Waterford GAA Discussion Thread 2013- Mod Warning Post #1

archieknox wrote: »

2 off our squad from last year have taken this year out so as to broaden their horizons and add to that yesterday Colm Galvin from Clare. This is an AMATEUR sport,one that has increasingly become professional with very little rewards. Yet instead of complimenting the player in your last post for standing firm and thinking about his long term sporting future,aswell as his career,you slate him for not putting his county first. I have no problem seeing faults in my own clubmates,after all Jamie Nagle had one bad half against Cork last year and we haven't seen him since so its hard to analyse him,and Ryan Donnelly is injured so he's excluded also! Dillon has played well in the last 2 games? I would imagine a 3/4 strength Waterford u21 team would make tougher opposition than what we played in those games. How is McGrath deflecting attention away from the players and why? Realistically we're only trying to get back to where he brought us from in the first place!
Just as a matter of interest and presuming you were at the u21 game last night did you see anyone else potentially making a break through for the senior panel? Seamus Keating from Ardmore,Brendan Phelan from Ballinameela showed up well in patches aswell as Cathal Curran at midfield but I'm expecting to get slaughtered for even mentioning my own clubman on here! Oh and don't forget Paddy,......pure class!!!!!!

I like the look of Brendan Phelan thought he was excellent for Ballinamelia in the intermediate championship. I think Cathal curran has a lot to offer too but was injured around January when he was supposedly offered a chance to come into senior set up I think paddy is a great prospect and would love to see him get involved I didn't know his back was an issue I thought he was struggling with a head injury during early stages of minor last year. Seamus keating has some fine attributes but really think he needs to improve his hurling to even make u21 team.

Wides killing us we should be well clear at this stage. We're the better hurlers. 3 clear now.

Half back line well on top here. We have to be happy with the performance in the first half but Wexford seem to be very lethargic aswell but we can only beat what's in front of us.

Good stuff by the Waterford players and management team today. Playing a more positive and coordinated style than last year and it's paying dividends. Looking forward to a league quarter final v Galway next weekend and I would give us every chance. There was lots of criticism for this manager before (including from myself), but he has achieved something very real this year and the team are improving. Also, a good frame of mind for everyone to be in as the summer nears.

Can't wait for next weekend. Well done all involved.

On the GAA Website the Waterford Galway venue is listed as TBC?

Delighted to be back in 1a, but we beat the crap out of a poor selection of teams that we were better than bar in the Limerick match to do it. When was the last time a team that went down from 1a didn't come straight back up?

Plenty of young lads blooded, serious change in the attitude of the team on the pitch in that there's more fight and resolve on show, and most encouragingly is there's no dour negative system being inflicted on players.

We've never had any fear of Galway and they'd be my pick on form to play in the quarters before today, fingers crossed we can keep the momentum we're building going and put in a good performance.

Is that game defo in Walsh Park?

So how did the full back do? I see many have doubts about him?

KevIRL wrote: »

Go away to fukk would ya. Mr negativity trying to come in with the emotional hedge
If we lost you'd be on here banging the 'told ya so' drum loud and clear

well in all fairness ,alot of lads on here saying it will be this or that ,but in truth Wexford were **** absolutely horrendous ,,and we played a very defensive game ,with the usual overplaying everything,took years to get the ball into the forward line,this wont stand up come the championship and that is guaranteed,we topped and won our place back in div1a which is pleasing and a fair achievement,lets wait and see after the galway game ,

Fireball07 wrote: »

There was a huge difference between the style they played when they lost against Cork in the Munster Championship in 2013, and even when they beat Waterford compared to how they played against Galway & Limerick, and again in the final. They mixed their game a lot better later in the year whereas before they were over-complicating things and leaving their forwards too isolated.

I agree that its the mixing of both short passing and first time ball is key. It keeps the opposition guessing. But i think until Waterford go back to having a three man fullforward line then we will use the short passing more.

Well done Waterford!!! Was not able to see the game, just wondering if we have reduced the wide count in the last two games. Come the summer we will need every point possible. But... It is so nice to see the team winning away from home and from what I read to be in control of the game from the start. These players are used to winning (Harty cups, strong minors) and this winning mentality will get them a long way. I also like the attitude of most supports who are cautiously optimistic, (apart from the poster who always predict that we loose of course 😄) much easier for players and management to handle than over hype.

stumblingblock wrote: »

Good to see some humble pie being eaten today. I’ll gladly take a bite myself, as I must admit I thought we’d struggle to get out of 1B at the start of the year. After last years performances I thought we we’d have to endure a couple years down there given that Limerick and Wexford looked to be a good bit ahead of us. But credit Derek McGrath & the lads for getting it together and producing the right results. I agree that Limerick hit the self-destruction button as they generally do when the expectations are high. But wouldn’t be as quick to discredit our performance today just because Wexford were disappointing. We were the hungrier team and never gave them a chance to get into the game. This is no bad Wexford team. I fancy them to bounce back later in the summer and we could even end up playing them in a league semi final again. As for Galway next weekend it will be a step up but one we are capable of making. We are have shown to be a higher quality than the 1b teams so we should be able to give them a good rattle at least

Well I for 1 had to eat so much humble pie I was wearing a bib last night! Credit the team and management on a professional performance yesterday. Having watched it again last night we were so much better than the scoreline suggested. Hungrier and our first touch was excellent not to mention the amount of dirty ball won throughout the pitch,it looked like Wexford weren't ready for this type of aggressive tactic. I can't recall them winning any of those type of contests.
Next Sunday will be a sterner test but one that shouldn't be feared. Galway don't ever do particularly well in Walsh Park. One negative on twitter was a local journalist nominating de burca and O Mahoney for all stars?!! We're in the month of march ffs! Put things in perspective its still national league hurling,review all these things in September when the real hurling is over.
On next Sunday will there be any changes? Could Maurice Shanahan start? Hard to imagine he will change the team from yesterday.

Congrats to the team and management on achieving promotion straight back to 1A. Over the course of the league Waterford have been by far the best side on view in the Division for whatever reason. Four wins and one draw, having played away to our three strongest rivals, a points difference of +63 way ahead of any of the others, and apart from the Limerick game, were in total control throughout. On top of this (an not getting carried away) I believe we are still playing well within ourselves, and that many of our top talents are only finding their true form.

Looking critically at yesterdays game would see the following:

- Goalkeeper - solid out and assured one crazy short pass that could have got us in trouble.

- Full Back Line - Coughlan did what was asked of him and kept McDonald tied up. Could have got a silly yellow for tipping the helmet, not sure if it was intentional but looked at it again last night on recording and think it was. Needs to cut out silly frees and bookings. as a full back on a yellow is standing on a cliff edge. Corners backs solid out .

Half Back Line - tremendous performance from all three

Midfield - i expressed doubts about Barron before the game but take them all back - thought he was super yesterday, foraged all day was aggressive in his play and picked out some great passes. Just needs to speed up moving of the ball as got caught once or twice yesterday taking those extra steps. Moran had a bit of a mare starting off his touch was poor and fumbled a lot of ball - feel he is much more conformable and effective as a wing back.

Forwards - Brick was a sensation and it was noticeable about how many times the brought the ball down and we had players already moving waiting for the break. His work rate was phenomenal. O'Halloran thought worked really hard and while he did not score, he drew four frees in very scoreable positions. O'Mahoney had one or two blips on frees other than that had another solid game

Dunford by his own high standards was not as effective as normally but worked hard, Bennett tried really hard and was unlucky not to add to his tally, if he can keep getting game time and stay injury free this guy is a serious talent, lots of ability, faster than people give him credit for, aggressive and direct and has the confidence to go for goal without fear of missing. Dillon showed real glimpses of what he is a capable of took his scores with ease and looked for the intelligent ball majority of time, but again capable of much more.


Tactics - They worked yesterday, because we got on top early and once we kept our goal intact we were never in danger of loosing this game from an early stage, Wexford never looked like being able to rattle of four of five unanswered points to get them back into it. Still concerned about the level of defensive tactics employed and also feel we overplay the short game. . Countless times yesterday we hunted down the Wexford backs blocking and hooking them while they were looking for the short pass, and several times we intercepted short hand-passes. This is what good teams will do to us unless we vary our tactic. We have defenders capable so playing good direct ball, we just need to bring this more into our game. When opposition know you are going to try and play it short they will be willing to gamble more and take chances on intercepts if we vary it more and keep them guessing they will be less likely to do this. Beside this especially when we get Shane Bennett back we will have and abundance of really good options in our full forward line to give us a real goal threat especially if we can get good quick ball into the space in front of them.

Overall a job really well done, if we can improve on those few areas, be more positive and keep our top players fit, i think the future is really exciting.

PTH2009 wrote: »

Galway beat at home in 2013 and cost us the opportunity to go to the knockout stages of the league that year.

The one thing that struck me is the speed of the 1a games compared to the 1b. teams in 1a are much faster.

You would expect the speed of hurling to be faster in the top division which should mean next Sunday's game at Walsh park will be an entertaining game. The most pleasing aspect from yesterday was the players attitude of fighting for every ball and doing their best. It looked like they wanted it more which is a huge improvement on last year. Also the younger players introduced to the county team are showing they can do well at this level. Fair play to the management for ingraining that competitive attitude in the team and making the hard decision to drop players with experience early on in the year as it now looks like it was the right decision to do.

The defensive aspect of the performance worked very well yesterday as it considerably limited Wexford's goal threat and didn't allow them to get a grip on the game. However going forward I would also like to see a more attacking game plan when the opportunity arises as relying on winning games by points alone is not as successful in the more open spaces of Thurles and Croke Park. But it is still a work in progress and a lot of positives can be seen so far this year so on wards and upwards.

Agree with that - especially considering that Jake Dillon played a cross field pass to Paudi Mahony who was within about 10 years of where Maurice was lying prostrate receiving attention. He never made any attempt to find out what was going on, and it could have been a serious injury