Waterford GAA Thread - Mod note post #1

JeffKenna

Fcuk it

Mastermcgrath

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117630755#Comment_117630755

What were you thinking we’d keep getting handy draws all the way to an All Ireland final?

skaface

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117630754#Comment_117630754

Could be a stand alone ordouble header in Thurlus or Croke Park also

TheScoringGoal

Once you lose a game you just have to take what you get. Galway are a good side, Cork are a good side so you play who you draw.

I am a small bit surprised with some of the narrative in the press about the Laois game. Waterford didn't play well and any reference to Laois giving us a scare is accurate. But to say Laois were unlucky is hard to understand. Between our wides, disallowed goal, missed goal chances and a penalty incident in the first half that I'd like to see again I'd say the 5 point margin was unfair on us.

Deskjockey

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117630754#Comment_117630754

Nooooooooooooooo

seananigans

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117631060#Comment_117631060

wiith the limits on crowds, makes no sense to have a double header, clare cork in limerick waterford galway in thurles makes the most sense

PTH2009

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117631481#Comment_117631481

Yeah that's makes sense and please god we're not playing in Limerick

A Croke Park double header would be great though

If we're worried about playing any team,anywhere....we have no business dreaming of winning all irelands

Id sooner face galway than cork anyway

PTH2009

Thurles 2pm Saturday 24th July

IanVW

Thurles 2 o clock Saturday

Sky sports only

PTH2009

Prob leave a few thousand in hopefully

waterfordgirl

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117631953#Comment_117631953

I think it was 7000 for the Munster Final, so I'd ecpect the same this Sat

deisedude

If you want to watch the match Now TV have an offer of the first month for €15 and you can cancel so you don't get charged anymore. 1 month should cover the rest of the gaa games in the championship in both codes

PTH2009

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117632366#Comment_117632366

That was in Cork

How many did they let in for the Clare vs Wexford game in Thurles last Saturday ?

Tbh no point in having behind closed door games anymore

dzilla

no point in trying to avoid Galway, to be the best we have to beat the best

waterfordgirl

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117632982#Comment_117632982

It was - my bad

Mastermcgrath

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117633243#Comment_117633243

If Galway are that good why are they in the qualifier draw and not provincial champions?

Traditionally we don’t fear them, 2009 and 2011 spring to mind when we weren’t supposed to get in an asses roar of them on both occasions and ultimately knocked them out.

2017 all Ireland will still be fresh in the mind for many of our players, I say bring them on next Saturday, we’re due a big performance after disappointing against Clare and Laois and reckon this will go down to the wire.

TheScoringGoal

WLR saying on their Facebook page that they're doing live commentary of Waterford v Tipperary tomorrow night in the minor hurling. A fair achievement when the match isn't on until the following week.

JD. 60

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117634453#Comment_117634453

Before the Dublin match I thought Galway were the team to beat this year. They had a bad day at the office and Waterford might well suffer as a result. Waterford will be outsiders “with nothing to lose” and if they can somehow overcome this challenge, wouldn’t be overly worried about Tipp or Dublin. Overall, Limerick are in poll position but their luck might run out with regard to favourable refereeing decisions.

Giveitfong

In my analysis of the recent Waterford/Clare Munster Championship game, I wrote that Waterford’s flat performance in that game was likely to have been on one-off event. I was wrong, as Waterford struggled once again in their qualifier game against Laois in Kilkenny last Saturday.

It is not possible to provide a detailed analysis of this game, as the one-camera coverage, facing into the sun, makes it very difficult to identify players at times, and in particular to discern exactly what happened in particular passages of play. What we have here, therefore, are some general comments on the game, based on being personally present in Nowlan Park, and on a viewing of the GAAGo coverage.

In his after-match interview, Liam Cahill stated that he had gone into the game treating Laois “with the utmost respect”. It is not credible, however, that he would have engaged in the experimentation in the positioning of players which we saw last Saturday if Waterford had been playing any other opposition.

Thus, we had Austin Gleeson, who had performed very well in a wingback role in recent games, given what appeared to be a roving role in the forwards. Shane Bennett, who had impressed in the Tipperary league game in providing an alternative option to Dessie Hutchinson at corner forward, was placed at left-half back against Laois. This is a position in which he was not played since his minor days.

Patrick Curran, who had first risen to prominence in his under-age days as an assassin around the opposition goalmouth, played the entire game at midfield. Strangest of all was the placing of Kevin Moran at wing forward, something I had never seen before. That said, Moran did quite well, at least in the first half, scoring 1-1 (even if the goal was fortuitous) and giving a peach of a pass to Stephen Bennett who managed to hit a Laois defender from the edge of the large square.

It seemed to me that Waterford entered this game with the objective of expending the minimum of energy in the deadening heat, in preparation for the second round of the qualifiers the following weekend. This worked well in the first half, at the end of which they were eight points in front. In fact, the lead should have been much bigger, given Bennett’s missed goal chance, along with Neil Montgomery’s failure to hit the net when clean through on the goalkeeper.

In the third quarter, Waterford’s effort and performance levels fell away alarmingly. Their play became littered with errors, including terrible shooting (18 wides to nine for Laois) while man-marking went out the window. Meanwhile, Laois upped their game (or were allowed to) considerably. Their alertness, first touch, ball control and shooting became far superior to Waterford’s. Much of their game plan was orchestrated by their goalkeeper, Enda Rowlands, who mixed up booming long balls to the full-forward line with sending excellent long passes to unmarked team mates in the midfield area.

To be fair, Waterford did recover sufficiently to avert what looked increasingly like a pending disaster, but it was a close-run thing.

As regards individual performances, Shaun O’Brien’s distribution was mixed, and he gave away at least two points from poor passing attempts. Also, he skies his long puckouts and frees too much, which gives an extra advantage to opposing defenders. In terms of distribution and quality of long deliveries, he compared poorly with Enda Rowlands.

It was good to have Conor Prunty back – indeed, I dread to think what might have happened if he hadn’t been there. Shane Bennett indulged in a lot of showy runs up the left wing, but many of these ended either in him shooting wide from distance or running into trouble. Meanwhile, the player he was supposed to be marking, Paddy Purcell, hit 1-4 from play.

I was surprised to see Neil Montgomery being replaced after 30 minutes, as I thought he was doing reasonably well.  Also, his energy and ability to get around the field were valuable assets on such an energy-sapping day. Jack Fagan was a more obvious candidate for early substitution, and one now fears that this tour-de-force against Kilkenny last November was a one-off affair.

Dessie Hutchinson had a nightmare first 50 minutes, as his ability to control the ball completely deserted him. However, he did come more into the game (thankfully) in the last quarter. Stephen Bennett had probably his quietest game in the Liam Cahill era. He rarely got on the ball, and his last-minute goal (nicely set up by Michael Kiely) was his only score from play in the game.

Once again, Austin Gleeson rose to the occasion when he was most needed, and provided a lot of leadership at a time when the rest of the team was struggling.

Two flat games in a row is very worrying, and makes one wonder if there is something wrong within the camp. It contrasts with the razor sharpness displayed against Tipperary in the league, and the excellent earlier performance against Limerick. Waterford appeared to have timed their run into the championship to perfection, only for everything to turn pear-shaped against Clare and Laois. We can only pray for a return to normal service against Galway next Saturday, or that will be it for the year.

PTH2009

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117635228#Comment_117635228

great analysis as usual and who would of predicted what has happened to us since those promising league games in May/early June

Last paragraph is very worrying and its hard to see Cahill and co sticking around for the 3rd year if things have gone pear shaped. Very much a question of what now in terms of Waterford Hurling ? who would want the job

deiseach

I know I shouldn't get sucked in but...where is this mythical venue that is not a graveyard for Waterford dreams?

blueflame

While not being impressed with last Saturdays performance, i do feel that we have to put a bit of perspective on the result. There was considerable experimentation (for whatever reason) and when you do that , first and foremost you need to win the game which we did, , but then you need to take the lessons learned from your experiment, which remains to be seen.

One thing I was happy to see was that from the word go, we took our points on offer and did not relentlessly chase goals from the off. This put us in a position to control the game for long periods and open up at least four clear cut goal chances, until our complete lapse in the second half. Had we done this against Clare and kept the scoreline much tighter while giving us a chance to settle into the game, the whole match could have taken on an entirely different complexion and let's be honest Clare have subsequently shown themselves to be no slouches.

Now the big question - have we learned, was there a bit of shadow boxing last Saturday that nearly went wrong, or are we on a downward trajectory??? Remember the start of the league we were pummeled by Cork and scraped past Westmeath in much the same fashion as last Saturday and were basically written off as one season wonders. We then went on to secure two very good wins against Limerick and Tipp and for long stages put it up to Galway in Salthill and the world looked rosy again

I believe we have it in us to get past Galway, if we get our selection, our game plan and attitude right. Play our best players in their best positions and build around them. Looking back to last Saturday,

• Ian Kenny, Patrick Curran (as a forward) and Michael Kiely in my view have certainly put up their hands for selection.
• Shane Bennett showed glimpses of what he can contribute but not from wing back, possibly from midfield though.
• Montgomery and Darragh Lyons at this early stage of their careers, seem to give us much more coming off the bench rather than starting at the moment.
• Kevin Moran is not a forward (despite scoring one goal and setting up another gilt edged chance) but could certainly do a marking job on Joe Canning
• Aussie in my view is neither a fixed nor floating full forward, because he gets bottled up and frustrated, but isolate him one on one on the wing or in the corner and he can cause real damage, however I still feel he was really settling in nicely into half back.
• It was good to see Barron get some game time under his best after his recent layoff and great to see Prunty get a full and testing game under his belt.
• 
  
• I for one remain very hopeful that our hurling summer will continue beyond Saturday, and that i might even manage to get a ticket for the match

blueflame

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117635501#Comment_117635501

I think have 100% record in Austin Stack Park in Tralee so maybe we should look for all our games to be played there 😎

Deskjockey

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117635501#Comment_117635501

There are plenty of venues where we have won and lost matches over the years (Thurles, Cork, Croke Park, Nowlan Park) but there is only one place where I can never remember us winning a championship match... Limerick

That's why I absolutely hate the place anyway

deiseach

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117635898#Comment_117635898

The Minors won there twice in 2018. And the Seniors would probably have won in 2018 as well but for grossly incompetent officiating. The sooner we stop inventing things about which to get fatalistic, the better. At the very least that's something over which we have control ourselves.

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117635501#Comment_117635501

A league final in 04 againest galway featuring eoin mcgrath at corner back,resulted in waterford being well beaten and it took what felt like HOURS to get as far as tipp town outta there

Dont actually remember too many championship games there growing up,though i remember going up one rain soaked sodden night and seeing em turn over limerick (or was it a last min goal for a draw!) for derek mcgraths first league match

Deskjockey

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117636733#Comment_117636733

Deiseach you are a good man for the statistics, and that's all grand re the Minors but when is the last time our Senior team won in Limerick?

PTH2009

Any news on Tickets ?

I imagine clubs will get First dibs

seananigans

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117637772#Comment_117637772

3500 per county, chances of getting one are slim enough i would say,you might be lucky with a last minute on friday night if some clubs return some, our results will put off a good bit of bandwagoners