to be coached by these men? Half Arsed
Thankfully that all changed when the ‘No Parents’ involved rule came and they are now with the u16 development squad.

Senior Mgmt
This year when the position became available, they interviewed some great candidates but were these people were told they’d have have a budget and if the spend exceeded that budget they would have to fundraise for the money. What other County does that??? Half Arsed.

We can blame mgmt, players etc. but the reality is that results and the state of our Games (Hurling & Football) lie with the top brass who are drunk at the wheel. Time for the clubs to take out the breathalyzer and do the right thing- get young blood in to represent them at board level. People with fresh perspective and not afraid to spend the money while getting value for money for the basics:
• Coaches
•Proper Training Facitlities
• Resources

What we have is not working and is half arsed!

Stopitwillya wrote: »

Wonder what Phil Fanning will make of things in Tuesdays News and Star.

🙈🙈 not looking forward to that

Prunty and Calum Lyons played so well til the end today.
In their 1st year in I feel bad for the lads.

Prunty played on the U21 team in 2016, although a great player, he was not one of the main men of the side....

How is he now out performing all those players in his 1st year.... Players with 5 years experience under their belt. It doesn't make sense

Ropaire wrote: »

He didn't spend 5 years in "the system" so the hurling hasn't been coached out of the lad yet.

Knew someone would find away to have a dig at McGrath. The obsession is embarrassing

Ropaire wrote: »

I like McGrath, sound man. Hated his tactics though and don't think anyone who played in those teams for years will suddenly be able to switch to something new in a few games.

Yes. Think only option is to get Mcgrath back next season.

I wouldn't have mcgrath back at all, he had his time and his tactics got sussed out in the end. Would probably go outside the county for a manager but not sure what front line candidate would want it! We've plenty we can fix internally from the east/west intermediate championships to schools to try and up the standard in general as plenty of people have said as well.

We may see this year out before getting to that. Hammered in 2 games and v poor in the third, wasn't expecting much from this year but that was abysmal really. And our home crowd was a fn joke, I blame all of ye for that lads, scandalous "support". Didn't hear one of ye.

One game left to salvage some bit of pride, but it's probably too late for even that now.

Ballooning ball down field all day was pointless, soky can do better with puckouts but there didn't seem to be any strategy for these so what can he do?

Full back line didn't do too bad other than lads losing their men for goals, but that can be fixed with coaching. Can't do much about it in a week but they're not too bad now.

De burca looked more comfortable at wing back when played there, gleeson may as well go center back as he can't affect a game from anywhere else so instead of trying to rob Peter to pay Paul and ending up owing them both a few quid just put him center back to hell. He's capable of scoring as much from there as from half forward and if there's lads inside he'll find them too.
It'd free Moran up to go back midfield with Barron, they've been solid there before and is pretty much still our best pairing there. If it's not firing would have Jack pender to come in there.

The forwards though, jesus where do you start to fix that shambles? Shame that the likes of Paudi Pender aren't on the panel, but they aren't so would go for half forward line of Maurice/Mahoney,/Shane Bennett and full forward line of Peter Hogan/Stephen Bennett/Tommy Ryan.
It doesn't matter who you name up there if we can't win primary possession though, we'd have to sort out our own puckouts for a start and stop standing off teams giving them space for theirs.

Don't think there's any fight left in these lads for the year looking at the way they played today though, it's got to be hard to pick themselves up in the space of a week to go again. I love all the posts with lads feeling sorry for themselves whingeing about the performances too. How do ye think the players and management feel around now?

SW1985 wrote: »

I thought his tactics were perfect for the group of players he had to be totally honest. We always put up high scores and were tough to beat.

I think many fell for the "golden generation of forwards" meme. Derek actually saw them for what they were at the time and realised he couldn't build the team around them. Have the likes of Patrick Curran proved him wrong since?

Have we played any decent hurling since? Defenders skyed balls out of defence in Derek's time in charge with no one under it to win it. They still sky the ball down on top of small forwards giving them no chance to win it, it's like it's muscle memory at this stage and it'll take a bit of coaching to get it out of them, coaching it would appear fanning hasn't been able to give. Slapping ball straight up the line is bread and butter to defenders and gives the forward no hope of winning it, which seems to be the default plan. There's plenty to be gotten from those lads with the right supply.