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

Pitch passed inspection earlier this morning and game is on

Hopefully a win today which more or less gives us a place in the next round. Best of luck to everyone

One thing I'm scared off is Galway have a horrendous record down here and it has to end someday

No programmes left farcical

Mixed half with a few great scores

Aussie and barron a bit rusty

PTH2009 wrote: »

No programmes left farcical

A lot of people would say the same thing about you

KevIRL wrote:

Got away with that one today I feel. Galway seemed to win most of the player battles especially in midfield and half back line. But for some poor Galway wides we'd have been done for. I did think Austin was good and paudie too, again full back line v strong. Some very poor distribution with w lot of ball sent straight to an unmarked galwayman. Worryingly, similar to westmeath match we weren't really winning any of the ruck type situations, and were easily pushed off the ball.

Definitely rode our luck today . Galway are such an inconsistent team . They left that one behind for sure . The next 2 games will tell a lot . Barron doesn't look right at all . When paraic plays and takes the frees , Stephen Bennett is always anonymous in games. Good to see Austin doing what he is best at

PF28 wrote: »

A lot of people would say the same thing about you

He might talk sh1te sometimes but at least he contributes to this forum which is more than can be said for you.

/ Goes to lie down after defending PTH2009

mountgomery burns wrote: »

Could be a three way tie if Cork beat Galway and Tipp beat ourselves and Galway. If Galway beat Cork then we're guaranteed a quarter.

Hopefully Galway prove a point at home next weekend against Cork

For us hopefully 2 good performances. These 2 games are the toughest challenge we are incourting so far this year

Progressing to the next round would be good as we get an extra workout against Wexford/Kilkenny or Clare

A bit of a strange one. A win but again not really convincing. As another poster said Galway traditionally don’t fancy it in Walsh Park, and they were missing Canning aswell. We’ll take the win but the remaining games will tell us where we’re really at

Waterford 0-17 Galway 0-16

Waterford rode their luck when getting the two points at Walsh Park today. The first piece of good fortune was the absence of Joe Canning from the Galway team. If he had played, I am pretty certain the Westerners would have prevailed. As it was, they should have won the game anyway, but with the score so tight, their 13 wides to Waterford’s seven made a crucial difference.

Waterford were also fortunate that Pádraic Mannion, Galway’s right half back and one of their best players, had to go off injured halfway through the first half. Galway also sorely missed the absent David and Dáithí Burke, while on this showing they do not appear to have any new class forwards in their assembly line. At the same time, they were physically stronger than Waterford all over the field and were much better in the air in key positions.

Waterford started with three changes from the published line-out, with Billy Nolan, Austin Gleeson and Jamie Barron in for Stephen O’Keeffe, Iarlaith Daly and Jake Dillon. The Waterford line-out had an experimental look about it, with Conor Gleeson at centre-back, Pauric Mahony and Austin Gleeson at midfield and Jamie Barron at centre forward. It can be said that none of these experiments worked.

Galway play a short-passing game like Cork, and it is interesting that we have seen both of these teams and their systems off in the last three weeks, albeit with the assistance of lots of opposition wides in both cases. In the first quarter, Galway were making inroads down the centre, with Waterford missing the solid presence of Darragh Fives in the centre of the half back line. Not for the first time, Austin Gleeson was failing to make any impact in a free-ranging role, and not surprisingly, he was moved to centre back halfway through the first half where he succeeded in shoring things up to a significant extent.

It was point for point between the teams for most of the first half, but a late scoring surge by Waterford saw them go in at half-time three points ahead, 0-11 to 0-8, albeit having played with the assistance of the stiff breeze.

When Galway scored two quick points on the resumption, the home support got a little uneasy, but then Waterford took over the game for most of the third quarter, moving into a five-point lead (0-15 to 0-10) by the 50th minute. The key factors in this turnaround were the switch of Pauric Mahony and Jamie Barron to their more familiar positions of centre forward and midfield, respectively. Austin Gleeson also roared into the game, giving glimpses of how he can control a game from centre back.

While Pauric Mahony turned in a marvellous second half, in the fourth quarter both Jamie Barron (whose knee was heavily strapped up) and Austin Gleeson understandably ran out of steam. At the same time Galway raised their game considerably and took charge of affairs, led by Cathal Mannion from midfield. When they equalised in the 68th minute, it looked curtains for Waterford, but from the resultant puckout, substitute Peter Hogan got possession and landed a super score.

Galway, working the ball well in an attempt to create an opening against a tenacious Waterford defence, got one final chance to equalise but had the misfortune to hit the post (shades of Kieran Kingson’s late chance for Cork three weeks ago) with the Waterford back line working the rebounding ball to safety.

It should be noted that Waterford created several goal chances during the game but failed to put any of them away. Galway, by contrast, never once threatened the Waterford goal. This again is a good reflection on the Waterford full back line in which corner back Shane McNulty, thriving in the confidence shown in him by Liam Cahill, is having an excellent season. Galway’s full forward Conor Whelan was their most dangerous forward, hitting four points from play, but he was at his most dangerous when foraging further out the field.

While Billy Nolan had little enough to do in terms of dealing with incoming ball, some of his distribution, especially from long balls, was top-class. Calum Lyons started slowly, but put in a good second half, while Kevin Moran put in a very effective shift. While they scored some excellent points, some of them well worked, the Waterford forward line in general got little change out of the Galway rearguard. Apart from Pauric Mahony, who had a super game (especially when moved to centre forward) Waterford’s best forward was Jack Fagan, who moved up a notch or two here from previous displays.

Patrick Curran, who did some good work in the first half and opened the scoring with a marvellous point from the left sideline, was surprisingly substituted at half time which, to me, robbed Waterford of a cutting edge in the second half.

Waterford: Billy Nolan; Shane Fives, Conor Prunty, Shane McNulty; Calum Lyons, Conor Gleeson, Kevin Moran (0-1); Austin Gleeson (0-1, free), Pauric Mahony (0-09, 0-5 frees, 0-1 65), Neil Montgomery, Jamie Barron (0-1), Jack Fagan (0-2); Jack Prendergast, Stephen Bennett (0-1), Patrick Curran (0-1).

Subs: Peter Hogan (0-1) for Curran (HT); MJ Sutton for Montgomery (63); Dessie Hutchinson for Bennett (68).

Galway: James Skehill; Darren Morrissey, Gearóid McInerney, Seán Loftus (0-1); Pádraic Mannion, Shane Cooney, Fintan Burke; Cathal Mannion (0-3), Adrian Tuohy; Niall Burke, Brian Concannon (0-2), Tadhg Haran (0-3, frees); Seán Bleahane (0-1), Conor Whelan (0-4), Conor Cooney.

Subs: Seán Linnane for Pádraic Mannion (18); Jason Flynn for Bleahane (44); Conor Walsh for Conor Cooney (50); Evan Niland (0-2, frees) for Haran (56); TJ Brennan for Fintan Burke (66).

Referee: James Owens (Wexford)

PF28 wrote: »

A lot of people would say the same thing about you

A lot of people are full of **** which he isn't ,a very good contributor to this forum

killbillvol2 wrote: »

He might talk sh1te sometimes but at least he contributes to this forum which is more than can be said for you.

/ Goes to lie down after defending PTH2009

Let's keep the backhanded compliments/defence of fellow posters to a big fat zero.

Simply report the posts as you deem appropriate.

Thanks.

Junior Hurler wrote: »

The posts in Walsh Pk seem very low. They don’t make it easy for the umpires to adjudicate on points in hurling . Seemed like one dodgy decision in favour of Galway in 1st half. The posts must be the lowest of any inter county ground and a controversy waiting to happen when the big games come around later in the year.

Yeah it's the best pitch in county for football but football games are as rare as hens teeth in Walsh Park last 5 years

TheScoringGoal wrote: »

As far as I can make out if we get least one more point or if Galway beat Cork we're in the knockout stage. Anything else is a little more complicated.

Could go into a three way with us, cork and Tipp for 2nd/3rd place and score difference will decide it

Vs Westmeath
Tipp won by 17
Cork won by 4
We won by 9