Waterford GAA Thread - Mod note post #1

JD. 60

The future is bright with the likes of Jack Twomey & Patrick Fitzgerald on the horizon, in addition to other 'established youngsters' such as Mikey Kiely, Carthach Daly & Mark Fitzgerald (hopefully, the latter will be back hurling soon following his recent nasty injury).

Tipperary will relish coming to Walsh Park as underdogs and always fancy taking Waterford but let's be honest, if Waterford don't win this match, you can forget all the talk of being AI contenders.

decies

Bit windy out there blew off past old Sally park thankfully got back ups 🤣

Giveitfong

There was a lot to admire in Waterford’s excellent win in last Saturday’s National Hurling League final. There was a fantastic work ethic from start to finish, some superb hurling was played, and the execution of the goal chances was out of the top drawer. I was particularly taken with the way Waterford strung a line of four or five players across the field in the midfield area to counter Cork’s attempts to work the ball out from the back. Cork could not find a way through and were forced time and again to play the ball laterally or backwards in order to keep possession, during which periods they offered no scoring threat. It was interesting to see them trying to form those short-passing triangles designed to get a pacy runner through the gap, but failing to do so time and again under ferocious pressure from Waterford.

In the first half last Saturday, Cork actually hit more long puckouts than short (8-7), but only won three of their eight long puckouts. In the second half, they virtually abandoned long puckouts, hitting just two, one of which they won. By contrast, they hit nine short puckouts as they put all their eggs in the basket of working the ball out from the back. However, this had little impact in their ability to create scoring chances, and especially goal-scoring chances.

I have detected four key innovations on Liam Cahill’s part in this year’s league. The first is the pursuit of goals. I have always felt myself that, especially with the high skill levels which players possess these days, a lot more goals should be scored in hurling. One way of not doing it is to fire waist-high shots in the general direction of the opposing goalkeeper, as with Shane Barrett’s first half effort which Shaun O’Brien stopped comfortably. I reckon myself that there should be more shots into the top left and right corners which, if hit properly, are almost unsaveable.

Liam Cahill had already shown this tendency to look for goals with his Tipperary under-age teams. However, at this stage I reckon that he feels that the only, or best, way to take down Limerick is to score goals, given that they are likely to score 25 points even on an average day. I saw a recent report which stated that, between the All-Ireland final in 2020 and semi-final in 2021, Waterford had fourteen shots at Limerick’s goal and converted none of them. Obviously, Cahill has put a premium on reversing this dismal record, and the record of recent matches suggests that there has been a big improvement in this department.

This is possibly related to Cahill’s second key innovation. In the Wexford game, Waterford revealed a new puckout strategy based on short puckouts followed by working the ball into the midfield area from where ball was played in over the opposing half-back line to the full forwards. I wondered if this was a one-off tactic designed specifically to deal with Wexford’s style of play, but Saturday night indicated that this was not the case. Of Waterford’s total of 36 puckouts, 23 went short (this excludes situations where the goalie gave a short puckout to the fullback, took the return and then hit a long ball down the field, which I am not counting as a long puckout). In the first half in particular, just four of 14 puckouts were long.

Cahill’s other two innovations have been the switching of Jack Fagan to wing back and assigning a free-roving mandate to Patrick Curran, who is revelling in the role of acting as an outlet for players coming from deep or under pressure from opponents and either moving the ball on or taking a shot himself. Meanwhile, Fagan’s new role has been working well, as it gives him more scope to use his strength and athleticism to drive forward and break the line.

Having said all this, there has, in my view, been far too much hyping of Waterford’s performance in the media, which are clearly anxious to create expectations of Limerick being faced with meaningful competition in this year’s championship. The fact is that Cork managed far more shots at goal than Waterford last Saturday (42-32), but only ended up with the same number of scores (24). The big difference, of course, is that Waterford converted four of five goal shots compared with Cork’s one from three. In addition, Waterford converted 20 of 27 shots for points (74%) while Cork converted 23 from 39 (59%).  In the first quarter alone, Cork scored just three points from ten shots, compared with Waterford’s six points from eight shots. Kieran Kingston was at pains to point this out in his post-match interview. Just a little more accuracy on Cork’s part could have made this game much tighter at the end than it actually was.

In addition, the looseness of the Waterford play which I detected in the Wexford game was apparent again last Saturday, where I counted 27 cases of Waterford either losing or giving away possession cheaply. This was a particular problem in the first half where Waterford hit a lot of long balls out of defence, either down on top of marked players, or into no-man’s-land. This may have been related to the low sun in the defender’s eyes (this was also a problem for Stephen Bennett with his two missed frees), but in this situation the defenders in question (mainly Tadhg de Búrca and Conor Gleeson) should have focused on giving the ball short. Conor Gleeson in particular was guilty of the old problem of taking a short puckout and then letting it off down the field, which in most cases is tantamount to giving the ball away. This in particular may help explain why Dessie Hutchinson and Michael Kiely were finding it difficult to get possession.

There was a distinctive improvement in this area of play in the second half, with much more emphasis on finding players with 25-metre stick passes. It may be that some members of the team are still trying to adjust to this new style of playing, in which case I look forward to it being tightened up considerably before the Tipperary game.

deiseach

Some of the recent posts on here about Derek McGrath have been utterly shameful.

blueflame

You cannot argue with statistics, they are a number, and fact will show Cork shot a lot more wides, but stats only every give half of the story. One thing that impressed me was the pressure we put on Cork players when trying to work scoring shots, many of which were either hit under pressure, or from difficult angles while being forced away from goal. It is not as if Cork could not hit a "barn yard door". We ourselves in the past were often criticized in the past for taking wrong options and shooting for Hail Mary's instead of recycling the ball

The same stat often gets fired about about failure of teams to score from play, which as often or not is as a result of persistent fouling when players are getting into scoring positions. Hence the reason that top scorers almost always tend to be free takers!!!!!

Once again Cork, like Wexford the previous week applied little or no pressure to our short puck outs and encouraged us to go this route, however we once again mixed it between short and long and that worked again for us, as otherwise teams become predictable. We for our part allowed their full backs at time received the ball but we immediately pushed up as a unit applying pressure across the line and forcing errors, big difference - I would expect other teams to do this to us also, particularly Limerick, which is why you have to have variety in your puck-out strategy - keep them guessing.

If we are to succeed against Limerick (and this is not ignoring all others, it is just Limerick are the one teem we have failed to overcome in championship recently) while needing to score goals, we cannot afford to focus solely on going after goals. While Limerick have beaten us comfortably last two times out they have not put up massive scores against us, and I believe we are more than capable with our ability and running game of putting 20 points on the board. If we do this and we are not so dependent on goals and might just create a couple of clear goal chances. KK at their prime were masters at getting teams to believe they had to score goals to beat them, they encouraged teams to run into packed defences literally mugged them and hit them on the counter, and every time that happened the pressure for goals became greater and greater and teams gave up hand points in pursuit of goals - we cannot afford to get sucked into that kind of battle against such a physically imposing team as Limerick.

deisedude

Corks shot selection was woeful at times on Saturday. Lots of low percentage shots that weren't on at all, taking the easy option of having a shot rather than working it to a man in a better position.

If Kingston is looking at the wide count and seriously thinking Cork were unlucky then he hasn't a clue.

decies

A lot of over analysis going on here we battered cork end of . You can always find faults if you want to , very rarely do you get a perfect game. We should be bullish about this team I realise the fact that we haven’t won the thing for so long , a lot of people just can’t find it in them to be positive . This team and manager deserves that .

PTH2009

https://waterford-news.ie/2022/04/07/strong-u-20-hurling-panel-for-thurles-trip/

TheScoringGoal

Does anyone know what happened to Caolfhinn Mccraith? He was impressive in his two years at minor but hasn't featured under 20

Pudz2180

Think cathrach daly is eligible to play. It’s only if he goes on to play senior championship (which looks very likely) will he then be ineligible to play with the under 20s. Absolutely crazy rule

upthedeise16

As far as I’m aware, he has had terrible luck with injuries. He was one of the standout players on this team as a minor and a very exciting player to watch.

PTH2009

Minister for sport Jack Chambers was in Waterford today to discuss plans for the Redevelopment of Walsh Park

decies

Going over the plans for the redevelopment of Walsh park plans for a 20000 seat stadium . Ok the last bit will hopefully be for next generation!!!

PTH2009

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118896048#Comment_118896048

Let's hope its started after the Championship games

DeHorse88

What’s shameful about the comments?

spideyman92

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118896048#Comment_118896048

Mary Butler always on the scene for a photo op.

upthedeise16

This is a bit off the point and I am not usually one for praising our county board and I’m not criticising former executives or officers but since Sean Michael O’Regan has taken the chair, there has been massive progress and initiative shown in Waterford GAA. There is a great buzz around the county and the PRO etc are really raising the profile of Waterford GAA as well at the minute and Waterford GAA seems to be in a good place, and not just in terms of results on the pitch which is a different matter but I do think they are inexplicably linked.

I don’t think under the previous regimes, it would have been as progressive. Over the last 2 years we have seen the golfing fundraiser in the States which was a massive success, the Waterford Rising initiative, the Well!Kids initiative, the introduction of the premier intermediate championship, a reduction in the number of senior football teams and the fact that the adult championship were run very successfully last year and I’m not sure if this would have happened if it wasn’t for the current executive. There seems to be an approach to get the right people involved in each aspect and delegate the work and then praise those involved and not look to take credit for everything themselves. I think all these introductions are going to benefit Waterford GAA going forward.

Just even something simple that I noticed at the minor match the other night was that they have now mobile goals on the back field behind the stand in Fraher Field. This may seem like nothing to people but from being involved with teams training, warming up etc there, it’s just something that should have been done years ago.

Even with our footballers, even though results haven’t been positive, the vibes and performances have and Ephie Fitzgerald is talking about a 3 year plan, which again is positive news. I’d hope that they can go well against Tipp in the championship and then ruffle a few feathers in the Tailteann Cup and perhaps get a win or 2. I think if they had beaten Tipp in the league, they may have got on a roll and won some of the other very tight games.

But most importantly they managed to hold on to Liam Cahill who stated that they have been “unstinting in its backing for everything we did”. That’s a fair compliment to pay our county board which has been, and mostly justifiably, criticised over the years.

Now, we still hold our breath on the redevelopment of Walsh Park which we have been hearing about for the past 5 years but I believe that work will actually start soon, whereas before I would have been, again justifiably, pessimistic about the plans in place.

Long may it continue.

Mastermcgrath

The Waterford Rising’ is a 10 year plan which covers all of the above initiatives and more. It’s not exactly the most innovative of plans just focusing on a lot of the basics that should have been in place already such as redevelopment of Walsh park, proper financial management, proper underage structures etc, but it’s positive progress none the less.

Kevin Skin Ryan is employed full time to oversee the project from a purely hurling perspective and I know Fergal Hartley is strongly involved aswell so there is good hurling men being utilised which is good to see aswell.

Success in my opinion would be Waterford competing to win all Irelands every year, not depending on one good minor team every 10 or 15 years to stay competitive, and more young players playing the games particularly in the city and Tramore areas which have large population bases

Asdfgh2020

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118896424#Comment_118896424

Have the ‘shameful’ comments been deleted….?

DiscoStew

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118897901#Comment_118897901

Are the terms of elected board members still restricted to a number of years in the given position? Seán Michael has been an excellent chair thus far as you mentioned, it’s a shame if he has to step aside in the next year or two.

seananigans

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118885003#Comment_118885003

we've been here before, we've been in all irelands before .we've lost 7 finals in the last 7 years ffs, we need to keep the powder dry, and by dry i mean sahara , look we can all boast when we've won something , all we've done is prove we belong at the top table

keep 'er lit

seananigans

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118895725#Comment_118895725

my understanding as well, cahill of all people knows the value of building players, if i was him i would be leaving him to play u20 as far as they can go

jmf1993

Anyone have any hassle getting tickets for Sunday?

decies

Am down to last hope 🤣

deiseach

Gotta love the mad scramble for Championship tickets. Long may it continue.

JD. 60

Tomorrow evening's U20 matches are on TG4 you tube (if you can access that service).

JD. 60

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118911464#Comment_118911464

That should read 'Wednesday's U20 matches'.

PTH2009

Under 20 footballers trailing by a goal at HT against Limerick

Going to be interesting regarding C Daly. If he's named to start for the under 20s does that rule him out for the seniors on Sunday or if he's not picked for the Under 20s than does that indicate he's going to be involved on Sunday ?

callaway92

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118912756#Comment_118912756

You can play U20 (similar with Cathal O'Neill etc for Limerick). However once you play Senior you can't play below it that season.

TheScoringGoal

The under 20 rule is (or at least was last year) that if an under 20 player features in a senior match they cannot play under 20 again unless their county either wins the championship or is knocked out of it. So in theory Cathrach can play on Wednesday without any issue. Though whether he will is another question.