Waterford GAA Thread - Mod note post #1

Surprised with that length tbh

I hope Bonnar does well with Tipp. But not too well obviously. It might be a decent solution for all concerned to swop the roles in a few years. Very unusual to see the Tipp and Waterford managers will be passing in the opposite directions next season.

The strange thing is he must know the Waterford scene better than the Tipp one. He would be doing some traveling if he is taking in Tipp club games the past few years. Imagine telling the missus you were popping up to Nenagh on a Saturday night to see a match and don’t bother with Sunday lunch, I’ll be in Borrisoleigh for a match. I know I’d be eating with the dog for the rest of the week.

The best of luck to him, he is well regarded out in WIT.

The big game in last weekend’s round of the county senior hurling championship was the tussle between Ballygunner and Abbeyside at Walsh Park. Ballygunner’s winning formula is basically quite simple, but well worked out and highly rehearsed. Its first key element is excellent first touch in order to get the ball in hand. They then pass the ball around in a very structured pattern until they get a player in space who can either shoot for a point or deliver a killer ball to the inside line. They concentrate on registering points, with the striking ability to do so frequently.

This pattern of play is very similar to what Limerick do. However, Ballygunner do not have Limerick’s physical power, and this helps explain their lack of success at intercounty level, where they tend to come up against teams who have both good hurlers and greater physicality.

Last Sunday, Abbeyside stood off the Gunners in the first quarter, and with Peter Hogan and Conor Sheahan running riot against a non-existent Village midfield, the game already looked over with six points between the teams at the first water break. However, Abbeyside greatly raised their intensity on the resumption, and their increased physicality was causing their opponents big problems, with Neil Montgomery’s superb 31st minute goal, following an excellent passing movement, getting them right back into the game.

That, I believe, was Montgomery’s first possession of the game, and it was astonishing that a player of his calibre was left totally ineffectual at centre forward while Abbeyside were being wiped out in midfield. This error was remedied at half time, and Montie was much more prominent after the change of ends with his driving runs from midfield.

However, for all the effort they put in, Abbeyside were repeatedly let down by poor first touch, poor passing and striking, and poor decision-making. Their recent concentration on the bigger ball may have had something to do with this. Injuries to Mark Ferncombe (late in the first half) and Michael Kiely (midway through the second) were big blows to their cause, while they also missed two good second half goal chances. However, their mentors will very happy with fine performances by some of their younger players, Mark Twomey, Seán Whelan-Barrett and Willie Beresford, who I think was making his senior championship debut here.

The second half introduction of Pauric Mahony played a big role in Ballygunner wresting back control of the game while Harry Ruddle also had a big impact for them.

There was great entertainment value in the two all-West encounters. For the second week in a row, Ballysaggart were denied a first senior championship win by a late sucker punch, with Tallow’s veteran corner back Mark O’Brien venturing upfield to first time a super strike to the net at the death.

Overall, Ballysaggart were the better team here. While the three senior Bennetts were all in great form, this was a very good team effort from them, with their left half back Stephen Mangan particularly catching my eye. Shane Bennett’s 38th minute solo goal must be a rival to Kyle Hayes’s already legendary super strike against Tipperary for goal of the year. However, Tallow worked really hard to retrieve a game which appeared to be going away from them midway through the second half. The result was probably decided in the 49th minute when Kyle Bennett missed an open goal for Ballysaggart and from the puckout, Mark Steward netted for Tallow at the other end. For the latter, Ian Beecher again impressed me with his ability to get possession and use it effectively while Darah Buckley had an excellent game in midfield.

There was probably some justice in the way Fourmilewater were caught at the death by Lismore, in view of the way they stole the game the previous week against Ballysaggart. FMW really threw this game away, as they wasted a lot of good possession, especially in the final quarter. Jamie and Tom Barron were much better than the previous week, with excellent contributions also from Tholum and Dylan Guiry.

Lismore suffered a bad early blow when Iarlaith Daly had to go off with what looked like a pulled muscle. However, his brother Cárthach (who started at wing back) proceeded to give an exhibition of ball control, pace and excellent distribution when he moved into the pivotal position. Maurice Shanahan was again their main man, with David Prendergast (whose absence from the county panel is mystifying to me) also impressing at full back. Oisin O’Gorman had a heavily strapped leg and was clearly impeded by an injury as he had little impact.

There was no way the eventual outcome of the Mount Sion/De La Salle game could have been foretold after the first twenty minutes during which DLS completely dominated affairs with Sion going 14 minutes without registering a score. In fact, were it not for DLS shots hitting the crossbar and the upright, and Iggy O’Regan making a great save from Jack Fagan, the game could have been over at that stage.

However, after that, the game changed completely with Mount Sion eventually cantering to victory against a DLS team whose meek capitulation surely pointed to major off-field problems. Along with Austin Gleeson, it was old stagers Stephen Roche, Martin O’Neill and Owen Whelan who provided the leadership for a hard-working Mount Sion outfit. Luke O’Brien (referred to as “Luke O’Neill” throughout in the Nemeton broadcast by an obviously Covid-obsessed MacDara Mac Donnacha) also had a big game for them at centre back.

One general feature of last weekend’s games was the poor standard of refereeing, with an awful lot of obvious fouls going unpunished. I was also repeatedly frustrated by the refusal of the referees to issue yellow cards for deliberate trips and other cynical fouls.

Following on from whiteandblue’s reference in an earlier post to how competitive the Western Intermediate Championship is, it may be noted that the combined total scoring difference between the teams in the four games last weekend in this championship was just six points. This from four games in which the average total score per game was 47 points.

Regarding the refereeing. Are we struggling with referees as there doesn't seem to be a lot of change of who is doing games. same 6 or 7 doing the games repeatedly. That said theres a bit more flow to the games rather than some whistle happy refs

as much as i enjoy our current manager, we have been at the top table for 23 years now,and ought to be developing our own.skully never was given a fair shot by the players and derek got it wrong on the day against galway otheriwse would have a statue erected to him

and pauric fanning was a cheap option done by a cobo out of ideas. not only developing players, but develooping managers should be in the cobo remit.

whenever liam goes could we look at darragh o' sullivan? lord knows he is blessed for players but 40 games unbeaten is a record afaik

while i always celebrated a munster, i wonder back in the noughties did we start taking them for granted? in many ways its harder to win munster and yet we had a great run of it for a bit , inever bought into the league being unimportant and i find it dissapointing that people dont care about a competition that for me shows lots of new players and heaps of games,and as kk and now showed us is a great platform for later in the season if used right .

Senior Hurling Championship Round 3

Grp A- Fourmilewater 0-19- Tallow 1-13(16)

Grp D- Passage 3-15(24)- Clonea 1-15(18)

Confimred Quarter Fianlists

Grp A- Lismore (1st) and Fourmilewater (2nd)

Grp B- Ballygunner (1st)

Grp C- Mount Sion and Dungarvan

Grp D- Passage (1st) and Roanmore (2nd)

Relagation Playoffs

Grp A-Ballysaggart

Grp B- Abbeyside or Ballyduff Upper

Grp C- De La Salle

Grp D- Clonea

amazing achievement given the population, would you believe only 4 weeks ago i was sitting beside a lad who won an ai medal at their expense when they contested the junior final in 2014 ,with many question marks over what age subs could be

Anyone else have an issue with beosport when using airplay to smart tv today? Usually works fine.

Two big defeats in senior championship for Ballyduff upper.

I think they'll be relegated, there wouldn't be much between the other 3 teams. Is it an open draw? A ballysaggart Vs DLS draw would be very interesting!!

Relegation finals:

Ballysaggart v De la Salle

Clonea v Ballyduff Upper

Some good match ups to look forward too, that Dungarvan vs Abbeyside game in particular.

dungarvan v abbeyside the standout game in quarter finals. after Ballygunner they're probably the 2 most impressive teams this year.

dls v ballysaggart another huge game there, hard one to call.

when are these games being played?

Western Junior A semi finals

Colligan vs Tourin

Abbeyside vs Bricky Rangers