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

Interview with Cahill on Sky Sports
https://www.skysports.com/gaa/hurling/news/30543/11895148/waterford-boss-liam-cahill-explains-noel-connors-decision

thesultan wrote: »

Tean is named. Bennett brothers midfield and full forward respectively

Full team including subs ??

PTH2009 wrote: »

Full team including subs ??

Team and subs

seananigans wrote: »

interesting squad with the Ballygunner players been rested and i imagine they will play Vs Kerry in the new year ??

Kevin Moran starting is a surprise

hurler on de ditch wrote: »

yeh surprised he's in the panel

According to the recent interview Cahills style of play is going to be attack from all out field players and not sure a 30 something would be able for that kind of intensity but Moran has showed when hes in top form he can be immense

conor05 wrote: »

And absolute savage workrate. All of his under 21/20 Tipp teams worked like absolute dogs. Forwards running back putting in massive hooks and blocks.

It be interesting to see the Cork and Kerry games to see the style of play enforced.

Also it might ask questiona to our underage coaching systems/methods

Jjjjjjjjbarry wrote: »

Interesting to see Patrick Curran back in focus. Really hope he can deliver and get some form going for us.
One thing I've noted is that Cahill has not focused on height too much although he has some height in each line bar maybe the full forward line. Great to see Power from Clonea in there as he really impressed any time I saw him this year in the club championship. There are a few lads in there that I'm not familiar with so will be an interesting day out!
Jake back at midfield is another interesting one, he has the work rate anyway.

Darragh Lyons at centre forward is also an interesting one. Another lad with huge potential but could never really nail a position. I hate to keep harping back to the McGrath era but it was pretty much impossible for any forward to break in to a system that used only 5 and sometimes even 4 forwards. At least under Cahill some of these lads will get the chance to show if they are good enough

Kevin Moran was our best player in the league last year before the whole thing fell apart. How anyone could say he's not worth a place on the panel but champion Patrick Curran is totally flabbergasting. On recent form Patrick isn't one of the top three players in his family. He showed huge potential underage and I hope he comes good but he hasn't shown anything that Kevin has.

On a semi related note Liam Cahill made a comment where he seemed to suggest that Waterford didn't time their fitness peak properly last year. So perhaps the league won't be as high a priority. Tipp last year went through the motions in the league to peak for championship. Waterford tried it in 2018 but injuries possibly prevented any chance that season.

1-10 to 1-5 down at HT, Paddy Curran with the goal early on after being set up by Billy Power. Cork got a purple patch and hit about 1-4 without reply. Shane McNulty and Prunty good in defense and Darragh Lyons getting on ball around the middle but Waterford have struck some poor wides. The most glaring difference between the 2 sides the quality of ball into the forwards, Cork with low ball into space, Waterford with high hopeful ball on top of their men. Cork with the wind in the 2nd half. Iarlaith Daly off injured with Callum Lyons on just before half-time.

2976 attendance is some going

upthedeise16 wrote: »

A decent performance overall with the team much better for the 2nd half and would have won only for a series of missed chances, really picked the game away with all the wides. Played better ball into the forwards in the 2nd half.
Prunty outstanding throughout and Callum Lyons very good when he came on. McNulty and Moran also quite good.
It was a good workout and a great attendance, great to have the hurling back!

Decent showing from the younger lads with a lot of big names to come back in. Billy Power impressed me out of all the youngsters. Hitting a lot of wides is a good sign that we were creating the chances in the first place. A lot to build on, I think Cahill will be quietly satisfied with what he’s seen

Cork 1-17 Waterford 1-13

The key statistic from this game is Waterford’s wide count of 17 against just eight for Cork, two of which came in the closing stages when they already had the game won.

Contrary to the weather forecast which was for a fine, sunny, day, this game was played throughout in poor light which got worse as the game progressed. Otherwise it was a mild day, with the slight wind having no real bearing on the game.

A crowd of 3,000 turned up, an amazing turnout for a game in late December. Obviously the buzz around Liam Cahill’s appointment had a lot to do with this, but there was also a fair sprinkling of Cork supporters around the place.

As might have been expected, there was no real structure to Waterford’s play, especially in the first half, whilst from the off Cork resorted to their familiar and well-practised short passing game. The Cork goalie also routinely found loose players in the midfield area from his puckouts, whereas Waterford had no puckout strategy.

Yet despite the advantages which Cork enjoyed from their superior organisation, Waterford still probably should have won this game, given the numerous scoring opportunities which they passed up.

Cork started the better of the two teams, but Waterford hit the lead in the ninth minute when Patrick Curran took a good pass from Billy Power and finished expertly to the net from close range. After that it was tit for tat for 18 minutes until Cork substitute Tommy O’Connell goaled from close range after Kevin Moran backed into Conor Prunty to create the opening.

Cork then took over for the next eight minutes to go seven points ahead. It could have been worse as they also created two good goal chances, one of which was nipped in the bud by a good intervention by Billy Nolan in the Waterford goal. Waterford did manage two late points to go in at half-time five points down, 1-10 to 1-5.

Waterford took over the game territorially in the third quarter. No doubt this was partly due to whatever words of encouragement were delivered by Liam Cahill in the dressing room, but a further key factor was the introduction of Callum Lyons (in the for the injured Iarlaith Daly just before half time) and Jack Prendergast, who replaced Jack Fagan at half time. Both of these had an immediate impact on proceedings, as did Kieran Power, who had a storming third quarter in the half back line. Patrick Curran also did well in this period.

However, a slew of wides meant that Waterford failed to translate their territorial dominance into scores, the worst being a point black miss by Mikey Kearney (in at half time for Neil Montgomery) after he was put clean through via an excellent passing movement. Waterford were now playing with much greater confidence, putting several good passing phases together.

Cork, on the other hand, kept the scoreboard ticking over with clinical finishing from their few attacks. Waterford did manage to get the deficit down to a single point, but seemed to run out of gas as the game went into added time, during which Cork added three points to give a misleading look to the final scoreline.

Apart from those already mentioned, Conor Prunty had another fine game. He uses his size, strength and long reach to make it almost impossible for his direct opponent to control incoming ball, and he is very good at tidying up and moving the ball out. Shane McNulty also played a lot of ball in defence. Kieran Bennett did a lot of good work in midfield. Unfortunately, neither Neil Montgomery nor Jack Fagan made any impresson, while Stephen Bennett was also out of the game throughout.

Waterford: Billy Nolan; Conor Gleeson; Conor Prunty; Shane McNulty (0-1); Iarlaith Daly; Kieran Power; Kevin Moran (0-1); Kieran Bennett (0-1); Jake Dillon; Neil Montgomery; Darragh Lyons (0-1); Jack Fagan; Billy Power; Stephen Bennett (0-2, 1 free); Patrick Curran (1-6, 5 frees).

Subs: Callum Lyons (0-1) for Iarlaith Daly (32nd minute); Mikey Kearney and Jack Prendergast for Neil Montgomery and Jack Fagan (half-time); Tom Barron for Stephen Bennett (52nd minute); Shane Ryan for Patrick Curran (65th minute).

Cork: Ger Collins; Seán O’Leary-Hayes; Damien Cahalane; Eoghan Murphy; Chris O’Leary; Bill Cooper; Niall O’Leary; Aidan Walsh (0-2); Ryan Walsh; Robbie O’Flynn (0-2); Conor Lehane (0-6, 3 frees, 1 65)’ Seán Twomey; Luke Meade (0-2); Michael O’Halloran (0-1); Jack O’Connor (0-3).

Tommy O’Connell, an early substitute for Seán Twomey (I think) scored 1-1. I didn’t keep tabs on the other Cork subs.