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

Motivator

I’m half wondering if Paraic took a leaf out of Justin’s book and set the team up to play in to Limerick’s hands? A few of the players looked fairly dejected after the final whistle standing watching the other team climbing the steps.

No better motivation needed heading into the summer.

BloodyBill

Motivator wrote: »

I’m half wondering if Paraic took a leaf out of Justin’s book and set the team up to play in to Limerick’s hands? A few of the players looked fairly dejected after the final whistle standing watching the other team climbing the steps.

No better motivation needed heading into the summer.

The more they lose the better they ll be is what your saying. Maybe they ll take that into the Championship. Clare will beat that Waterford team playing like that in May.

PTH2009

The greats teams of the McGrath's/Flynn/Mullane etc had the great Kilkenny and Cork teams and never got that big one

Now our so called "golden generation" have this great Limerick team and new Championship structure too deal with. Anyone can beat anyone nowadays in hurling

chinguetti

Well that was poor. Never got going and Limerick could have beaten them by another 6 or 8 points if they converted their chances. If you take Moran & Stephen Bennet - when he got a half decent ball - out of it, the rest played poor.

In my mind, we've two problems. The tippy tappy tactic is causing us to go down blind alleys and lose the ball and convert scores - see the Limerick point right near the end. It maybe a work in progress but too often the wrong option is taken. Hopefully this will improve as time goes on.

The second one is that we can't win any ball in the half forwards, they're not big enough or not trusted to do so (I'm not sure which it is) so we have to play this style which is ponderous to say the least.

Will we get out of Munster? That's hard to say as when you take Limerick out of it, its anyone's guess who are the other 2.

Motivator

PTH2009 wrote: »

The greats teams of the McGrath's/Flynn/Mullane etc had the great Kilkenny and Cork teams and never got that big one

Now our so called "golden generation" have this great Limerick team and new Championship structure too deal with. Anyone can beat anyone nowadays in hurling

The term “golden generation” has been used to describe this team for the past 5 years. A silly term if you ask me, the team of 2007 was the best Waterford team I’ve ever seen and possibly ever will see.

This current team is excellent, the best we’ve had since 2007 and I’m not writing them off yet, far from it. This team should have a big say in the business end of things this year but based on today there’s an awful lot to work on. Beaten by 8 and should have been more today but there are positives to be taken. Calum Lyons, Mikey Kearney and Jack Prendergast got big game experience in Croke Park. Not one of the team dropped their heads even when the game was beyond them. It can only bring them on and toughen them up and that’s a huge positive going forward. Today was a bad day but there’s plenty good days for us to have - it’s not even April yet lads don’t forget.

Fred C Dobbs

Reality check today. Never at the races. Limerick much more clinical in possession and taking scores.




Too many unforced errors. It's still a bit raw but very disappointed at the amount of aimless passes, often to players in poor positions or about to be swallowed up.

Only positives, I thought, were Lyons and McNulty, plus Moran in the 2nd half. Connors had a right old battle with Gillane.

Wife is from Mayo so at least had something to shout about.

puzl

Outclassed by a much better team in almost every position. Hopefully they'll learn a lot from today, players and management, because they have to find a way to beat this Limerick team to have any chance at silverware. I thought Moran was incredible today once he got going.

Road-Hog

Limerick may not get out of Munster this year. They will now be hyped up beyond belief by the media as invincible the new kk....3 in a row potential and more jut like Tipp were a few years ago......I’d be very surprised if they do back to backs.....possible I suppose but a long wAy to go. This time last year people were talking about a new kk era when they won the league

Jjjjjjjbarry

Disappointing to come out of Croke Park losing again and while the manner of defeat is the most concerning, it's not that much of a surprise as the signs were there. The last three games before today were won by coming from behind and Limerick are not to be messed with. We had no settled full back, no midfield partner for Barron and no functioning half forward line while we also have no settled free taker since Mahony came back and switching back and forth hasn't helped Bennett as once he misses one or two it's probably already in his head that he's coming off them.

The backs were under savage pressure today and in the first half, TDB and Connors did well and Moran finished up as probably our best player. Jamie Barron was quieter than he had been of late but can't be expected to carry the team every day. Not really sure what Fanning was expecting from Brick at this stage of his career against that Limerick midfield? Aussie needs to start putting in some better performances quick or he's heading for the bench and a 20 minute magic sub role and we need to think about who can play half forward. We all know his ability but it's just coming out less and less. I don't think he ran the ball once today and when he was unmarked and could have shot, he didn't. I wonder would Shane Bennett be an option out the field? He has a great engine and work rate. I know he plays well inside with Stephen but hasn't had much joy in the last two games. We were scoring goals for fun against the lesser teams but they've dried up lately. Stephen continues to play well even if things aren't always going his way.
I felt sorry for Calum Lyons getting pulled but he had a rough day getting dragged around. There was some load of space in front of the Waterford goal.

Things could have gone a bit better if Stephen Bennett had converted that goal chance and Gillane hadn't got that half brilliant, half lucky goal! I think Limerick were just the better team today and Gillane was just unmarkable at times. Limerick had a few more gears to shift I think.

Lots for our new manager to think about in the run up to championship. I think people were getting too carried over our recent comeback wins and as usual the pundits didn't help with their over the top praise and great hindsight opinions! When we win, we're title contenders and McGrath held us back and when we lose we're probably rubbish a different way. Reality is we've a new manager and that usually means good days and bad days while we find our feet. Unfortunately today was league final and we're probably heading into the championship a bit more confused and lower in confidence than we were this morning. One thing really obvious is that we have a lack of height in our team and don't seem to be able to use the benefits of smaller speedier players. Some of the balls into our forwards are terrible.

At least we got a trip to Croke Park and will be a great experience for lots of those new players. Today was only another step on a new journey and not the end of the world by any means.

Congratulations to Limerick on following up an All Ireland with a league title. Some achievement.

cul beag

Poor performance. Doesn’t help when you have players fundraising in a kube the Friday night of a national final but we can have no excuses on the day. Limerick were excellent and could have won by more only for the bad wides they struck in the second half. Physically they’re like heavyweights compared to us as middleweights at best but by god can they hurl with it. We can learn a lot from it for our championship game against them in Walsh Park.
The Gleason debate will continue but I’d be slow to write his obituary just yet. I believe he’s still over weight which I know isn’t ideal but he has time to correct that. 19 points playing poorly isn’t too bad when you think we missed two sitters but again I reiterate, we weren’t good enough on the day and were beaten by a far superior team.
It’ll be interesting what team he plays when he has everyone fit.

PTH2009

We need someone which height who can win puck outs and put them in the half forward line

6 weeks til the Clare game which will be a great occasion in Walsh Park. When will the players return too training after the club games ??

puzl

I heard there will be only 1 or 2 rounds of hurling championship now. You'd assume they'd get a week off, which makes the earliest start 14th April. So the 21st would be round 2 and then they'll have to figure out if they are going to do a third round. Correct me if I'm wrong here but didn't Clare completely skip April club hurling last year?

BloodyBill

cul beag wrote: »

Poor performance. Doesn’t help when you have players fundraising in a kube the Friday night of a national final but we can have no excuses on the day. Limerick were excellent and could have won by more only for the bad wides they struck in the second half. Physically they’re like heavyweights compared to us as middleweights at best but by god can they hurl with it. We can learn a lot from it for our championship game against them in Walsh Park.
The Gleason debate will continue but I’d be slow to write his obituary just yet. I believe he’s still over weight which I know isn’t ideal but he has time to correct that. 19 points playing poorly isn’t too bad when you think we missed two sitters but again I reiterate, we weren’t good enough on the day and were beaten by a far superior team.
It’ll be interesting what team he plays when he has everyone fit.

Weight has very little to do with fitness. Limerick are heavier than Waterford outside of Mulcahy and Oeter Casey. If your fit,your fit. Body fat is a big factor but idont see Gleeson having much body fat. Overall I dont like the physical appearance of Waterford. Not strong enough. When the last 15 mins came and Flanagan came on Waterford were out of gas.
Lots of work to do for the Championship for both teams. It ll take some effort to beat Limerick in Walsh Park . What they have is big work horses who put in a serious shift and then Gillane and Casey ,Mulcahy to fire the bullets. All their half forward line plays or has played centre back for their clubs. Bricks finished..zero mobility

KevIRL

As others have said, not at the races today, following not being at the races last week in nowlan park for large parts of the game. Decision making very poor and puck outs exceptionally poor. We seem over and over again to take the ball into traffic, either by carrying it in or selecting the wrong pass. Many of the usually very good players had total off days.

One thing today told us in case we had any doubts is how much the Clare game in Walsh park is a must win cause very hard to see how beat this limerick team

Jjjjjjjbarry

I thought lots of times in the first half in particular we overplayed the ball in the forwards and wasted point opportunities by going for goals. Great when it works but not so great when it doesn't and the other team are banging over points.

Road-Hog

Jjjjjjjbarry wrote: »

I thought lots of times in the first half in particular we overplayed the ball in the forwards and wasted point opportunities by going for goals. Great when it works but not so great when it doesn't and the other team are banging over points.

Would I be right in saying that limerick were short only one of last years wunning team.?.....how far away are w’ford from best 15.....?

Motivator

Road-Hog wrote: »

Would I be right in saying that limerick were short only one of last years wunning team.?.....how far away are w’ford from best 15.....?

That’s a fair point and as I alluded to earlier, there’s a couple of the Waterford lads that needed that game today. A great experience for both the management and the panel and it can only help them going forward. There’s plenty of time to get things sorted out tactically and plenty of time for the injured lads to get back and up to speed training wise.

Stacksofwacks

KevIRL wrote: »

As others have said, not at the races today, following not being at the races last week in nowlan park for large parts of the game. Decision making very poor and puck outs exceptionally poor. We seem over and over again to take the ball into traffic, either by carrying it in or selecting the wrong pass. Many of the usually very good players had total off days.

One thing today told us in case we had any doubts is how much the Clare game in Walsh park is a must win cause very hard to see how beat this limerick team

It will be a different game in WP I'd imagine, I think both our home games are must wins, do that and we should qualify

spideyman92

Jjjjjjjbarry wrote: »

I thought lots of times in the first half in particular we overplayed the ball in the forwards and wasted point opportunities by going for goals. Great when it works but not so great when it doesn't and the other team are banging over points.

I think there were a few examples of overplaying balls throughout the whole league campaign. It's alright when you're playing the likes of Laois and can tap over a few more scores to compensate for it. But Limerick didnt give them any time on the ball, with a couple of men pressing the Waterford lads whenever they were in possession so most of the overplaying resulted in misplaced passes, lost balls and scores for them. We've a lot of nice flicky hurlers with pace but we could do with a few more big lads with a more intimidating presence.

brinty

Conor Gleeson is a huge miss right now. As someone said we looked like middleweights v heavyweights at times. Limerick looked massive and horsed us off balls all day long.

We've no one with a bit of a devil in them that'll give a huge (murdering on legal) hit every game that'll rouse the crowd. I know Moran nailed canning last week but that's rare. Ozzie can do it at times but he's as likely to get booked as do it correctly.

Gleeson is a hardy and tough little funker,who wasn't back down from anyone and we could do with one or two more like him. We're just too nice and polite and lack that killer instinct right now.

PTH2009

Walsh Park as a Championship is an unknown quantity and far from a guaranteed success for us. I knw we had 2 big wins in the league there but munster championship is a different kettle of fish

Not getting out of Munster 2nd summer in a row will be heartbreaking and damaging. Personally not a fan of the new system as like last year u dont get the chance against a team outside ur province unless u get through all the other teams in ur province (KK,Gal,Dub and Wex have a gimmy every year with a guaranteed win over a weaker county) and Munster is dog eat dog. The old system at least u get a second chance if u lose out in Munster through the qualifiers

DiscoStew

puzl wrote: »

I heard there will be only 1 or 2 rounds of hurling championship now. You'd assume they'd get a week off, which makes the earliest start 14th April. So the 21st would be round 2 and then they'll have to figure out if they are going to do a third round. Correct me if I'm wrong here but didn't Clare completely skip April club hurling last year?

Clare did indeed skip it and started their club championship much later in the year.
Waterford senior club championship begins next weekend. There is 1 round being played followed by 2 rounds of football championship. Much of the panel should be available for training after the round of hurling is over.
There was some junior and intermediate championship fixtures played this weekend, that didn’t involve county players.

windy shepard henderson

puzl wrote: »

I heard there will be only 1 or 2 rounds of hurling championship now. You'd assume they'd get a week off, which makes the earliest start 14th April. So the 21st would be round 2 and then they'll have to figure out if they are going to do a third round. Correct me if I'm wrong here but didn't Clare completely skip April club hurling last year?

starting on paddys weekend to the may bank holiday weekend is 5 or 6 rounds of league games in both football and hurling , 1 or 2 rounds played in june with non intercounty players playing

championship draw takes place in april will be set for a july or august start depending on how the hurlers get on , it was the same last year as this year

it probably makes sense i feel if you start a club championship now and resume it 2 or 3 months later players lose momentum

spideyman92

windy shepard henderson wrote: »

starting on paddys weekend to the may bank holiday weekend is 5 or 6 rounds of league games in both football and hurling , 1 or 2 rounds played in june with non intercounty players playing

championship draw takes place in april will be set for a july or august start depending on how the hurlers get on , it was the same last year as this year

it probably makes sense i feel if you start a club championship now and resume it 2 or 3 months later players lose momentum

I don't think it's fair on the average club player either. All that preparation getting ready early in the year for 1 or 2 matches and then the competition gets put on hold until the county team finishes up.

ovalu

We seem to have picked a lot of very small forwards in the panel, we were getting blown out of it by the Limerick half back line in the second half, yet replacing Mikey Kearney who is small enough with the absolutely tiny Stephen Roche was hardly the solution. Surely it would make sense to have at least looked at players like Seamus Keating or JP Lucey who at least have the physicality to compete with big half backs,

windy shepard henderson

spideyman92 wrote: »

I don't think it's fair on the average club player either. All that preparation getting ready early in the year for 1 or 2 matches and then the competition gets put on hold until the county team finishes up.

anthony daly changed it back in the early 2000s when he was in charge and it has sticked since , he was probably more afraid of guys getting injured while with there clubs ,

i dont get county boards that allow for this to happen , yesterday the limerick football championship started despite the hurlers playing in croke park today , several of that team are duel players especially gearoid hegarty who started out his intercounty career as a footballer

killbillvol2

I haven't read any of the thread today so I may be repeating something. But the support from Waterford today was pathetic. And largely silent. As usual.

I stayed for the football, in which I have no interest, and it was uplifting to see the enthusiasm of the Mayo crowd who had travelled in huge numbers.

If I see any BS here about not being able to get tickets for championship games you can all take a long hike. And I'm speaking from nearly 50 years of listening to sunshine supporters who offer f all on days like today.

hurler on de ditch

ovalu wrote: »

We seem to have picked a lot of very small forwards in the panel, we were getting blown out of it by the Limerick half back line in the second half, yet replacing Mikey Kearney who is small enough with the absolutely tiny Stephen Roche was hardly the solution. Surely it would make sense to have at least looked at players like Seamus Keating or JP Lucey who at least have the physicality to compete with big half backs,

Maurice Shanahan when fit should start .still an excellent hurler ,great man to catch a high ball,good to take a score and so difficult to mark .pity he was injured today .definitely the man for the half forward line, Calum Lyons had an extremely tough day .he could not get close .felt Tommy Ryan should have started .but I think he and Peter hogan would be lucky to get a start the next day .P,Curran would be my choice .thought the Brick should have been subbed earlier,(absolute legend) but his day is up .Shane Bennett should have been left on,.N,Connors was brilliant today only for him we were cleaned out ,Aussie really should be centre back.,SOK is some shot stopper ,

PTH2009

killbillvol2 wrote: »

I haven't read any of the thread today so I may be repeating something. But the support from Waterford today was pathetic. And largely silent. As usual.

I stayed for the football, in which I have no interest, and it was uplifting to see the enthusiasm of the Mayo crowd who had travelled in huge numbers.

If I see any BS here about not being able to get tickets for championship games you can all take a long hike. And I'm speaking from nearly 50 years of listening to sunshine supporters who offer f all on days like today.

Yeah we stayed for the football too and really enjoyed it delighted for Mayo. One Mayo supporter near me was as wild as anything as was many others including kids. Football can be low scoring and boring on TV but when u see a quality game it's amazing how tough it looks too score. Theres players constantly up ur nose who give u **** all room

It's going too be fun in the lead up too the Walsh park games about 'genuine supporters' not getting tickets who "go too every game" but dont bother buying a season ticket

Gavlor

killbillvol2 wrote: »

I haven't read any of the thread today so I may be repeating something. But the support from Waterford today was pathetic. And largely silent. As usual.

I stayed for the football, in which I have no interest, and it was uplifting to see the enthusiasm of the Mayo crowd who had travelled in huge numbers.

If I see any BS here about not being able to get tickets for championship games you can all take a long hike. And I'm speaking from nearly 50 years of listening to sunshine supporters who offer f all on days like today.

You do know that mayo has 50000 more people than Waterford yeah? Baring in mind that we’ve only a population 80000 you’d kind of expect them to have a much larger crowd. Wasn’t much difference in terms of enthusiasm today between waterford and limerick fans today until the last 15 minutes so comparisons to mayo who have a bit of a cult one sport following is unfair.

All Ireland tickets should be based on 3 metrics.
Season tickets
Active club members
Club games attended

killbillvol2

Gavlor wrote: »

You do know that mayo has 50000 more people than Waterford yeah? Baring in mind that we’ve only a population 80000 you’d kind of expect them to have a much larger crowd. Wasn’t much difference in terms of enthusiasm today between waterford and limerick fans today until the last 15 minutes so comparisons to mayo who have a bit of a cult one sport following is unfair.

All Ireland tickets should be based on 3 metrics.
Season tickets
Active club members
Club games attended

What utter bollocks! The difference in population is about 14 000 or less than 10%. Never mind the additional hassle of travelling from Mayo. Go and get numerate and maybe literate before you start quoting numbers.

windy shepard henderson

Gavlor wrote: »

You do know that mayo has 50000 more people than Waterford yeah? Baring in mind that we’ve only a population 80000 you’d kind of expect them to have a much larger crowd. Wasn’t much difference in terms of enthusiasm today between waterford and limerick fans today until the last 15 minutes so comparisons to mayo who have a bit of a cult one sport following is unfair.

All Ireland tickets should be based on 3 metrics.
Season tickets
Active club members
Club games attended

come on , i was in walsh park for the 1/4 final it was shocking 2000 people just about for a home game , it will be a sell out twice or 3 times over for the championship

in 2016 we played ye in two league finals in thurles , a combined total of 29000 watched both games , it would have been much bigger had the average clare following not been totally sick of the sight of davey fitz , it was almost a boycott at the time from clare and they probably still out numbered waterford

to be fair you are right mayo are a bad example they are the best supporters in the country but waterford deserve so much better especially this excellent group of players

windy shepard henderson

killbillvol2 wrote: »

What utter bollocks! The difference in population is about 14 000 or less than 10%. Never mind the additional hassle of travelling from Mayo. Go and get numerate and maybe literate before you start quoting numbers.

very hard to disagree with this ,

Stacksofwacks

Waterford population is 110k...Yeah recent turnouts have been disappointing but I dont think its a Waterford only problem, with so many games on TV and games being livestreamed on twitter etc the days of 50k at a league final are long gone Im afraid

windy shepard henderson

Stacksofwacks wrote: »

Waterford population is 110k...Yeah recent turnouts have been disappointing but I dont think its a Waterford only problem, with so many games on TV and games being livestreamed on twitter etc the days of 50k at a league final are long gone Im afraid

yeah you are dead right but at times clare suffer from the same fair weather fobia as waterford , but it could and should be slightly better , from a waterford point of view

when we went to the 1/4 final at walsh park just to be on the safe side we parked at the supervalue at the bottom of the mount sion hill that leads you up to walsh park , we were expecting at least 4 to 5000 at that game , one of my mates taught we were lost in some housing estate as we approached the ground , there was no one else but ourselves entering the ground with about 20 minutes before throw in , there was little atmosphere at the game and dont give me that guff that there was rugby on at the same time

Stacksofwacks

other possible reasons is i dont think this Waterford team has caught the imagination like the previous team with Ken McGrath, Mullane, Big Dan, Flynn etc in terms of style etc even though it is a good team it dosent have the same flair or wacky characters as the previous generation. I might be talking bollocks but thats how it feels to me

PTH2009

Stacksofwacks wrote: »

other possible reasons is i dont think this Waterford team has caught the imagination like the previous team with Ken McGrath, Mullane, Big Dan, Flynn etc in terms of style etc even though it is a good team it dosent have the same flair or wacky characters as the previous generation. I might be talking bollocks but thats how it feels to me

Social media exists way more today as compared too 10 years ago and my god a lot of the current GAA players are very active on it and attract attention of the younger generation. What young Waterford hurling doesn't want to see Aussie in person ???

Its sad but social media is the way life is gone now

windy shepard henderson

PTH2009 wrote: »

Social media exists way more today as compared too 10 years ago and my god a lot of the current GAA players are very active on it and attract attention of the younger generation. What young Waterford hurling doesn't want to see Aussie in person ???

Its sad but social media is the way life is gone now

i dont think its either TV or social media i just think its laziness , in 4 or 5 weeks time everyone in clare and waterford will be whinging that they cant get a ticket to an 11000 event that is televised anyway and that the gaa has somehow let them down despite not being able to make a game in the 3 years :rolleyes:

KevIRL

windy shepard henderson wrote: »

i dont think its either TV or social media i just think its laziness , in 4 or 5 weeks time everyone in clare and waterford will be whinging that they cant get a ticket to an 11000 event that is televised anyway and that the gaa has somehow let them down despite not being able to make a game in the 3 years :rolleyes:

I'd agree that Waterford supporter turn out this league has been awful and have commented on same a number of times. While it may have been understandable in the early games in thurles and Port Laoise the numbers at the home QF, a SF only up the road in KK and a national final at Croke park were nothing short of desperate.

I'd tend to agree that laziness is the main reason. People down here are event junkies like so many other counties and only want to be at big games like AI semi final and final. every auld excuse under the sun gets rolled out but in my opinion it boils down to laziness with so many not prepared to make a small bit of an effort to support the team until the very big stage arrives (if it arrives). The very same people of course often the most critical of the team, management, county board and GAA in general.

The Clare game on 12th may is going to be a huge event and hyped up so much in the media so watch demand for tickets, and as others have said the moaning about difficulty in getting them go through the roof over the coming weeks.

redlead

Waterfords support base seems almost non existent now; even a lot of the core support has disappeared. I don't know what's going on but we must be by far the worst supported team of the big 8 now, even with population differences taken into account.

Fair play to Limerick yesterday, they've been excellent throughout the league and won easily yesterday in second or third gear. We just weren't at the races. We performed so poorly throughout the team it's hard to judge too much, just one of those flat days. Noel Connors was exceptional but that's about it.

We are still playing that ticky tacky style that Tipp used to always find out and now Limerick have (the quality teams). Overpaying the ball by trying to make low percentage 3 yard hand passes or flicks and then running into swarms of players. It's infuriating stuff to watch but hopefully we learn our lessons and mix our game up a bit more.

Aussie floating around the place really doesn't work and is a liability at times. Firstly, he's just not good at doing it, he can't seem to get anywhere near the ball. Secondly, no one knows where he is so they can't hit the ball to him and lastly when he was wing back he doesn't seem to realise he is supposed to mark his man. Limerick scored two points yesterday solely because Aussie was standing loose 4 yards off the man he should have been marking. Put him wing forward and leave him there.

At the end of the day I don't think we should be losing the run of ourselves over reacting. We still got to the final which is better than everyone else. Hopefully that's the worst game we will have this year. I still don't think our fitness levels look anything like Limericks so I'm not sure what way we are timing things. Time will tell.

blueflame

While support was poor yesterday, Croker was not a realistic venue for the hurling final at least. The way tickets were distributed meant there were huge pockets of empty space between supporters and it was genuinely hard to generate any sort of atmosphere. Personally we travelled on the early train and it was packed with Waterford Supporters, many of whom i have met at games all over the country for a long number of years now.

On the match itself, for me it was a bad day at the office. Didn't get carried away with results to date and wont be too depressed with yesterdays showing. The big thing for me is how we will react to this performance, will we learn from it and be brave or will we go into our shell.

For a start we tried to allow the Limerick full back line pick up puck out after puck out in the hope they would go long with it, but they are way to smart for that. Their corner backs held the ball, drawing our man to chase them down and once this happened they started to move the ball at pace through the lines as we tried to adjust to no longer having the spare man, and they then played some delightful balls into their full forward line exposing our full back line. Most disappointing thing for me was our lack of intensity, but being honest, loosing yesterday might be the best thing for us in the long run. We are still trying to adjust our style and have some key players to return also.

I would say that our "handy run" of games in the league have caught up with us, in that our forwards in particular found it had to deal with a more psychical approach from better quality hurlers. Too many lads putting their Hurley up instead of their hand and being bottled up trying to win second phase ball. Additionally we won very little dirty ball out of rucks yesterday and we need to improve on this.

IN honesty though, thinks it has been a very good league for us, Calum Lyons, Jack Prendergast and Darragh Lyons, are going to have big future over the coming years with this team. Getting Darragh and Shane Fives, Conor Prunty, Kieran Bennett, Conor Gleeson and Maurice back to full fitness will really add some experience and physicality to this side and increase competition and our options no end.

While being disappointed yesterday, as i am every time we loose, I for one am still looking forward to the summer with real optimism.

Bluezar

Waterford were never allowed to get going in the game yesterday and to be honest Limerick only for a few misses could have won by a lot more.
Limerick look like an all round outstanding team, their fitness and running game was a joy to watch and it's going to take some team to beat them in the championship.

There was not to many positives we can take from the game save for good performances again from Stephen Bennett and Moran. Overall it's been a good league campaign to make the league final and have some good wins along the way so plenty for Fanning and his team to work on.

It's been mentioned in this thread but our support has really dropped off which is disappointing. My partner is from Mayo and after watching them win yesterday, I would say at least half of the stadium was from Mayo in Croker. They have similar heartache to us every year (more probably with how many finals they lose) but their fans still travel in huge numbers and back their players. 2500 at the Clare game at home was a disgrace a few weeks back and there was very little Waterford fans in Croker yesterday from what I could see.
This is the first year in a few years I have not had a season ticket as I was unable to attend the first few league games myself due to personal reasons but I'm sure the same once a year people who were demanding tickets for the final in 2017 will be back out on May 12th for Clare at home in the championship to bring the demand back up.

whiteandblue

Limerick were plain and simple too good for Waterford yesterday, both on the pitch and tactically.
On the pitch, the physically they bring to the game was too much for Waterford yesterday. Their backs are much more robust than the likes of McNulty and Lyons in our backs and Hogan, Ryan and Shane Bennett in our forwards and they brought an edge that our forwards weren't used to. This was a good experience for these players and they will no doubt learn from it.
The supply of ball by Limerick was excellent and favoured their forwards each time. Limerick are superb at creating an overlap by dropping their midfield and half forwards deep and working short passes to get to the man in space and deliver exceptional ball to their forwards which are almost impossible to defend. I know Connors did have some good moments but overall he was cleaned out and can't understand some of the praise he is getting but I acknowledge the ball being delivered from Byrnes and co made it very hard to defend.
The Limerick puckouts were very frustrating to watch. Not only were Limerick allowed to go short, they weren't pressurised when they received it and they were able to pick out their men and create scores. Waterford didn't want Quaid to go long to Hegarty and Hayes but Moran and De Burca are no slouches in the air and would have competed and at least brought it to ground and battled for it. Hopefully in Walsh Park, there will be a more combative approach and give Quaid something to think about.
I'm not too disheartened by the defeat and feel management and players will learn a lot from it as we seen in '17 against Cork, you learn a lot more in defeat. We have to sort our half backline in terms of who is our centre back and decide if he will follow or sit. I would personally play Moran at 6 and De Burca at 7. At midfield, we haven't found a partner for Barron yet and it is hard to know who to play there but there are options in terms of starting Prendergast who has shown well in some of the games. Players such as Moran, De Burca or Gleeson could be relocated there also.
Overall the league has been positive for Waterford and I'm looking forward to the Munster championship.

thesultan

KevIRL wrote: »

Worth listening to today's Off the Ball hurling show, in particular the interview with Eoin Kelly talking about his exit from Mount Sion and other bits

Link?

Gavlor

killbillvol2 wrote: »

What utter bollocks! The difference in population is about 14 000 or less than 10%. Never mind the additional hassle of travelling from Mayo. Go and get numerate and maybe literate before you start quoting numbers.

I stand corrected, my quick google last night had Waterford at 80000.... not sure what literacy has to do with it though.

I can’t understand how anyone is shocked at the poor turnout from Waterford fans, how many attended the club knockout rounds over the last few years? It all stems from there.

shockframe

Gavlor wrote: »

You do know that mayo has 50000 more people than Waterford yeah? Baring in mind that we’ve only a population 80000 you’d kind of expect them to have a much larger crowd. Wasn’t much difference in terms of enthusiasm today between waterford and limerick fans today until the last 15 minutes so comparisons to mayo who have a bit of a cult one sport following is unfair.

All Ireland tickets should be based on 3 metrics.
Season tickets
Active club members
Club games attended

Mayo's population is 130,000. Waterford's 116.000

westcork blue

Yesterday we saw a waterford team that looked really flat. I think the 4 consecutive games caught up with us and limerick were much fresher. We were also very naive/disorganised at times with some of the backs doubling up on Limerick players while leaving men in 50 yards of space. The second half performance was very poor and in truth we were lucky not to be beaten a score a man.

We refused to play long direct ball into the full forward line which allowed Limerick to hunt in packs and turn us over repeatedly. If we cannot compete for ball in the half forward line we will go nowhere. Playing through the lines is well and good when you’re allowed, it only works effectively when you keep the opposing team defence honest by driving ball over Mf/hb line directly on a fairly regular basis.

Limerick have an incredible group of big men in both hf and hb lines. It’s madness to try to play through them over and over. We saw Stephen Bennett get a couple of good chances when direct ball was played in.

Shane Bennett was very poor and both he and Aussie looked beaten from early in the game. I thought Peter Hogan was great in showing a willingness to work for space, running directly up the gut of the Limerick backs. We need Shane and Austin to do the same.

We need to get Kevin Moran back to midfield or even hf, Tom Devine would be a huge boost as well to the hf options. Maybe Limerick are too good for all or possibly they’re peaking too early. Hopefully we’ll learn a lot from yesterday but the key lesson has to be stop running ball into a packed middle let it in early some of the time and you’ll have more space around the middle as a consequence.

deiseach

killbillvol2 wrote: »

I haven't read any of the thread today so I may be repeating something. But the support from Waterford today was pathetic. And largely silent. As usual.

I stayed for the football, in which I have no interest, and it was uplifting to see the enthusiasm of the Mayo crowd who had travelled in huge numbers.

If I see any BS here about not being able to get tickets for championship games you can all take a long hike. And I'm speaking from nearly 50 years of listening to sunshine supporters who offer f all on days like today.

In fairness, it was a pretty low intensity game. There wasn't much to get excited about, and that was true of the Limerick supporters as well. And I would suggest that there is a large Mayo population in Dublin. Mayo is one of only three counties that experienced a population decline in the last census, and a lot of them have ended up in the smoke. I think it's telling - I'm conscious that this is only anecdotal, this isn't science - that the proprietor of the Mayo GAA Blog lives in Dublin.

For all of that, the attendance levels for Waterford games are disappointing. You really would expect better given the way the hurlers have elevated the profile of the county over the last 20 years. I'd say it would only have taken the attending of 20% of the people who were in Croke Park in September 2017 to have made Waterford's crowd respectable yesterday. Oh, and fair play to the Mayo crowd for making some noise. If anyone thinks Waterford have had it bad...

Gavlor

shockframe wrote: »

Mayo's population is 130,000. Waterford's 116.000

Obviously not after a day on the sauce!!

upthedeise16

https://twitter.com/analysisgaa/status/1112475007735746562?s=21

Great goal but the time the corner back has on the ball from the puckout is ridiculous, no wonder he was able to pick out Morrissey who plays the assisting pass. Happened all too often