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

IanVW wrote: »

https://twitter.com/WaterfordGAA/status/1178750570078842882?s=19
Waterford GAA are happy to announce Liam Cahill as our inter-county Senior Hurling Manager with Michael Bevans as his coach for the 2020/2021 season!

Remaining management team to follow!

Does anyone know much about bevans....?

Hopefully he'll get a few selectors with a good knowledge base of players in the county, especially outside the senior clubs

Spatters wrote: »

Any news on selectors? Important to get this right too- local knowledge will help Cahill & Bevans mgmt team bed in quickly.

Does this appointment mean we have a new ‘sugar daddy’ type funder...?

Stacksofwacks wrote: »

I was very impressed by the Tipp under 20's this year, I think they scored 17 goals in 4 matches, hopefully a sign of this things to come ;0

I was also very impressed by the Tipp under 20s. They looked really well-prepared, well-organised and in superb physical condition. You could see they meant business. They actually scored 19 goals in their four games, including eight against Wexford in the All-Ireland semi-final and five against Cork in the final. I have always thought that more goals should be scored in hurling, and players take the easy point option too often. You could see that Tipp went for a goal with every chance that presented itself.

Liam Cahill will be 42 in two weeks time, so he should be able to get on the same wavelength as the Waterfprd players. He played most of his hurling with Ballingarry, but switched to Thurles Sarsfields in 2007 with whom he won a county title two years later.

He played three years at minor and three years at under 21 for Tipperary but only had one Munster minor title to show for it. He was a member of the Tipperary senior hurling panel between 1996-2003, winning an All-Star in his first year at right corner forward, but was in and out of the team after that and did not play in the 2001 final in which Tipperary beat Galway. He came back briefly in 2007. In the same year he was a selector on the Tipperary minor team which beat Cork in the All-Ireland final.

He did four years as manager of the Tipperary minor team between 2014-2017, winning the All-Ireland in 2016 and losing the final in 2015. He took over the Tipp under 21 team in 2018. Cork beat them by 13 points in the Munster final, and then went on to hammer Wexford by 22 points in the All-Ireland semi-final. They were unbackable going into the All-Ireland final, against against Tipperary. They had nine members of the Cork senior panel on board, including Mark Coleman, Darragh Fitzgibbon, Shane Kingston, Robbie O’Flynn and Timmy O’Mahony. Maybe they thought that all they had to do was turn up, but Tipperary really got stuck in and won the game with a last-minute goal.

Ironically, in this year’s Munster Under 20 final, Tipp again beat Cork with a last-minute goal from Jake Morris, the only member of the Tipp senior matchday squad in the team. This indicates that Cahill is able to instill a never-say-die spirit in his teams. They were helped in the All-Ireland final by the fact that Cork only started hurling in the last quarter, by which time Tipp were out of sight, but you have to give Tipp credit for exploding out of the blocks and blowing Cork away in the opening quarter.

Michael Bevans has been Cahill’s coach for all of his under-age managerial career, beginning with the Tippeary minors in 2014. He won nine county senior hurling championship medals with Toomevara between 1994 and 2008, captaining them in victories in 2003 and 2008. Like Cahill, he played in the forwards, so hopefully we will get a more attacking approach than we got in the McGrath years. People I know from Tipperary speak very highly of him as a coach.

It would appear that the Cahill/Bevans ticket were the front-runners to take charge of Tipperary following Michael Ryan’s departure, until Liam Sheedy came forward. Movement into senior intercounty management is obviously a good career move for them, and they obviously see Waterford as a team with potential which good leadership and coaching can realise. I think they present a very exciting prospect which will shake things up and help create a buzz after two lost years.

Seems like a good appointment with most people fairly happy which is no doubt a good thing. Hopefully this will mean everyone will get behind them and give them a chance to put their stamp on the team. Will be interesting to see what kind of style they try implement and what new faces they introduce based on watching a few championship games.


Has anyone heard how the players feel bout the appointment? Not trying to start a "should/shouldn't the players get a say in the matter", just genuinely curious if anyone has heard any feedback from the general core panel on their thoughts. I'd be inclined to think they'd be happy as I'm sure they would have heard good things of LC and MB via their Tipp counterparts at college level etc.

thesaturdayman wrote: »

feel sorry for Peter Penkert. He was badly let then down by those meant to protect his interests.

I hope mount sion crucify the county secretary.

Penny wise pound foolish and all that....

An incident like this has been a long long time coming, thankfully it was not something as serious as a neck / heart issue. The lad will live thanks be to god and thats not being flippant.

Order of Malta, Barrick Street band all these basic basic things have been neglected over the years. Infact i remember dermot keyes coming down singing the anthem one year.

Maybe now people are starting to realise how hopelessly out of depth some people are in the county exec?

Generally agree with you on the above but I think Mount Sion have played a part in all this also. From listening to DT yesterday morning, PP mother was on the show stating that PP might not be seen until today! Someone from Mount Sion either on Sunday night or Monday morning should have said enough is enough and no matter what the cost is get him to Whitfield to immediately see a specialist or get him to a private hospital in Cork. Clubs should play a bigger role on player welfare and not rely on a crumbling public system.

Gardner wrote: »

Generally agree with you on the above but I think Mount Sion have played a part in all this also. From listening to DT yesterday morning, PP mother was on the show stating that PP might not be seen until today! Someone from Mount Sion either on Sunday night or Monday morning should have said enough is enough and no matter what the cost is get him to Whitfield to immediately see a specialist or get him to a private hospital in Cork. Clubs should play a bigger role on player welfare and not rely on a crumbling public system.

Those calls were made Sunday night. Whitfield informed that there was no orthopedic team in place until Tuesday. Whitfield do not take emergency surgeries, only planned procedures.
Peter and his family were informed yesterday morning in WRH that the surgery team were ready to go but the hold up was that there was no bed available for him to go back to so he was on a trolley in the corridor. Approx 5 pm yesterday, he was gowned up as a bed became available only for the surgery to be then cancelled at the last minute.

The perfromance of Tipp in the 2018 U21 AI final against a physically stronger Cork team, who had already hammered Tipp in the Munster Final, the performance that day of Tipp backs, one on one, against physically stronger Cork Forwards (for instance Brian McGrath on Tim O'Mahony) would instill a huge amount of hope in me for the coming season.

On that day, Tipp gave no regard for size, speed or reputation, they hurled the ball and fought like tigers fot it the whole game (the way Hurling should be played).

I am no lover of Tipp (but they arent too bad all the same!) But I was buzzing after that game such was their incredible gutsy performance.

Best of Luck to Liam, Micheal and all involved for the year ahead

thesaturdayman wrote: »

that is shocking.

What dare i ask have the board done? Have they been in touch? Seeing as the lad was injured in their competition?

They tweeted best wishes 24 hours later, is that not sufficient?

Obi1mikal wrote: »

They tweeted best wishes 24 hours later, is that not sufficient?

Sounds reasonable to me...

Parishman wrote: »

Best of luck Liam and Michael. Like every manager that has gone before you we will give you all the support we can no matter where we have to travel. Plenty of unpolished gems in Waterford that need exposure at senior level whether it is the training, S &C and your tactics. We might yet have the makings of a great team in years ahead. Excited now Hon the Deise

Would echo all the above. Could you imagine if we were to win an all Ireland with Liam cahill in charge.....60 years to the day on friday since the last win......country has transformed hugely since but not so sure about the Waterford county board

Parishman wrote: »

Best of luck Liam and Michael. Like every manager that has gone before you we will give you all the support we can no matter where we have to travel. Plenty of unpolished gems in Waterford that need exposure at senior level whether it is the training, S &C and your tactics. We might yet have the makings of a great team in years ahead. Excited now Hon the Deise

Agree with you but does he stick or twist? A lot of faith has been shown with the current squad and for one reason or another they haven’t produced over the past few years. Will he freshen it up or will he try to persevere with the same panel? You would imagine a lot of the information he receives will be from whomever he brings in with him so a lot will depend on them at the start.