Waterford GAA Thread - Mod note post #1

I think upthedeise16 is spot-on in pointing to the lack of intensity in yesterday’s Limerick/Clare game. Sixty scores is ridiculous in any 75-minute game, never mind a Munster senior hurling championship game doubling up as a National League final. It was the same in Croke Park on Saturday night where we had 56 scores in another very open game.

Joe McGrath, who coached the Waterford hurlers 30 years ago, used to say that a hurling team scoring a total of 20 points was rarely beaten. Clare and Laois both comfortably surpassed that total and yet were well behind their opponents.

It is clear that big and partisan crowds are a key ingredient in the intensity we associate with championship matches. It will be interesting if any team will be able to reach high intensity levels in the absence of this stimulant. A key contributor in Kilkenny’s win over Limerick in last year’s All-Ireland semi-final was the way they tore into their opponents, especially in the first half. Nevertheless, Limerick wrested back control after the change of ends and probably would have won were it not for errant shooting and a terrible umpiring error at the death.

Yesterday Clare were level at half time due mainly to wind assistance, the clever ploy of placing the in-form Tony Kelly deep in the forwards to pick up breaking ball, and a rather slipshod effort by Limerick. Obviously the legendary hurley was smashed on the Limerick dressing-room table at half time as they were a different animal from the restart.

I was surprised that Clare had no strategy for dealing with the Limerick half back line while playing against the wind, as they persisted with long puckouts in the third quarter with little return. They started going short in the final quarter, but with no obvious game plan and very little ball going into their potentially dangerous full forward line. Limerick are physically powerful where it is needed yet very skillful, have a well-honed game plan, an array of top-class shooters and a strong bench. They will take some stopping.

In the Croke Park game, Mattie Kenny used his resources well, starting the game with two debutants and several fringe players, and then bringing on the more experienced hands, including Eamonn Dillon, Liam Rushe, Mark Schutte, Shane Barrett and Jake Malone, to finish out the game. Even then, he had the luxury of not naming Conal Keany, David Treacy and Paul Ryan (all affected by minor injuries, apparently) in his matchday squad. They do appear to have a bit of depth in their panel, which could be a key factor in this year’s championship.

New boy Conor Burke made a big impression, but I expect his lightly-built namesake Donal could come in for some tough treatment from Kilkenny. The experiment of playing the strong, tall and mobile Chris Crummey as a ballwinner (and shooter) in the forwards seemed to work well.

Laois had good skill levels and played some nice hurling, but their key problems are a lack of physicality and top-level smarts. These are qualities which they can develop if they can remain involved at Division 1 level, but losing half their team from last year won’t help in this respect. I was rather surprised that they stuck to their defensive formation as the game ran away from them, especially in the final quarter. They never even looked like creating a goal chance. I was impressed by their centre back, Pádraig Delaney, while midfielder Paddy Purcell produced his usual good-quality performance.

Returning to the high scoring rate in these games. While the looseness of these games was a big factor here, I do think something will have to be done about the sliotar, which is simply travelling too far in my view. I think it is ridiculous to see Enda Rowland hitting frees twenty feet over the bar from deep in his own half. Yesterday players were hitting points from 70 metres with the merest flick of the wrists. It looked just too easy at times. Meanwhile, we are seeing fewer and fewer of the goalmouth thrills which used to be a key feature of hurling.

I just heard Dungarvan will be stripped of their county football win, any truth to that?

thesultan wrote: »

Any idea of the Waterford team?

My guess would be the following -
SOK, Shane Fives, Conor Prunty, Shane McNulty, Darragh Fives, Tadhg De Burca, Calum Lyons, Jamie Barron, Kieran Bennett, Kevin Moran, Austin Gleeson, Jack Fagan, Dessie Hutchinson, Stephen Bennett, Mikey Kearney

Other options include Jake Dillon, Iarlaith Daly, Colin Dunford, Jordan Henley and Stephen Roche.

Pauric Mahony, Conor Gleeson and Neil Montgomery all absent through injury.

DLS2THECORE wrote: »

My guess would be the following -
SOK, Shane Fives, Conor Prunty, Shane McNulty, Darragh Fives, Tadhg De Burca, Calum Lyons, Jamie Barron, Kieran Bennett, Kevin Moran, Austin Gleeson, Jack Fagan, Dessie Hutchinson, Stephen Bennett, Mikey Kearney

Other options include Jake Dillon, Iarlaith Daly, Colin Dunford, Jordan Henley and Stephen Roche.

Pauric Mahony, Conor Gleeson and Neil Montgomery all absent through injury.

Henley & Roche not on the panel.

I’d expect close to that team however. Moran at wing back, Callum at midfield & either Kieran Bennett or Jack Prendergast at wing forward. Not sure Kearney will get his place either, that spot is up for grabs I would think. I wonder will Iarlath Daly feature, he did very well in his league debut this year but picked up an injury afterwards.

Kearney isn't up to it.

Asdfgh2020 wrote: »

Is there any way of seeing the game without having sky......?

it's free to sky and virgin media customers, on sky sports mix which is available free on both providers.

I just posted it to see if anyone else had heard the same. I hope it isn’t true especially as far as Stephen Bennett is concerned. Not ideal with dara either but at least we have enough cover in the half back line. Unfortunately the same can’t be said with regard the forwards especially now with pairaic injured. Anyone know how Patrick Curran and Jake Dillon are going in training/ challenge games? Any chance of them starting

mountgomery burns wrote: »

You'll see a marked improvement on Waterford from last year.

In fairness it would be hard to be as bad as last year

Grim viewing here from Brian McDonnells 642 blog. In line with and in a lot of cases porer than Westmeath and Carlow on these metrics

Work rate chart very informative.

http://sixtwofourtwo.com/2019shcstats/

carter10 wrote: »

In fairness it would be hard to be as bad as last year

Grim viewing here from Brian McDonnells 642 blog. In line with and in a lot of cases porer than Westmeath and Carlow on these metrics

Work rate chart very informative.

http://sixtwofourtwo.com/2019shcstats/

There’s a crazy amount of detail, surprised to see Waterford are one of the teams to win most frees & perform pretty well in terms of not allowing goal chances and winning their own puckouts but the workrate stats are worrying to see but it’s an easy stat to fix and an extreme workrate would be a known characteristic of Liam Cahill’s underage Tipp teams.

Looks a decent team ,roll on Saturday

enoughtaken wrote: »

Snr Hurling Wat v.Cork
1 S O'Keeffe
2 S Fives
3 C Prunty
4 S McNulty
5 C Lyons
6 T De Burca
7 A Gleeson
8 J Barron
9 J Dillon
10 K Moran
11 J Fagan
12 K Bennett
13 D Hutchinson
14 S Bennett
15 J Prendergast

Could see Moran & Gleeson switch with also the option of Bennett moving back if necessary. No Daly on the panel, is he injured?

PTH2009 wrote: »

good too see new names on both the starting 15 and the bench

How is it good exactly can you tell me? No issue with starting 15 but God help us tonight there's fellas on the subs bench there that would barley make a good senior club team.

Seeing new names all well and good but they have to be up to the standard required. This isn't national league at the weekend it's championship hurling. Serious question marks have to asked of the management team as to how we are into championship now and this is the depth of our panel.. looking at the list of substitutes available to us at the weekend I would say it's much easier to name a full set of subs that are not on the panel for one reason or the other that would be far better options for the game at the weekend.