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

It's ballygunnars use of the ball and finding space that sets them apart from the rest. They lost the two Sullivan's, Barnes, Walsh and Wayne hutchenson now only a sub but it had made no difference.

Deise Gael wrote: »

Fair play to Cahill. He has taken over and is coming in from a place of strength with many of the players having to all intents and purposes downed tools against management last year. He's obviously well informed and has laid down a marker. It's guaranteed he won't tolerate any players sniping or not buying in to what's he's doing so I reckon there will be a lot more guys told to either shape up or ship out.

The best of luck to him.

Yes I have to agree that a fresh view on the panell is the way to go. Nobody should be there on reputation. Will be very interesting to see who the new calls up will be and what impact they will have. After being in Walsh Park I would hope that Cahill can get the best out of Pauric Mahoney who is such a talent. Dessie Hutchinson looks sharp too and his striking will improve again by next year. The two DLS corner forwards, Meaney and McCaan (I think) were impressive today too and Fagan played well in spurts although well marked by Philip Mahoney for the most part. He made one monster of a catch in the second half and finished it with a score.

Interestingly today, apart from one late injury time free, I don't remember DLS getting many (if any at all) frees inside the opposition 65 so great discipline from the Ballygunner defense.

BloodyBill wrote: »

Be a good game against Sixmilebridge in Sixmilebridge.

Will game not be CUSACK park...?

Ballygunner need a couple of good ball winners up front......Hutchinson looks promising but will be tested more next day

Relhcstirt wrote: »

Would expect it to be Sixmilebridge, not Cusack Park.

Where would it be if the game was being played in Waterford...? Hardly McGinn Park....?

upto 8 players gone off last years panel im told. if i was to guess id say the other 6 are Brick, Mark O'Brien, Brian O'Halloran, Stephen Roche, Colin Dunford, Thomas Ryan.

Road-Hog wrote: »

Relhcstirt wrote: »

Would expect it to be Sixmilebridge, not Cusack Park.

Where would it be if the game was being played in Waterford...? Hardly McGinn Park....?

Walsh Park

BloodyBill wrote: »

If Ballygunnars home pitch was up to standard and they got a home draw then they are entitled to the match being on their home pitch. Sixmilebridge has hosted many Munster Championship matches over the years including a match against Ballygunnar.

I'm sure there would be health and safety aspects to this and it would have to be able to hold a certain capacity. I know a fence around the field would be essential to reach Munster Council standard.

Overheard someone in Walsh Park yesterday say that we’d new sponsors for next year? Any truth to that?

BloodyBill wrote: »

If Ballygunnars home pitch was up to standard and they got a home draw then they are entitled to the match being on their home pitch. Sixmilebridge has hosted many Munster Championship matches over the years including a match against Ballygunnar.

No Covered Stand is an issue I’d imagine

Some ****e being talked on WLR, Liam Cahill is the manager and a bloody good one at that! He knows that he will be judged on results as its a results based business and he will do what he believes is in the best interest of Waterford. He has no baggage and no bias so let him get on with the job and here's something for all begrudgers out there "Support your team and not cut the life out of them when they make a mistake or loose" Waterford need to experiment this winter and with that comes losses so be mindful of this when you are about to cut lads to shreds because they do something you don't agree with. Remember we are no privy to what goes on in training and lads will be asked to try new stuff so we need to all get behind them.

As for the lads dropped, they gave some service and should be recognised for this but that's for the county board and supporters on forums like this to do. It is not up to the new manager his job is to manager Waterford in 2019.

There will be some about of nonsense rumours about this for the winter when lads have feck all to be talking about.

emergingstar wrote: »

What was said om WLR

Usual crap about "player belittlement" and "the people should know what is going on". You would swear that Damien Tiernan was a successful sports manager in his own right. His first love is soccer being a member of the Waterford Junior League Committee and seems to really enjoy raking mud about GAA at every opportunity. No doubt he will try and get miles out of this looking for interviews with Noellie and Maurice to drag it on and on.

End of day Noellie and Maurice have been great players for Waterford - yes it is disappointing for them to finish at such a relatively early point in their careers and they have my thanks for one for all their efforts - but it comes to many. It is time that this county started looking the future instead of looking to the past.

Jjjjjjjjbarry wrote: »

Overheard someone in Walsh Park yesterday say that we’d new sponsors for next year? Any truth to that?

No

While I’m in agreement with cutting two players who have been, I think it’s fair to say, divisive within the panel over the last couple of years for different reasons. I do think that Cahill could be in danger of going too far with removing back room team figures; if of course that rumour is true. Does this include the likes of Tommy Burns? If so, I would think that could be a huge mistake. Tommy is a gentleman and has been there through good times and bad. He’s very popular with the players and I think if Cahill starts removing people like Tommy from the setup then it could work against him.

A clean out is not unexpected and somewhat inevitable. I'm not surprised with some of the names I've heard mentioned. I think Connors would be great to have to spring from the bench in war of attrition kind of scenario. But when all is said and done I think Cahill needs to figure out his own panel. We were here a few years ago with McGrath and people were in uproar around foley, sully, nagle, molomphy etc. At the time it was hard to see how they could all be replaced in one fell swoop but sometimes that's what it takes.

All I have to say really is that the efforts of each and every one of them is greatly appreciated and I'll never take the commitment of a gaa player for granted. They served us well and we were proud of them at the best of times and felt for them on the bad days. I wish them all the best of luck in wherever life takes them.

DiscoStew wrote: »

Not denying the impact people like Tommy can have on squad morale but by comparison Wexford had Stephen Molumphy performing his role for games last year, wired to management, constantly passing on messages both ways. Small margins at this level, perhaps having a few people who could do a little coaching within the set up and then perform such a role may be of use..
I believe Roger has been kept on, as has Harris as secretary.

*None of the above should take away from the huge dedication Tommy has given to Waterford over the last 10 + years. An absolute gentleman also, as you said.

I think he’s entitled to pick his own backroom team.

Draft Strategic Plan for Waterford GAA 2010-2015

Waterford County Board Chairman Paddy Joe Ryan recently announced that the Board would be conducting an internal review of its structures and activities. It is hard to be optimistic about anything much coming out of this, given the fate of the external review drawn up at the beginning of the decade by the Chief Executive of Waterford City and County Council and former Waterford hurler, Michael Walsh.

As far as I am aware, Walsh’s Draft Strategic Plan for Waterford GAA 2010-2015 was never published, nor was it ever presented to the County Board. Paddy Joe Ryan stated in an interview in the Irish Examiner last week that some of the recommendations in the Plan had been implemented and some had not. As someone who is familiar with the contents of the Plan, I am not aware that any of its recommendations have been implemented.

I am also surprised that Michael Walsh is to be a key participant in the new review, given the treatment his previous review received. I hope that at least he has insisted that the findings of the new review will be acted upon as the price of his involvement.
Some posters on the board have inquired about the contents of Walsh’s Strategic Plan. It is hard to do justice to a report bristling with good ideas and proposals in a short piece such as this, and I will confine myself to what I think are some of the most important elements of the Plan. As one might expect from the head of a large administrative organisation, Walsh concentrates on a major overhaul of how the County Board conducts its business, but also devotes some attention to competitive structures.

Walsh is very clear on the need to abolish the divisional boards, which involve unnecessary duplication of effort and spread limited volunteer resources too thinly. This is particularly important given Walsh’s proposals for an expanded system of specialist committees at county level to streamline and focus the County Board’s activities. These include separate committees to administer Adult and Underage competitions and player development, a Finance Committee, and a committee to promote all aspects of the GAA in the county.

Rather than functioning as talking shops, each member of the proposed committees would have a specific set of responsibilities. For example, the members of the Promotions Committee would be responsible, respectively, for traditional media (print and broadcast), electronic media, publications and presentation of games. Given the dreadful presentation of even major championship games at the moment and the appalling excuse for a County Board website, the need for effective action in these areas is obvious.

The Plan also proposed the establishment of a set of officers with specific responsibilities, at least some of whom might need to be employed on a professional basis. These include a Training Officer whose job would be to provide training to both County Board and Club officials (including team managers) on how best to perform their dutues. Also a County Promotions Officer (to oversee the promotion of County Board activities), Sponsorship Officer (to develop and manage external sponsorships), a Ticket Officer (responsible for ticket distribution and accounts), an Audit Officer (to monitor the Board’s financial transactions on a day-to-day basis) and an Urban Development Officer.

A further innovative suggestion in the Plan is that all County Board officials whose existing remit is not particularly demanding should be given an additional special area of responsibility, as follows: Vice-Chair (liaision with all county hurling teams), Central Council delegate (liaison with all county football teams), one Munster Council delegate (club development and infrastructure), other Munster Council delegate (responsibility for development and management of county grounds).

As regards competition structures, the Plan is very much focused on placing the club at the centre of GAA organisation in the county and giving priority to the creation of competitive structures which will provide regular games to the maximum number of players: “It is imperative that scheduled and regular league and championship games be provided for all players. The existing situation whereby absolute priority is yielded to intercounty teams for periods of the year cannot continue.”

The present writer is strongly of the view that the massive resources and prioritisation currently being given to senior intercounty teams all over the country is seriously injurious to the long-term welfare of the GAA as a community-based organisation. In my view, the schedule of county teams should be required to fit in with that of the clubs, not the other way around. A knock-on from this is that the power of county hurling and football managers needs to be curtailed, and in particular that they should be required to fit in with broader plans and strategies for games and player development at club level.

In this respect, an important proposal in Michael Walsh’s Strategic Plan is that a charter should be drawn up to cover availability of club players for county teams and of availability of county panelliests for their clubs. In this context, it was good to hear Liam Cahill, in his WLR interview, speak of his willingness – even desire – to allow county panellists play for their clubs during the course of the intercounty season.

The Plan proposes that, as far as practicable, all competitions should operate at county-wide level. The Plan reckons that there are too many teams in the Intermediate Hurling championship and proposes that it be split into two levels – Premier Intermediate and Intermediate.

The Plan devotes particular attention to the fact that, unlike many other counties, Waterford has never taken league competitions seriously. It proposes that a tiered league structure be created based on a model of ten-team leagues, with promotion and relegation between each tier. There should be as many tiers are there are teams available to play in them, and clubs should be encouraged to enter as many teams as they can in order to maximise regular competitive participation for players.

The proposed structure should mean that any team entering at a particular level should be capable of winning at that level and be promoted. Apart from maximising participation, a well-run league system should have the effect of raising playing standards at all levels which in turn will stimulate public interest in these competitions.

Championship structures should also involve tiers wherein all teams have a chance of winning their particular championship. League performance would be a key indicator here. There is a need for an overall Supremo in charge of all adult competitions in both leagues and championships who would draw up a master plan (such as many other counties do) for league and championship fixtures throughout the year. The Plan proposes that this function should be given to the County Secretary although not everyone would be confident of the current incumbent executing this function effectively.

Ultimately, of course, the ambitious but necessary proposals of the Strategic Plan ran up against the brick wall of an entrenched County Board officialdom which combines resistance to change and a high degree of administrative incompetence. There is no obvious reason why we should expect things to be different with the current internal review.

Alf Tupper wrote: »

Dunford, Moran, Curran gone!

I can understand these 3 more than Connors.