Waterford GAA Thread - Mod note post #1

skaface

Best of luck to Ballygunner today

PTH2009

Some stupid Ballygunner play and there letting Slaughtneil  back into this

PTH2009

Ballgunner need to keep focus here

conor05

Slaughtneil physically stronger Ballygunnar. Gunnar Need to get low ball into the forwards. High ball suits Slaughtneil

PTH2009

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118520937#Comment_118520937

Yep and some stupid defending by Ballygunner

Dessie on a yellow card

blueflame

Don’t let me hear anyone going on about BG diving after that booking for Dessie - seen tougher collisions in Penny’s

keeponhurling

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118520975#Comment_118520975

Still though, yellow card or not, it shows a lack of focus.

BG need to simply focus on their hurling

blueflame

That collision was not loosing focus - it was nothing !!!!!

PTH2009

Yesss, keep ticking away Ballygunner

PTH2009

Yess go on Ballygunner, they will know todays performance will not be good enough against Ballyhale or St Thomas's

Will defiantly make the trip up to Croke Park, think its down for the same weekend as The Waterford vs Laois league game. Possibly on Saturday 12th Feb

skaface

Well done Ballygunner

UP THE DÉISE 💙

PTH2009

anyone getting flash backs to that DLS semi final after SN got that late goal ?

TheScoringGoal

A few players didn't fire for Ballygunner but they got the job done against a niggly team. Kevin Mahony has improved more and more as the year has gone on and offers a physical presence Ballygunner haven't had previously.

blueflame

Today was a big test of nerves and commitment where despite all the praise for Slaughtneil (and rightly so) balllygunner were expected to win .

They didn’t set the world alight and there were some nervy performances especially in the backs where they were exposed aerially a foe few times - but for me a good way to progess with plenty to work on with no injuries by the loom of it or suspensions- the winners from the other semi will def be favourites with commentators and bookies alike .

Very impressed with the progress of the two younger Mahoneys and looking forward to final . Really enjoying second game at moment

PTH2009

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118521608#Comment_118521608

another Waterford vs Galway All Ireland final could be on the cards

blueflame

Some things never change 🙉🙉🙉🙉

PTH2009

Wow that is what you call heartbreak, St Thomas might never recover from that

Ballygunner vs Ballyhale All Ireland final it is and what a game it could be

decies

You’d think the Galway boys be used to building a wall . God I hope we beat them in final .

JD. 60

I saw somewhere that the Club Final is on February 12th.

Ballyhale will be favourites but not by much. They have ridden their luck twice in this year’s campaign.

Ballygunner have a good chance of turning them over. The main concern I would have is they are vulnerable in the air (think Colin Fennelly will be licking his lips) but they are a very mobile team and might have the energy and the legs to get a win.

conor05

Ballyhale will Target Barry Coughlan in the final. Rodgers the Slaughtneil full forward caused him bother today.

I would imagine Darren Mullen will be down to mark Dessie Hutchinson. Be a great tussle two speedy players.

It will be a great final.

DiscoStew

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118522058#Comment_118522058

Provided Mullen is fit.

PTH2009

Sat 12th Feb

Ballygunner vs Ballyhale- 3pm Croke Park

Football final on at 5pm

thesultan

Arm in a sling.

Billy Ocean

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118526067#Comment_118526067

Grand doesn't clash with France v Ireland at 4.45

Ian OB

Whose?

Billy Ocean

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118528407#Comment_118528407

Darren Mullen I'm guessing

thesultan

Any report on the cork game at the weekend

Gardner

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118528377#Comment_118528377

How anyone watches that Rugby trash after a hurling match is beyond me. Hold on there now and I kick the ball into the stand and I get a round of a applause for it. Awful sport

PeggyShippen

As someone from Limerick well that's our bread and butter. Hurling and Rugby. 2 totally different and distinct games. If you think the Limerick hurling team would be where they are at physically without rugby being part of their environment growing up then think again. Lots of that Limerick team have gotten their arses handed to them in the gym by their rugby playing mates and its driven them on. I trained with rugby players as kid..best thing I ever did for power and speed.

Now Gaelic Football ....if ever there was a Mickley mouse game invented then that's it.. Each to their own

Giveitfong

The best thing that can be said about Ballygunner’s win over Slaughtneil last Sunday is that they got a welcome stiff test in advance of the All-Ireland Final. Some people have said that Ballygunner were never in any danger of losing this game, but they certainly were not convincing winners. As Slaughtneil manager Michael McShane pointed out after the game, the scoring difference between the teams at the end of the game was the same as it was after the first four minutes.

Ballygunner showed once again how vulnerable they can be playing against committed and physically stronger opponents on a poor playing surface. Slaughtneil were a good hurling team, well-drilled and with first touch, fieldcraft and striking generally of a high standard. For the second week in a row, we saw a Waterford hurling team being cleaned out in the air all over the field. Slaughtneil also won their fair share of ball when it hit the deck, a facet of play in which Ballygunner usually excel.

Apart from Ballygunner’s explosive start, I thought that Slaughtneil were the better team in the first half, with their full forward Brendan Rodgers in particular causing Barry Coughlan all kinds of problems. Ballygunner were unable to get the passing movements going which are crucial to their game plan. Several times we witnessed the unusual sight of blind balls being played out of their defence to unmarked Slaughtneil players, and when their forwards did get the ball, they frequently found themselves shooting under pressure, contrary to their normal pattern of getting players into space to shoot unhindered.

Buoyed by their early second half goal, Ballygunner did manage to assert themselves more in the third quarter, finding players in space more frequently. I thought Peter Hogan showed great leadership in this period, getting on the ball all over the middle third and using it well. But the Gunners were still finding it hard to get good ball into Dessie Hutchinson while Pauric Mahony, usually one of their main playmakers, continued to make little impression. Seeing the nightmare he was also having off placed balls, it would appear that Mahony was off-colour on the day. Thankfully for Ballygunner, several other forwards stepped up to the scoring plate on in his stead.

When the Gunners missed four scorable frees, and a couple of other good chances, during this period of dominance, I began to get concerned, especially when Slaughtneil launched a comeback in the fourth quarter, landing four points on the trot. Had they got a goal in this period, I think we could have had a different result. By the time they did raise a green flag it was too little too late, especially as by then Ballygunner had got two good balls into Dessie Hutchinson, with the usual result.

This was the day in which Billy O’Keeffe completed his transformation into a scoring forward, to the extent that he might have brought himself to Liam Cahill’s attention. However, there will be concern that the player who replaced him at left half back, Ronan Power, had what I thought was a disastrous game, something which I am sure Joxer O’Connor will have taken keen note of. Finally, a note of praise for Ian Kenny, who I thought had a really excellent game at corner back for the Gunners. Always a good player, Kenny seems to have moved to a new level since establishing himself on the Waterford team, which is good news for both Ballygunner and Waterford.

In the other semi-final, St. Thomas’s were desperately unlucky to find themselves at the wrong end of the score at the final whistle. The key score here was the Ballyhale penalty which, in my view, should never have been awarded. As I saw it, Colin Fennelly charged at St. Thomas’s defender John Headd, whom he actually struck in the face with a raised hurley, before throwing himself on the ground. It should have been a free out and a yellow card for Fennelly.

This was a carbon copy of the goal which brought Kilkenny back into the game in the 2009 All-Ireland Final against Tipperary. On that occasion, it was Richie Power who ran into the large square with the ball, charged into a Tipp defender and fell theatrically on the ground. Referee Diarmuid Kirwan, who did Tipperary no favours in this game (and Waterford in many others) awarded the penalty which was dispatched to the net by Henry Shefflin.

As for TJ Reid’s last-minute goal, I think the defensive ploy of placing layers of players between the free-taker and the goal is faulty, as once a well-struck shot gets past the first layer, the players on the line have little chance to react. I reckon that the defending team would be better off with a single wall of defenders on the goal line in these situations. A few years ago, Abbeyside lost a county semi-final to Ballyduff Upper with a similar line-up which failed to stop Brendan Hannon’s last-gasp free.

Given the way Ballyhale scraped through against both St. Rynagh’s and St. Thomas’s, one would have to think that they are certainly not unbeatable. But you would have to wonder if they have more than hurling on their side. According to Anthony Daly, writing in the Irish Examiner: “Kilkenny teams are Dracula in disguise — you’d want to have the stake driven through their hearts with the blood gushing out their mouths before you have them buried.” Certainly the Gods were not looking down on St. Rynagh’s and St. Thomas’s, two clubs named after saints. Perhaps Ballygunner should tog out all in black, with little horns sticking out of their helmets, in the final.