Waterford GAA Thread - Mod note post #1

Laois hit some very poor wides after half-time from play and frees, could have been much closer. Thought Waterford finished out the game well in the last 15-20 minutes but still not the most impressive of performances.
Felt Waterford struggled to win primary ball from puckouts, and working the ball out short went awry on too many occasions, only real puckout option was Sean Walsh.
Positives to take were the full back line in general, in particular Fitzgerald and Conor Ryan. Don’t think Laois had a goal chance? Thought Kiely was grand at centre back, definitely a physical presence but likely to be TDB there unless he goes to the wing when fit. As someone said previously, probably robbing Peter to pay Paul. Shane Bennett was good at wing back but ill discipline meant it was the correct decision to sub him.
I like Leavy and Sheehan at midfield even if it was only for 30 mins today. They’ve consistently been the best midfield partnership in the club hurling over the last 5 years, definitely worth looking at them more at county level.
Jamie Barron at 11 works well in terms of popping up in great positions, linking play & scoring and making their 6 make a decision of whether to follow or not but his size on Waterfords puckouts means he isn’t an option unless they manage to create space for him to get puckouts in space but I’d persist with that as well.
As usual Jack Prender put in a great shift, while although Patrick Fitzgerald probably only had 10 possessions, he contributed 1-4, think himself, Padraig Fitzgerald and Michael Kiely/Stephen Bennett would put pressure on any full back line, especially if they get the correct ball which is part of the reason I’d start Sheehan and Leavy as that’s their bread and butter with Ballygunner.
Subs made an impact too, Peter Hogan I thought in particular.
Bigger tests like ahead but a lot of room for improvement.

We can’t afford any more slip ups but Antrim look an absolute shambles under Davy. Realistically We should be looking to go up there and put up a big score on them. The Offaly and Dublin games are the real crunch ties if we are to gain promotion. I think this league is actually going to be very tight

Again another step in the right direction yesterday. Too many panicked last week and mouthed off an awful lot of crap.

What did we learn yesterday?

1. I think the Kiely experiment is over. Management clearly think they could potentially see another John Conlan type player develop but it isn’t to be. If you want to build a 6 then Mark Fitz is your man. Has absolutely everything, pure Rolls Royce. Prunty will slot back to 3 with Daly on one side but the other corner back is an issue.
2. As stated last week, Ian Kenny is finished and Conor Keane isn’t up to it either. That’s puts Conor Ryan in pole position and if Conor Gleeson was back he would be the natural fit for that position.
3. I think Cathrach Daly has developed into a fine player and could easily match up physically with Hegarty, Duggan, Harnedy etc at wing back. I’d still hope Austin fits into the other wing back position. That actually then leaves TDB left out ( cant believe I’m even suggesting that). I just don’t see him fitting into a back 6 like that but he could if we go back to a sweeper and play 2 up top which I think is quite possible.
4. the placement of Jamie Barron will cause every team a huge problem. He drifts everywhere and as a previous poster pointed out it will then force teams whether to go with him or not.
5. pucks outs are again a huge issue and the placement of Michael Kiely to wing forward before or at the Offaly game will tell us what management are planning or not.

Antrim and Dublin next. Don’t see Antrim being an issue but the Dublin game should see a few more coming back into contention. Again the Offaly game is critical compared to all other games. Its 5 weeks out from Clare in WP.

Promotion isn’t the goal here. 1B will be very competitive next year.

Despite your opening line I agree with a lot of your points. But yesterday was a pass, no more. Laois were worse than Carlow but we were probably slightly better. And the goal was very much promotion from inside the camp.

Ironically I was going to say playing Mark Fitz at full back is like using a rolls royce to pull a trailer. He looked uncomfortable defending back there but very classy further out.

Kiely is not a centre back. And it stunts our attack as we can't go direct if he's not up there.

Conversely Shane Bennett may be an option at half back. The problem with being in division 1b is we can't experiment as we don't get to play teams of the standard we would play in championship. Aside from the booking he also got treatment from the physio a few times so that may also have been a factor in his withdrawal.

Hopefully Cathrach Daly can get an injury free run. He never took off at pace yesterday like he did before the injury so it's a waiting game with him.

For two weeks running we were second best in midfield, Paddy Purcell the best player there yesterday.

Jamie Barron stood out a mile. From watching the club championship last year you could see his legs are not what they were so that's a good call from management to push him up further so he doesn't need to cover as much ground.

Patrick Fitzgerald looked a threat but we didn't get him the right ball enough. Again if he had Kiely beside him he'd be better.

There was a hint of a puck out strategy though after winning a few through good movement we lost possession poorly afterwards.

As I said a pass mark for yesterday no more.

A fit De Burca is a must start. We definitely need to start planning cover for him as he's so injury prone and close to the end but if he's available, he's playing. Players like him don't come along too often and we've been blessed. He's up there with Ken, Brick, Tony etc in terms of greatness.

Take Walsh out of the forwards and we are a very small unit. Anyone else think Fitzgerald's goal was a blatant chop???

Anyone hear Mullane being asked about the Jason Ryan Ballygunner appointment on the indo hurling podcast ,

interesting - he went quiet for once and really didn’t seem to think much of it.

by all accounts the appointment hasn’t gone down well in either DLS or Ballygunner. it’s a bit of bizarre one, the size of Ballygunner club and they turn to a rival club for someone who really hasn’t much hurling pedigree at all

as someone said in a previous post Ballygunner could win the county championship with no manager. But sometimes no manager at all could be better than the wrong manager

only time will tell.

I think Ryan moved his son to Ballygunner previously. Other than playing, I never remember him involved with DLS?

harsh. I like John as a pundit. He’s a good personality and loves the game

Daughter playing with Gautier as far as I know, He's the academy manager of bohs the last couple of years, manager of DLs football teams alright,not sure about hurling there, hes part of the backroom team with the Wexford hurlers

I guess half the club is either related to or married to a sister of Darragh O Sullivan so no one wanted step in after him. It’s unusual to see someone cross that city divide Ryan is a DLS man managing Ballygunner I guess that’s the feeling around it, be the same if it was Mount sion or Roanmore there’s certain boundaries that are rarely ever crossed

Will it be available down here I wonder

Also very interesting that Cappoquin logistics have bought the naming rights to Fraher Field.

Waterford playing all their minor and u20 home hurling championship games in fraher field this year,for some reason