Waterford GAA Thread - Mod note post #1

Hope Liam stays on. Believe he can get us some trophy if not the big one with Limerick's domination. Honestly don't see either of the teams today posing much threat for Limerick.

Hope cork put it up to Limerick . Anyway whose going to Thurles to watch minors in Munster Final tomorrow?

Won't do it.. Health is the issue

mise ,any insight on the team,seems a hell of a lot of a city bias, and a huge tournout from abbeyside,any insight into the team? i usually do the lazy thing and try and recognize the surname to see who is who

I don’t think Kingston will stay on with Cork even if they did beat Limerick. Pat Ryan is a shoe in for the Cork job.

I watched the game back this morning and hats off to Limerick, they were miles better than us. However, they’re a horrible team to watch and I haven’t enjoyed a game they’re involved in for a couple of years. They just strangle the life out of the game it’s awful stuff. The great Kilkenny, Cork and Tipp teams of the last two decades were miles ahead of us as well but they were great to watch. This Limerick team are just horrible and seriously unlikeable. Not that they’ll care if people don’t like them, but I hope to god Cork beat them in two weeks time. That game today was exceptional and the two teams just went at it. Limerick will just strangle the life out of the game and muscle their way to another All Ireland.

Regarding Waterford’s performance yesterday. Not sure where to start, it was a strange performance from the get-go. At no stage did we look like we were going to compete with them and the game was over as a contest after 15 minutes. Waterford just couldn’t get going and the basic errors were shocking and nothing like what we’ve seen the last 2 weeks. Same as the All Ireland final, I wonder did the fear factor come into it? The players just didn’t look confident at all at any stage which is a shame because it’s another game where they’ll feel they didn’t do themselves justice. To be fair, they battled on to the end and they didn’t down tools. What more can you ask for? They just came up against a team of machines.

Gutted leaving Croke Park yesterday but looking at the highlights on The Sunday Game, Waterford could well have scored 4 goals.

Better than Tipperary that is.

He certainly didn’t lead Ballyhale to an AI Club title. Shefflin managed them for their last 2, he took over after the second of Shefflin’s 2. He won a county with Ballyhale last year, although there was no provincial or AI series for him to attempt to win in fairness.

He brought Fr. O’Neill’s of Cork to the Intermediate AI (that same year Ballyhale won their last club AI) where they lost out to Tullaroan in a classic.

I have it on good authority that Davy cost Wexford 50k a year in "expenses alone". No wonder he feels the commute is too long between Clare and Wexford as to get to that figure he must be detouring through Cavan.

Against this Limerick side you must be on the top of your game and you must have a good slice of fortune if you are to turn them over.

I felt on Saturday during the game, not for the first time against Limerick, we failed to take our goal chances, and this effected any potential momentum. I also felt that we were overly focused in the first quarter on their game and in matching their physicality , and that given that this was out fourth game in under 20 days, it was going to take too much out of us. I understood Cahill's logic of trying to man-mark Cian Lynch, but i feared that in doing so, much like trying it on Tony Kelly in the Clare Match, it disrupted our rythm. Patrick Curran since his introduction against Laois has been one of our main contributors to the early scores that settle us down into our rythm. amd we missed this on Saturday

Having re watched a recording of the game I feel more convinced of this than ever. I felt we gifted Limerick three to four points in the first half with unforced errors. We used up huge amounts of energy with big hits, only some of which were worth it, (look at Calum Lyons dispossession of Hegarty with a minimum of energy expended) at the same time we fumbled (unforced) an awful lot of ball, that resulted in we ending up in traffic and getting turned over and we hit some dreadful wides.

Truth is with very little change in actual the game, other than making some better basic choices and better handling, we could easily have been going in at half time within two to three points of Limerick. ( You cannot give Limerick a 7 point lead) Even in the second half we were starting to get a foothold, had a half goal chance which was saved and then we give away a goal with a schoolboy error, and it is game over. Once again we had several goal chances and failed to convert any of them.

It was a great effort against let's face it the best all round side in the Country at present, but one wonders had we stuck to our game plan rather than trying to match theirs could we have fared better. I think we lacked self belief that we could actually succeed against Limerick, playing our game and that by trying to physically master Limerick you are only playing into their hands. I do also think that the previous games, also took their toll on our energy levels particularly given the ferocity of the first quarter, but we must now move on.

I honestly believe we are well in the top four and not a million miles behind Limerick, so I hope that Cahill stays for another term at least as i think he too will have learned lessons from yesterday. Next year a returning DeBurca, Iarlath Daly and Paudie Mahony would give us additional options, and Kiely and Montgomery should be really pushing for starting places next year. We also have some of the other under 20's such as Gavin Fives, Cathlach Daly and Sam and Michael Fitzgerald who are strong physical hurlers, good defenders and should be starting to push for panel places, so the future for me remains bright.

If Cahill decides to move on then the next appointment is crucial, as they must continue the work started by Cahill i.e. demanding full commitment and competition for places, showing full belief in our players and their ability.

I agree with almost everything you say here.

Trying to match Limerick physically was a big no no and the players tore into them from the start. All well and good doing that but those Limerick lads love a bit of combat and it completely disrupted the usual game plan we have. It could have been tiredness or it could have been the occasion I don’t know to be honest. But the usual gameplan was abandoned. There were times in the second half where aimless balls were just being pumped away into the Limerick half and it was like a throwback to the Derek McGrath days of 14 players in our own half with 1 up on his own. Now, it’s very easy for me to be critical, I’m not the one playing the game so I’m not having a dig. But I agree I thought the atmosphere was fairly hostile and with the messing around before the throw in it’s easy to see how the players got caught up on it. I know myself from playing big games years ago it’s easy to get too fired up and what happens then is when the initial adrenaline wears off you’re mentally and physically wrecked. If that happens in a club game it’s bad enough but in an All Ireland semi final when everything is on the line you’re in big trouble.

Bottom line is, not many (if any) teams would have lived with Limerick the other night and the Waterford team have given us some magical displays over the last 4 weeks. Yes, we are close to a breakthrough but there’s only so many times we can keep going back expecting to lift an All Ireland. How many times over the last 23 years have we had a “golden generation” only for another county to hit a purple patch and overtake us? It’s demoralising as supporters I can only imagine what it’s like to be involved as a player. This Waterford team will be back and it’s just a case of hoping for that bit of luck that all teams need to get the monkey off our back because I think we all know the talent is there.

That would really lift the county

Cork very impressive though. They beat Clare 6-28- 0-06 in the QF and then Limerick 1-24-1-14 in the semis

Our lads need to be at there best tonight and really hope they do it

Tis not looking good.

Here at Sunny Thurles yep it’s men against boys unless we bang in a few goals it’s going to get messy very quickly 😔