Waterford GAA Discussion Thread 2013- Mod Warning Post #1

fricatus

Mountainlad wrote: »

Molumphy is back in the Lebanon.

Will he be back for the senior team next year?

robopaddy

fricatus wrote: »

Will he be back for the senior team next year?

i think so it was always just going to be one year away but I wouldnt be expecting miracles either. He'll be 30 by the time next year comes around and he'll have been away from top level hurling for over a year so it remains to be seen what he will still have to offer.

Black Suir

robopaddy wrote: »

Some totally off the wall results from the Co. MHC games last night.... a lot of the co. lads must still have been in celebratory mode Id imagine?

or bookies taken in lots of money again.

robopaddy

Harty Cup kicks off again in a couple of weeks -

Group 1 - Thurles CBS, Castletroy College, Doon CBS, Gaelcholaiste Mhuire Cork.
Group 2 - Blackwater, Dungarvan, Midleton, Nenagh, Rochestown.
Group 3 - Ardscoil Ris, Hamilton HS, St Flannans, DLS Waterford, St Colmans
Group 4 - Templemore, Charleville, Clonmel, Youghal.


Dungarvan and Blackwater have been pitted in the same group as each other and DLS have been stung in a group of death.

Plenty of Waterford interest in Group 4 aswell with Youghal and Clonmel involved

Deise_2012

robopaddy wrote: »

i think so it was always just going to be one year away but I wouldnt be expecting miracles either. He'll be 30 by the time next year comes around and he'll have been away from top level hurling for over a year so it remains to be seen what he will still have to offer.

Still has plenty to offer, even if he's not starting he's a great player to have around the younger players on the panel. His Leadership and Motivation skills are second to none

fricatus

Deise_2012 wrote: »

Still has plenty to offer, even if he's not starting he's a great player to have around the younger players on the panel. His Leadership and Motivation skills are second to none

As is his work rate.

premierstone

robopaddy wrote: »

Harty Cup kicks off again in a couple of weeks -

Group 1 - Thurles CBS, Castletroy College, Doon CBS, Gaelcholaiste Mhuire Cork.
Group 2 - Blackwater, Dungarvan, Midleton, Nenagh, Rochestown.
Group 3 - Ardscoil Ris, Hamilton HS, St Flannans, DLS Waterford, St Colmans
Group 4 - Templemore, Charleville, Clonmel, Youghal.


Dungarvan and Blackwater have been pitted in the same group as each other and DLS have been stung in a group of death.

Plenty of Waterford interest in Group 4 aswell with Youghal and Clonmel involved

Group 1 looks alot stronger on paper tbh, Colmans and Flannans may have great history and reputation but they are not the force's they once were. Three of the teams in Group 1 would fancy their chances of actually winning the competition outright.

Cake Man

robopaddy wrote: »

Harty Cup kicks off again in a couple of weeks -

Group 1 - Thurles CBS, Castletroy College, Doon CBS, Gaelcholaiste Mhuire Cork.
Group 2 - Blackwater, Dungarvan, Midleton, Nenagh, Rochestown.
Group 3 - Ardscoil Ris, Hamilton HS, St Flannans, DLS Waterford, St Colmans
Group 4 - Templemore, Charleville, Clonmel, Youghal.


Dungarvan and Blackwater have been pitted in the same group as each other and DLS have been stung in a group of death.

Plenty of Waterford interest in Group 4 aswell with Youghal and Clonmel involved

What Waterford players are with Youghal and Clonmel? I presume Conor Gleeson of Fourmilewater is in Clonmel? Is Stephen Bennett finished school or in 6th year now?
What other players from the AI winning team will be involved this year?

Hard to gauge which teams are strong as so many of a schools best players do their leaving and move on.

Waternut

I'm with premier on this one, group 1 looks seriously tough. I'd fancy dls to come out of their group particularly after their run in the dean ryan last year. I also reckon Dungarvan may struggle with their group this year..

robopaddy

Cake Man wrote: »

What Waterford players are with Youghal and Clonmel? I presume Conor Gleeson of Fourmilewater is in Clonmel? Is Stephen Bennett finished school or in 6th year now?
What other players from the AI winning team will be involved this year?

Hard to gauge which teams are strong as so many of a schools best players do their leaving and move on.

Yea Conor Gleeson is with Clonmel, Paul O'Connor and Ed O'Halloran of Clashmore are with Youghal a couple of Shamrocks and Ardmore lads aswell afaik.

Stephen Bennett is finished the leaving this year Blackwater could have actually won the competition last year if he hadnt been injured. Blackwater and Dungarvan CBS contested the Dean Ryan Final 2 years ago but some of those lads will have sat the leaving and moved on at this stage.

Midleton CBS will be strong this year as will Doon CBS. The 3 Waterford schools will all fancy getting out of their groups though its very tight I think the spread of schools have grown stronger right across Munster over the past few years as opposed to historically there were nearly always only 2 or 3 schools that could win it every year

robopaddy

Waternut wrote: »

I also reckon Dungarvan may struggle with their group this year..

Yea they are on their own this year without St Augustines and a lot of their good players from last have gone aswell so its a tall order for a small school with only 300 puplis. Still have Patrick Curran though!

alllcounty

Big game today between champs of 2012 and 2011 DLS and BG. 2 very good teams, the winner will win the county me thinks. I fancy BG to turnover DLS, I hear BG are going well in training and are hitting form at the right time while DLS look a little vunerable with Daniels gone for the year and if Mullane is out injuried. Any idea's how this will go, we may have off the ball stuff again like 2011 which cost DLS a county title.

Black Suir

robopaddy wrote: »

Harty Cup kicks off again in a couple of weeks -

Group 1 - Thurles CBS, Castletroy College, Doon CBS, Gaelcholaiste Mhuire Cork.
Group 2 - Blackwater, Dungarvan, Midleton, Nenagh, Rochestown.
Group 3 - Ardscoil Ris, Hamilton HS, St Flannans, DLS Waterford, St Colmans
Group 4 - Templemore, Charleville, Clonmel, Youghal.


Dungarvan and Blackwater have been pitted in the same group as each other and DLS have been stung in a group of death.

Plenty of Waterford interest in Group 4 aswell with Youghal and Clonmel involved

Play each other in the first round of the competition on the 25 as far as I know. Very tough group for Blackwater & Dungarvan, even more so than De La Salle's.

Black Suir

Cake Man wrote: »

What Waterford players are with Youghal and Clonmel? I presume Conor Gleeson of Fourmilewater is in Clonmel? Is Stephen Bennett finished school or in 6th year now?
What other players from the AI winning team will be involved this year?

Hard to gauge which teams are strong as so many of a schools best players do their leaving and move on.

They usually have players from Clashmore involved. Lots of good work done within the club, O'Halloran, Foley, Bourke, O'Connor and a second O'Halloran have come through their ranks in recent years to play minor for the county. BOH was a star for Youghal in the competiton a few years back.

hardybuck

alllcounty wrote: »

Big game today between champs of 2012 and 2011 DLS and BG. 2 very good teams, the winner will win the county me thinks. I fancy BG to turnover DLS, I hear BG are going well in training and are hitting form at the right time while DLS look a little vunerable with Daniels gone for the year and if Mullane is out injuried. Any idea's how this will go, we may have off the ball stuff again like 2011 which cost DLS a county title.

I always take the going well in training reports with a pinch of salt, but the injuries will be a big concern for DLS.

Ballygunner are masters of instigating off the ball stuff where the opposition key player is either sent off, hurt or badly rattled. The absence of Mullane will probably rob them of an easy target!

I wouldn't be surprised if BG stole a victory here. They're always dangerous in a knockout scenario.

Giveitfong

It was, of course, a marvellous achievement to win the All-Ireland Minor Hurling title, and to do so in the end in great style, as befitted a team with such inherent quality. It was a great pity that the Munster title was not collected en route, as it should have been. In fact, properly managed, this team should really have been able to march unbeaten through the competition.


For Waterford under-age teams, the key requirement of management has been to get their minds right for crucial games. Over the last 20 years, Waterford has regularly had minor and under-21 teams capable of capturing Munster and even All-Ireland titles but who failed to turn up when it counted. It has been a routine and painful experience to watch teams of high inherent quality being absolutely hammered in these competitions.


Twice this year the Waterford minors went into games woefully prepared mentally – against Cork and the Munster final replay against Limerick. At least in the Cork game they were able to turn things around in the second half, and one hoped for something similar against Limerick but it never happened. It is ironic that the one day Stephen Bennett was at his devastating best, the rest of the team was totally off-key.


The team was also quite fragile in the game against Kilkenny, a team which was better coached than ours but lacked the individual quality and presence of game-breakers which the Waterford team possessed. We should never have been in a position where a late goal could have put us out of the competition.


Apart from mental preparation, I thought the mentors also left a lot to be desired as regards game management and team selection. In the Munster final in Limerick, Waterford played some magical hurling for 50 minutes, but the selectors’ slowness to address a major weakness in the half-back line meant that Waterford were still within catching distance when Limerick launched their late fightback. Even then, tighter discipline would have prevented the showboating which saw Waterford looking for killer goals when handy points would have had the same effect.


Amazingly, the selectors allowed the same half back weakness to re-appear in the replay and again were very slow to address it, allowing Limerick an easy conduit for the supply of ball to their dangerous full forward line.


As regards the All-Ireland final, it is still a mystery to me why DJ Foran was replaced early in the second half. Foran was one of our top performers at this grade last year, and while I did not attend the first round game against Tipperary, I was amazed that he was not on the starting teams against Clare and Cork. In the latter match, his introduction was one of the key factors which turned the game around in the second half, as he repeatedly won dirty ball on the left wing and used it well, apart from scoring the vital goal which put the game beyond Cork’s reach.


Foran was excellent in the Munster final in Limerick and, while seized with the same malaise which afflicted most of his team mates in the replay, his brilliant goal was a key factor in the defeat of Kilkenny. While he was not at his best in the final, he still won a lot of hard ball and scored a marvellous point before half time. He is one of the players on the team that I would like to have on board when a game is going down to the wire.


What was even more astounding was that there were several more obvious candidates for substitution when Foran was taken off. Tom Devine was doing very little at midfield, where Galway had the upper hand, although he did finish very strongly. Meanwhile, for the fourth game in a row, Adam Farrell was making no impression whatever, and his continued selection in the starting fifteen I found baffling.


I am equally at a loss as to why Cormac Curran didn’t start in the All-Ireland final, especially given the impact he had when he did come on. He gave an outstanding display in the game against Clare in Dungarvan. The occasion seemed to get the better of him against Cork, but I still thought the selectors could have moved him elsewhere rather than simply take him off (again, Farrell was a more obvious candidate for replacement).


Curran also made a big impact when belatedly introduced in the Munster final replay, and did the same against Kilkenny. What I find most difficult to understand is that Cormac was a major figure at midfield in the Dungarvan Colleges march to the All-Ireland title, yet he has never given a run in this position for the Waterford minors who struggled in this area a lot throughout the competition.


Having said that, I thought that Mark O’Brien did well at midfield in the final and made a lot of good plays. The other player who reserved his best display for the final was the team captain Kevin Daly, who was very solid under pressure and made several important clearances in the second half. Again, it is hard to believe that he could not get a starting position in the first two games of the campaign.


Such is the quality of this team that up to ten of them could foreseeably make the grade at senior level, and I would expect at least six of them to do so. With so many of them coming from Intermediate and Junior clubs, they are a credit to the various coaches, at club, school and county level who have been involved in their development. They are also, of course, a credit to themselves and their families. We look forward to seeing a lot more of them in the next few years.

culbaire

alllcounty wrote: »

Big game today between champs of 2012 and 2011 DLS and BG. 2 very good teams, the winner will win the county me thinks. I fancy BG to turnover DLS, I hear BG are going well in training and are hitting form at the right time while DLS look a little vunerable with Daniels gone for the year and if Mullane is out injuried. Any idea's how this will go, we may have off the ball stuff again like 2011 which cost DLS a county title.

All the De La Salle players are saints.

willietherock

I shudder to think what sort of scutter would have been thrown at the minor management's door if they had actually lost the final. Is it a uniquely Waterford hurling characteristic to savage their own county men alive? Scully, Peter Queally and now the minor management.

hardybuck

willietherock wrote: »

I shudder to think what sort of scutter would have been thrown at the minor management's door if they had actually lost the final. Is it a uniquely Waterford hurling characteristic to savage their own county men alive? Scully, Peter Queally and now the minor management.

Great credit to everyone involved, but people were only calling it as they saw it. Huge and seemingly obvious errors were made this year which seriously worried people.

In terms of Waterford in general? I have played both inside and outside the county at a high level. By far and away the worst coaching and management I experienced was at home.

hardybuck

culbaire wrote: »

All the De La Salle players are saints.

As a club, probably one of the cleanest in the county. One club who you would rarely expect guff against on the field or sideline.

seananigans

willietherock wrote: »

I shudder to think what sort of scutter would have been thrown at the minor management's door if they had actually lost the final. Is it a uniquely Waterford hurling characteristic to savage their own county men alive? Scully, Peter Queally and now the minor management.

We've had 15 years of competitiveness, with some great successes along the way , while there was a lot of patience in the past, it is somewhat wearing thin , no county has been as good as us for the last 15 years and failed to win the big one, and there's only so many times you can say there's always next year.In addition to that ,adding minor success to the table leaves us with little excuse anymore,Liam Sheedy was on the Sunday game said when you get a team like that you can get 7 or 8 onto senior, if that's the case , we will have one hell of a team in 2-3 years.

While I suspect there's one to be had in the next 5 years i said that 5 years ago , buoyed by a sniff of underage success and only maybe 3 retirements to do in the next 4 years, I think there is a reason there is a sense of expectation.

culbaire

hardybuck wrote: »

As a club, probably one of the cleanest in the county. One club who you would rarely expect guff against on the field or sideline.

Nothing like rose tinted glasses!!! The sly remarks about Ballygunner on this forum are uncalled for. Lucky for Ballygunner today they are opposed by a team of saints no member of which has engaged in rough play!!

hardybuck

culbaire wrote: »

Nothing like rose tinted glasses!!! The sly remarks about Ballygunner on this forum are uncalled for. Lucky for Ballygunner today they are opposed by a team of saints no member of which has engaged in rough play!!

Be realistic. A club with hardly one set of brothers in it, no parish at all, lads from different ends of the town - a lot of the time teams get physical with DLS teams in the knowledge that they will get away with it.

I would say that Ballygunner are pretty cute, and no what they can get away with.

Deskjockey

willietherock wrote: »

I shudder to think what sort of scutter would have been thrown at the minor management's door if they had actually lost the final. Is it a uniquely Waterford hurling characteristic to savage their own county men alive? Scully, Peter Queally and now the minor management.

Agreed. Think Giveitfongs post above is quite churlish to be honest.

Mr Tibbs

In fairness people here are critizing the minor management for some poor displays this year which in the end we won the grand prize after 65 years. That was some monkey on our backs going into a final against a very wiley manager and a team that have become accustomed to winning the minor title for the last decade or so.
Lovely if we had won the Munster Final but if we had been defeated as Limerick were would the Munster Final mean so much to us now. I taught the display against Galway in the All-Ireland was the best I have seen from this team this year when it really mattered. I will give great credit to the managment for this achievement because before the game Galway were clear favorites in every paper I read on Saturday and Sunday. It will live long in my memory hearing "Dungarvan My Home Town" being played in Croke Park last Sunday. Hopefully this air of confidence that this minor panel had in themselves will tricle up to the other grades in time to come. With a little bit more belief we could have beaten Clare at under 21 and Kilkenny this year.These young lads are made from tuff stuff and it has been proven this year in the end even though I got lambasted by a poster when I said this earlier who could not say well done when they won in the end.

sid wallace

Giveitfong wrote: »

It was, of course, a marvellous achievement to win the All-Ireland Minor Hurling title, and to do so in the end in great style, as befitted a team with such inherent quality. It was a great pity that the Munster title was not collected en route, as it should have been. In fact, properly managed, this team should really have been able to march unbeaten through the competition.


For Waterford under-age teams, the key requirement of management has been to get their minds right for crucial games. Over the last 20 years, Waterford has regularly had minor and under-21 teams capable of capturing Munster and even All-Ireland titles but who failed to turn up when it counted. It has been a routine and painful experience to watch teams of high inherent quality being absolutely hammered in these competitions.


Twice this year the Waterford minors went into games woefully prepared mentally – against Cork and the Munster final replay against Limerick. At least in the Cork game they were able to turn things around in the second half, and one hoped for something similar against Limerick but it never happened. It is ironic that the one day Stephen Bennett was at his devastating best, the rest of the team was totally off-key.


The team was also quite fragile in the game against Kilkenny, a team which was better coached than ours but lacked the individual quality and presence of game-breakers which the Waterford team possessed. We should never have been in a position where a late goal could have put us out of the competition.


Apart from mental preparation, I thought the mentors also left a lot to be desired as regards game management and team selection. In the Munster final in Limerick, Waterford played some magical hurling for 50 minutes, but the selectors’ slowness to address a major weakness in the half-back line meant that Waterford were still within catching distance when Limerick launched their late fightback. Even then, tighter discipline would have prevented the showboating which saw Waterford looking for killer goals when handy points would have had the same effect.


Amazingly, the selectors allowed the same half back weakness to re-appear in the replay and again were very slow to address it, allowing Limerick an easy conduit for the supply of ball to their dangerous full forward line.


As regards the All-Ireland final, it is still a mystery to me why DJ Foran was replaced early in the second half. Foran was one of our top performers at this grade last year, and while I did not attend the first round game against Tipperary, I was amazed that he was not on the starting teams against Clare and Cork. In the latter match, his introduction was one of the key factors which turned the game around in the second half, as he repeatedly won dirty ball on the left wing and used it well, apart from scoring the vital goal which put the game beyond Cork’s reach.


Foran was excellent in the Munster final in Limerick and, while seized with the same malaise which afflicted most of his team mates in the replay, his brilliant goal was a key factor in the defeat of Kilkenny. While he was not at his best in the final, he still won a lot of hard ball and scored a marvellous point before half time. He is one of the players on the team that I would like to have on board when a game is going down to the wire.


What was even more astounding was that there were several more obvious candidates for substitution when Foran was taken off. Tom Devine was doing very little at midfield, where Galway had the upper hand, although he did finish very strongly. Meanwhile, for the fourth game in a row, Adam Farrell was making no impression whatever, and his continued selection in the starting fifteen I found baffling.


I am equally at a loss as to why Cormac Curran didn’t start in the All-Ireland final, especially given the impact he had when he did come on. He gave an outstanding display in the game against Clare in Dungarvan. The occasion seemed to get the better of him against Cork, but I still thought the selectors could have moved him elsewhere rather than simply take him off (again, Farrell was a more obvious candidate for replacement).


Curran also made a big impact when belatedly introduced in the Munster final replay, and did the same against Kilkenny. What I find most difficult to understand is that Cormac was a major figure at midfield in the Dungarvan Colleges march to the All-Ireland title, yet he has never given a run in this position for the Waterford minors who struggled in this area a lot throughout the competition.


Having said that, I thought that Mark O’Brien did well at midfield in the final and made a lot of good plays. The other player who reserved his best display for the final was the team captain Kevin Daly, who was very solid under pressure and made several important clearances in the second half. Again, it is hard to believe that he could not get a starting position in the first two games of the campaign.


Such is the quality of this team that up to ten of them could foreseeably make the grade at senior level, and I would expect at least six of them to do so. With so many of them coming from Intermediate and Junior clubs, they are a credit to the various coaches, at club, school and county level who have been involved in their development. They are also, of course, a credit to themselves and their families. We look forward to seeing a lot more of them in the next few years.

Did you manage many teams yourself Giveitfong? Did any of them win the All Ireland?

cornerboy

The only all Ireland successes we have had in the last 25 yrs have been the U21s of 1992 and this years minors both managed from within the county. Our seniors have regularly sh1t the course at various stages of the all Ireland series despite top outside managers. Players win championships in the main...........

seananigans

cornerboy wrote: »

The only all Ireland successes we have had in the last 25 yrs have been the U21s of 1992 and this years minors both managed from within the county. Our seniors have regularly sh1t the course at various stages of the all Ireland series despite top outside managers. Players win championships in the main...........

We had a good senior manager form the county ,the players shafted him , the only reason given so far was his bogger accent

hardybuck

seananigans wrote: »

We had a good senior manager form the county ,the players shafted him , the only reason given so far was his bogger accent

You're aware that the players were obliged to hold a vote on the issue due to GAA rules?

hardybuck

Bizarre senior hurling quarter final in Walsh Park in front of a large crowd. Despite two huge rivals facing off in a must win game, there was little or no intensity from both sides.

DLS dominated possession for most of the 60 mins, but couldn't translate it to the scoreboard. Their game plan seemed to involve a lot of fancy interplay, but their first touch was generally awful and moves kept breaking down.

BG on the other hand relied on a lot of frees from Mahoney, many of them soft from what I thought was a fussy referee. They used what little possession they had to good effect and knocked over some tidy scores.

DLS suddenly spring into action with less than 5 left, and went a point up approaching injury time. They had 3 wides in a row which should have put the game to bed, but were punished by a last minute 65 from mahony.

DLS were carrying a few injuries coming in. Mullane was clearly injured, Jake Dillon and Keevers both pulled up hurt. BG drove on and were far livlier, the game was over after the first period of injury time.

BG will go on to win this now I think. I wonder what training DLS were doing in recent weeks as they were totally flat, and their touch was dreadful. They looked like a group of individuals who just expected it to happen for them.

I don't think McGrath will have covered himself in glory today. Brian Phelan at full forward made no sense at all, while Mullane was out in the middle of the field. The team have had two weekends away in the last couple of months, I don't think he'd know how to manage without spending like mad. That's before I even consider the 3-3-1 fiasco last year.