Waterford GAA thread - mod warning post #1 and #51

Back from Cork and huge credit must go to The management for coming so close to pulling off a huge shock. While Sean Power is the manager don’t be fooled as it had Paul Flynn’s handprints all over it.
With limited resources it was a fantastic effort and with a bit of luck especially in the first half we could have been victorious.
Great displays from Nolan, Henley, Prunty(beast) Lyons( definitely ran out of steam due to lack of fitness)while all others worked tirelessly but ultimately wasn’t enough.
Should this management team get the nod? Well if they do it will be Flynn’s Hurling philosophy that will come to the fore that’s a certainty. Kelly was their eye in the stand throughout but it’s hard to see what Kieran O Gorman brings to it?
Maybe James O Connor might be a better fit with the 3 lads.
Yes it’s a huge step up but then again Flynn and co will be working with a better quality of player and I’m intrigued to know how it would work?
While other names have been mentioned and for different reasons will not be successful maybe we these lads deserve a crack at it and maybe add Tony Browne to the set up aswell.

Remember when Loughnane ranted about how he'd win an all Ireland within two years with Galway? I remember.

Then he more or less blamed the galway players for not welcoming him or engaging with him like the clare team had done. He also blamed the bitterness in the club scene. Well all of those things are the job of the manager to solve. All we heard from Loughnane was excuses.

So it's fine for him to scratch his head about why everyone praised DMG's character, and I'd suggest that it's possibly because it's a situation he has never found himself in.

garv123 wrote: »

I kind of think he's right,

Although Derek is clearly very likable person, he had a very poor success rate at waterford,
Saying he won a league is a bit like united fans celebrating the Europa league.. its not good enough for the quality that was on the panel. Maybe if the likes of Offaly won the league it would be a big success for them.

69 games, 31 wins, 32 losses, 6 draws

Bigger teams below copied from FB:

Vs cork 5W 7L 1D

Vs TIP 3W 7L 1D

Vs Limerick 2W 4L 1D

Vs Clare 2W 1D 5L

Vs Galway 2W L2 1D

vs KK 3W 4L 1D

If you'r going to disregard the league as a success then you should really only consider championship matches in his record too.

DiscoStew wrote: »

The reality is as popular as he was he delivered no silverware in the championship. Justin did. Davy did. Davy certainly with a lesser team, Justin with a weaker panel but possibly better forwards.
I wouldn’t belittle the league win, it was huge at the time but unfortunately we never pushed on to a Munster championship or AI victory.
He came so close to guiding us to the AI it’s easy to forget. Unfortunately in the black and white of the record books it will only be remembered as a loss.
He obviously did so much for players outside of the confines of the pitch but didn’t get the big championship ones sadly.

Agreed but this thing of helping players outside of training them is cringeworthy to be honest. That sort of thing has gone on for years behind closed doors and nothing said about it. It’s going on all over the country in other countries and to be fair to Loughnane he has some valid points in the article.

Deiseen wrote: »

He also went to town on Mullane when he retired. Its an amateur game and writing stuff like that in a paper for a few reads just isnt on.

What did he say about Mullane, I can't remember?

deise08 wrote: »

Any news on how Stephen is after the match??
Just haven't seen anything anywhere.. didn't look nice seeing him coming off on Sunday..

Hopefully the lack of comment on it means it’s not as serious as first seemed.

We can see now that the new format requires a different approach in terms of management from the old system.
It’s deficient in that two teams play on four consecutive weekends while the other three have no more than three games week on week.
The odd number of teams means that over time, the effect won’t be negated even if the Munster council tried.
This was and will continue to be significant unless adjusted.
The tight nature of qualification and the effect of local rivalry means that each and every game is highly contested with a “win or bust” attitude.
This has the effect of requiring a high degree of mental focus from players. For amateur players, this is a tall ask.
management will learn to focus on physical recovery but preventing psychological fatigue is far more difficult.
In a number of cases, it may require changing players week on week.
For good management teams this will be an edge, but the spadework must be done during the league in blooding these “seconds”. Then they must be kept ready for their entry.
I would have expected that Derek McGrath was mindful of the demands that his hand required this year. Unfortunately as we know, he can’t have anticipated using just so many of his training group and all at once.
I think we were also going to see a move away from the out and out sweeper so it’s double the pity.
So we look for a new manager.
The key question we need to ask now is what’s the most important aspect of his job with our players?
To me, it’s giving our hurling a direction.
This is first.
Second comes everything else.

Kerry 1-11 waterford 0-0 ht

1.15 to no score

mountgomery burns wrote: »

Sure last week Derek was staying...

And big Dan is throwing his hat in the ring so it’s makes for great viewing!

PTH2009 wrote: »

cul beag wrote: »

And big Dan is throwing his hat in the ring so it’s makes for great viewing!

Hope it's not true

Great right hand man/selector but not as manager

Sean Power my favourite to get it and to have most of the same backroom team as the under 21s. The squad could have great respect for Sean as most of them were part of his AI winning minor and under 21s

seriously a great right hand man, not so sure , he was more of a yes man than anything else , he looked more of a gofer than someone Mc Grath would actually listen too, we don't know the facts at all if any if Dan tried to influence Mc Grath to hurl in any kind of a positive manner or was he just there to run around screaming at everyone to get back, like I said we don't know the facts, but he was in the set up all the way and played his part in what can only be described as puke hurling , basically playing Football/rugby with hurlies ,let's hope we never see it again , nearly 10 years of it now , let's hope when Mc Grath cleans out his desk he brings with him every yes man , that was associated with him , I remember Paul Flynn writing for one of our local rags about Davy Fitz ,that he believed that he dragged Waterford back 30 years , add to that the damage Mc Grath has done and we'll do well to climb out of this hurling quick sand, here's to a new manager who ever it will be and the very best of luck to him , looking forward to next years league already,its a shame that that it didn't work out for him and I hope he does well wherever he goes , he seems like a decent fella , but a decent intercounty hurling MANAGER he is not , and his record will show that , very very average altogether , onwards and upwards ,

anyone have a timeframe for new management to be in place??

PTH2009 wrote: »

Bigsliothar wrote: »

anyone have a timeframe for new management to be in place??

Heard they want to have it finalised by the county senior hurling final which will prob be end of Sep/October

The county final will be sorted well before that with all intercounty teams out of championship.

Last Sunday’s game against Cork in Thurles was quite enjoyable, although, as Donal O’Grady observed in the Examiner, it lacked the intense edge of a real championship occasion. It was surreal being at a Munster Championship match involving Waterford where my heart was not in my mouth as the game went down to the wire.

Waterford played some good hurling, especially in the first half, but overall Cork were clearly the better team. As usual they were well-organised, working the ball through the lines to create loads of scoring opportunities. However, their shooting was way off, while Waterford’s was unusually good, as reflected in Cork’s wide tally of seventeen compared with just seven for Waterford.

A lot of Waterford’s points came from out the field, or were gifts from sloppy play in the Cork defence. As ever, Waterford rarely exerted pressure close to the Cork goal. Cork’s sloppiness and wayward shooting indicated a team which may have thought that all they had to do was to turn up to win the game. However, when push came to shove they came good in the closing stages, which you would expect as the result meant a lot to them. Also Waterford ran out of steam towards the end, as the exertions of four games in four weeks clearly began to tell. The GAA will surely have to make some adjustments to the playing schedule in next year’s championship.

With Cork being so wasteful, Waterford could well have won the game. Just after half time, Tommy Ryan passed up a tap-over point and appeared to go for goal off his weaker left side which Anthony Nash dealt with comfortably. Immediately afterwards Pauric Mahony had a straightforward scoring chance which he would normally nail, but underhit his shot into Nash’s hand. If Waterford had got these two points it could have changed the dynamics of the closing stages by putting extra pressure on Cork.

On top of that, Seamus Harnedy’s goal should never have been allowed. After initially taking the ball into hand, he then handled the ball again before taking six clear strides before shooting to the net. Even if, as some have suggested, he handled the ball again during these strides (not obvious on TV) it would have been a foul for handling the ball three times. Overall, it was terrible refereeing, and variation between referees in their toleration of overcarrying has become a major problem (as has poor umpiring, which has been particularly evident this year).

Obviously the highlight of the game, from a Waterford point of view, was the outstanding performance of Tommy Ryan in what may have been his first championship start (I am open to correction on this). When he first came on the scene I thought Ryan was too small and light to make it at this level, but he is certainly a lot stronger now. He does have a tendency to go it alone. When he went for the long-distance shot late in the game which was blocked down (leading to Patrick Horgan shooting Cork into the lead), if he had looked up he might have spotted Tom Devine who was completely on his own on the left wing and calling for the ball.

Devine really upped his game this year. His first touch and shooting have been top drawer. He will be a big loss if he is not available next year.

After early jitters, and despite some naivety which one would expect, I thought that Seamus Keating did well when brought on to replace Noel Connors. One would have to ask why more use was not made of him when Waterford were hit with their injured defenders crisis.

An interesting aspect of last weekend was that the two teams which were full of energy and sharp as tacks in Limerick the previous week (the Limerick seniors and Waterford minors) both were totally flat against Clare and Cork, respectively. The way entire teams can collectively be affected like this is a fascinating aspect of sport. There was less at stake for Limerick who would still have been in the championship regardless of their result. I am amazed at the way Clare have been hyped up by the media pundits after this game, given how poor Limerick were.

Apart from the fact that Waterford minors had to play four games in four weeks, consistency between games is rarer at this level. Bad and all as they were playing, they still dominated the early stages of their game against Cork, but had some really bad misses. As happens in these situations, Cork (who had zero confidence starting the game, a rare occurrence in teams from that county) managed to put some scores on the board and you could see them gaining self-belief and eventually taking over completely.

I was surprised to see Caolán Mac Craith being hauled ashore when the game just might still have been retrievable. While things had not been going well for him (mainly a result of poor supply from out the field), he was the one member of the Waterford team with a bit of X factor who might have been able to grab a goal or two out of nothing.

It is ironic that the two teams which Waterford beat in this championship, Tipperary and Limerick, are now in the Munster final. They did show a lot of quality against Limerick, and along with the good showing of the under 21s on Wednesday, it is clear that the production of good young hurlers in the county did not cease in 2013, as some people (including Derek McGrath) seem to think.

Finally, assuming that last Sunday was his last game for Waterford, I salute and thank Brick Walsh for his enormous contribution to Waterford hurling over the last 15 years.

Giveitfong wrote: »

Waterford played some good hurling, especially in the first half, but overall Cork were clearly the better team. As usual they were well-organised, working the ball through the lines to create loads of scoring opportunities. However, their shooting was way off, while Waterford’s was unusually good, as reflected in Cork’s wide tally of seventeen compared with just seven for Waterford.

I actually thought we were the better team last week. Just when it came down to it at the end of the game, Cork had something to play for to give them that little boost to get them over the line.

Deiseen wrote: »

You are joking? Surely these should be sorted by September at the latest?

Plan was emailed to clubs last week that's the dates that were given

Mastermcgrath wrote: »

The day after Waterford and Tipp were knocked out of the championship there was a whole host of clubs from the states making contact with players, all competing to get the best players across before the start of the summer championships over there. Some were even getting whatsapp messages that evening!! There are already a few lads gone, and I believe De Burca, the Mahonys and Fives (not sure which one) have departed for Australia.
That's the reality of the modern game and unfortunately I'd say many clubs don't feel any better off because Waterford are out of the championship.

Think about 10 of the panel gone away, club championship back on this weekend it's the clubs that will suffer