Waterford GAA Thread - Mod note post #1

I think this is the book you're thinking of:

The ecstasy and the agony / Damien Tiernan

https://chaptersbookstore.com/products/the-ecstasy-and-the-agony

I still have that book. It is Off the ball by Patrick J Power. A good read mainly based on the 1998 season when Waterford came out of the doldrums and we've been fairly competitive since then.

This one

Senior Footballers need a big win against Wicklow to progress as possibly 'one of the 3rd best placed teams'

Link ?

great win for the camogie up in Kilkenny 17 points to 10

Unfortunately I just don't think we have the players at the moment. Our best players are still the lads remaining from a good crop of players a few years ago. Our midfield is not intercounty standard imo. Apart from Bennett we haven't another class forward. There's lads on our panel and even our 15 that wouldn't be playing for any other county in Munster. We've a few bleak years ahead I fear. Hopefully we can start to rebuild but I don't think we get close to competing for at least 3 years.

hopefully this works

https://archive.is/20250531055440/https://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-games/hurling/john-mullane-waterford-are-dying-a-death-under-this-championship-structure-something-has-to-change/a865210776.html

It’s been a while since I felt as low as I did last Monday morning, and I’m sure I’m not the only Waterford supporter wondering how bleak the future could be for us under the current hurling championship structure.What hope do Waterford have if they remain stuck in this vicious Munster round-robin where only three survive and last year’s All-Ireland champions Clare are out before we even reach June?After also watching the performance of Lee Chin last Sunday and swarms of kids surrounding him at the final whistle of Wexford’s victory against Kilkenny, there is so much that doesn’t sit right.We won’t get to witness brilliance from the likes of Tony Kelly, Shane O’Donnell, Stephen Bennett and Jamie Barron on the county scene again this year as we continue to shoot ourselves in the foot.Some of the best hurlers in the country won’t be seen again on a national stage for at least another eight months and that’s doing a disservice to a game which is already the reserve of an elite few.Tasty offers will have already come the way of many top players in the days since their exit, and more luck to them if they go as the vast majority of club championships won’t start until August.From a Waterford point of view, it’s impossible not to look across the fence into Leinster and think about how much different things would be if we were competing in there instead of Munster.Waterford should not be punished because of geography, if we were situated in Leinster then we’d be qualifying for the All-Ireland championship nearly every year, and that’s just the facts of it.Could you imagine in any other sport having a structure like we have in hurling? Imagine a World Cup draw in soccer where Brazil, Argentina and Italy are pitted in a group with Switzerland?Imagine a Champions League draw with Barcelona, PSG, Man City and Newcastle all in the same group next year? It simply wouldn’t happen, so why is it essentially occurring in hurling?

·Indo GAA

Waterford no longer compete in the All-Ireland SHC, we compete in Munster and that’s as far as our season has gone in the last six round-robin campaigns.Waterford are not going to grow under the current system, they are paying lip service and saying that they want to grow the game but they’re going to lose a team if they’re not careful.You had a second chance to get into the All-Ireland before, but you have nothing now and a county like Waterford needs the backdoor – where we have made it to four All-Ireland semi-finals and two All-Ireland finals in the last five times the competition was played like that.We’re dying a death down here under the new structure and if Wexford, Dublin or Offaly were in the Munster round-robin (where they’d struggle), there’s no way they would be fine with it.If Dublin or Wexford tried six times to get out of Munster and they didn’t, they would not be OK with a structure that is hindering their progress – and the round-robin has placed money as more important than hurling development.

Lee Chin is surrounded by autograph-seekers following Wexford's win against Kilkenny last weekend. Photo: SportsfileWaterford could become the casualty of this greed over games promotion, and that’s my fear. We have to get our own house in order too, and I totally understand that with the non-competitive club championships. But we are the big losers in this structure and it’s going to have a massive effect, I can see it already.Everyone is talking about Kildare this and Kildare that and what they’re doing is phenomenal.But we could be looking at a couple of lean years if we’re not careful. Kids are finishing secondary school and primary school is wrapping up soon and there are no Waterford county games for our future stars to go to and be inspired by.Peter Queally was right. The long summer evenings are on the way and our county hurlers are putting their hurls away. What can we look forward to?It’s all well and good if you have thriving club championships to go back to but we don’t even have that, nobody is going to club games and Ballygunner are going for 12 titles in a row.We need something to be able to grip on to and coming in the backdoor into the All-Ireland series was always just that, we could build some form of momentum and feel-good factor around it.It kept people excited and helped to grow the game in the county but like a plant without water or light, we can’t grow under the current structure. If you can’t grow, you die.Waterford and Wexford are going to be in very choppy waters over the coming years and we’re going to need help from the powers that be to at least stay where we are, let alone thrive.When you ask questions about changing championship structures and four teams coming out of Munster, the answer is always that it would take away from the jeopardy and that Munster is the jewel in the hurling crown.But sometimes things get so low in Waterford that some supporters would even ask the question, ‘would we be better off in Joe McDonagh and get to a final and be one game away from an All-Ireland quarter-final?’.

It's a shame that reigning Hurler of the Year Shane O'Donnell won't be seen playing for Clare again in 2025. Photo: SportsfileIt seems to me that ‘money, money, and more money’ is the new driver within the GAA rather than looking at future development and promotion of our games. Filling grounds and getting as many games from a cut-throat Munster SHC behind the paywall seems to be the order of the day and run off the championships quickly to free up Croke Park.All they seem to want is another pot of gold, and Jarlath Burns said as much, with bands like Oasis and American football games given more thought than the counties that helped build the GAA.What was fantastic to see was Leinster Council chairman Derek Kent announce 20,000 free tickets for kids for the final double-header next Sunday (Kilkenny v Galway and Kildare v Laois) at GAA HQ.We need more Derek Kents at the top table who are in touch with what’s required on the ground to keep developing and promoting our games. He’s also banging the drum about revisiting a championship structure change and that can’t come soon enough for struggling counties like Waterford.It goes back to the kids. If more kids get to see their county heroes on television and live in person at matches during the summer months, then more kids will want to play and be inspired by them.Maybe people are starting to see that the great ‘Babs’ Keating was right, it’s time for people to really smell the coffee in terms of the direction the Association is going in and for clubs to start taking back control before it’s too late.

Wicklow 1-8 Waterford 0-16 half time. Wicklow got the last 1-2 of the half to bring them right back in it

Wicklow 3-29 Waterford 0-21 full time. The Tailteann dream is over for another year

to be fair I don’t think Mullane is naive enough to think Waterford not being good enough is not our own fault and I don’t see that he’s blaming the structure of the championship for that. He is pointing out many flaws in the structure such as the lob-sidedness of the 2 provincial championships, the rushed nature of getting games played, the fact that Joe McDonagh teams have an easier route into a quarter final than the Munster counties, amongst others. Would a traditional knock out Munster championship format with a round robin on the All Ireland series help the likes Waterford and Wexford? absolutely. I don’t see any harm in Mullane pointing that out for the powers that be to see and definetly don’t find it ‘embarrassing’

I completely agree that we have not been good enough to get out of the Munster Championship under this current structure. No arguments there whatsoever. The issue I have is the complete imbalance of the system. Our level of performance has got us close a couple of years but again just has not been good enough to get out of Munster, but I would be very confident in saying that the same level of performance would likely get us into the All ireland series if we were in Leinster about 70-80% of the time and 100% of the time if we were in the Joe McDonagh which is ridiculous but true.

A place in the All Ireland series is so so coveted when you are Waterford in this Munster Championship yet there is token places given in other instances. That's where my frustration lies in the system. Plus the fact it is far too condensed.

Worth noting that 4 teams do get out of Munster and Leinster in the aforementioned minor championship though

1-10 to 0-8 at half time. Cormac Spain goal with the last puck of the ball of the half. Limerick with a strong wind in the second half

Hurley thrown away there that should have been a free out!