Waterford GAA Thread - Mod note post #1

Talking to a lot of Tipperary hurling supporters they are angry and deflated after this down season , less than a year from winning an all Ireland . I’d give anything to have those type of problems . Our default solution seems to be brush ourselves down and go again . Maybe we aren’t just doing things right doing here , maybe we could be doing things better like other hurling counties who did take advantage of down time by a slighter lesser limerick team . We need to have better GAA facilities in every town and parish like those successful Hurling Counties . We need to have better again supporter club offering real value for supporters to cough up their cash . Nobody is going to hand us a trip out of Munster championship never mind an all Ireland . There’s a whole generation of Waterford GAA fans that have never seen us win an all Ireland . Are we giving us the best chance to finally break the curse??

More whinging about the format, it’s the same every year. We’ve all year to complain about the format, why management decides outside a losing dressing room to bring up the championship structure is beyond me. Media must be buzzing when they see them coming.

Questions have to be asked about the mentality this management are pushing, we’re the poor mes of Munster not able to catch a break. How does that effect coming down the home straight of games we’re clearly capable of winning but can’t close out.

I’ve always been dead against the revolving doors so I’m torn on weather to stick with the current management, but would love a bit of ruthlessness brought into how we play and talk. If that means certain players have to go then so be it. I’d say some of the players are scratching their heads at the levels they know they can get to but management crying out to croke park to come in and save them.

I find it difficult to fathom all the complaining from Waterford about the format. 

The format is the same for everybody. 

Waterford played 4 and won 0 in 2026. 

Waterford played 4 and won 1 in 2025. 

That’s a single win from 8 games. 

Do Waterford not see the connection between poor results and an early exit from championship ? Do Waterford want everyone to keep playing, and playing, and playing, until they start winning games ? 

This suggestion that 4 teams should qualify from Munster is laughable. Notwithstanding the fact that ye still would not qualify, what do ye want then – change the format so that all 5 teams qualify from Munster ??

This isn’t an U6 blitz where everyone gets a medal at the end ! 

There are winners and losers. You win games, you progress. You fail to win games, you lose out. That’s the nature of sport.

Not many here suggesting 4 teams to qualify. Discussions here on overall format. The fact that we're out so early and lack of exposure to generate interest for youngsters to take up the game in future. Big outcry from Cork when their games were behind a paywall last year.. we just got on with it this year. A couple of years during round robin we couldn't even have home advantage due to Walsh Park needing to be upgraded. WP currently being upgraded and we still have approx 4k from Cork at last game due to rules around season tickets.

Other counties in Munster obviously have none of the issues above. Waterford supporters here are entitled to have opinions on championship structure.

Best that you stick to your county forum as you're contributing nothing to discussion here.

I think you are deliberately missing the main issue here. No one has an issue with losing or not being good enough but not having waterford or tipperary hurling beyond May is outrageous.

I’d love to know what those Waterford players think they had Davy fitz tell all the media they were mentally scarred and broken u then have queally come in blaming decisions, the weather and now banging on for two years about the format.

so you’d prefer to lose your games in June rather than lose them in April ?

I think you’re deliberately missing the point here. The problem is not paywalls, it’s not Walsh park renovations, it’s not season tickets , it’s not the calendar as you have suggested. The problem is you’re the worst team in Munster, so you get eliminated earliest.

This mentality of blaming everything and anything rather than face the actual problem head on is nauseating.

Should we just hand you over a trophy of some sort to keep you happy ? A wooden spoon perhaps?

While I don’t agree with the tone, is s(he) that far off the mark? I don’t think so.

I'd agree. News & Star did a good piece after the Cork game, I would say pretty much echoing alot of the way we are feeling at the moment:

https://www.waterford-news.ie/sport/gaa/a-tiring-rendition-of-a-familiar-tale_arid-97792.html

Apologies if someone already put it up.

We absolutely have not been good enough to get top 3 in Munster. That's completely on us. My issue is that geographic location gives you a much easier route to the All Ireland championship. The level of performance we produced this year (most years) would 100% get us out of Leinster.

The only way to fix it is to give each team a shot at the All Ireland Championship. Of course have your incentives for winning your province/making a final but I don't understand how people can't see how nonsensical the current structure is.

I think everyone or at least everyone in this thread is not arguing to have more teams qualify so we in Waterford have a chance.

If we were in Leinster while some believe we would qualify every year I wouldn't be so sure. While the league is the league we have struggled against Leinster teams in the league and in previous championships we always had difficult days against leinster teams, where as in Munster you have to play every game as of it's a Munster Final and that surely only brings you on.

That said we all know one provence is far stronger than the other.

I think the real argument is, it is probably harder to get out of Munster than to win the All Ireland, which shouldn't be the case, the road to the All Ireland should be the hardest part.

The prime example of that. Clare win the All Ireland and fail to get out of Munster the following year. Tipp win the All Ireland and fail to get out of munster the following year.

In the last ten years. The AI has been won 9 times by Munster teams, with the exception being Galway in 2017.

I think there needs to be a discussion about what's best for hurling, how can we have a format like the Munster championship across either both provence's or across an All Ireland series, as it's epic and what we all want to see if full stadiums with epic encounters, more teams progressing, and by progressing I mean teams genuinely going toe to toe with each other, making weaker counties stronger, getting Wexford back strong, keeping offaly up to the level, progressing the likes of Laois, Antrim, Kildare, Westmeath etc

Thats the problem though its not. 3 inter-county games on gaa+ last weekend. None on rte.

There you go - you are right, you have absolutely not been good enough to get top 3 in Munster.

Waterford have won just 4 out of 28 games since the Munster round robin was introduced. Stop blaming the format. The problem is a lot closer to home.

You are completely missing the point.

Bar being actually brought to it, I doubt kids would ever watch it on screen. Too busy these days watching their own screens. Wouldn't really develop much interest in watching games I'd say until well into their late teens anyway.