Waterford GAA Thread - Mod note post #1

De La Salle survive with Ballysaggart going back down to Intermediate

Overall you have to feel sorry for Ballysaggart who lost 2 group games vey late in the game

Western Intermediate will be very competitive again next year

Part of me is expecting Kevin Moran to announce his intercounty retirement fairly soon now that DLS are finished in the championship. Brilliant servant to Waterford

Kind of what many would have feared, game over after 15 mins.

1-9 to 0-2 at the first water break without BG having to break a sweat. Going to be a long afternoon for Roanmore

Very one sided game. Dessie on fire all day

Congrats to ballygunner. There was lots of whatifs going around this season in terms of who might put it up to them. I think they underperformed all season and coasted to a finals despite a couple of scares. In the end they showed their class today.....hard to see an end in sight...up to the rest of us to find a way to meet their standard.

Congratulations to Ballygunner on their eight in a row.

A very disappointing game with unfortunately no new players of senior inter county potential on view.

jack chester had a great save and impressed earlier in the season, also pushed billy nolan outfield ,since soky isn't coming back needs to be looked at

my error, asked on tg4, and answered

Thought the intermediate standard was dire this year

From talking to some of the players yesterday evening, I got the feeling this win was one of the sweetest for them purely because people were writing them off for the last few weeks. Someone (not a player) said to me that the club prides itself on their standards and those standards simply aren’t allowed slip.

The Munster and All Ireland is what drives the players of this team. I think their downfall the last few years has probably been the pressure they put themselves under in the provincial and All Ireland series but I do hope they go on and do the business this year. I find it disheartening to see the gulf in class between them and everyone else because I can’t see the gap being closed for a very long time. Let’s just say they are caught out next year, we all know they’ll change something or bring someone in and they’ll win it back the following year. They’re just too strong and have too much firepower on and off the pitch.

I think the result of yesterday's final disguises that the fact that the gap has closed but I suspect it will widen again. Abbeyside, Fourmilewater & particularly Mount Sion put it up to Ballygunner this year which has been unheard of in recent years. They all did so by targeting Dessie Hutchison and putting their best man markers on him & closed the space in front of him. Roanmore may have had their best man marker on Hutchison yesterday but the space in front & to the sides of him would have made it impossible for the best man markers in Ireland to tie him down yesterday. It was tactically naive & left Dessie score more in one match than he has in his last 3 of his championship matches.

One thing that struck me yesterday looking at the programmes, was the players that Ballygunner could potentially have playing. Philip Mahony, Eddie Hayden, Shane Walsh, Harley Barnes, David O'Sullivan, Brian O'Sullivan, Tim O'Sullivan & even JJ Hutchinson would still make the majority of senior club teams and none were on the panel yesterday through injury & retirement, despite some being still very young. Also, Ballygunner had 21 named on their backroom team between trainers, selectors, medical, stats etc. When the dressing rooms do re-open, they will need one for these alone.

The fear going forward is that the gap will widen again. Adding young Fitzgerald alone next year, will see a stronger forward unit as he is a player of huge potential. There is no denying that there is a huge disparity amongst the clubs in Waterford when you see that Ballygunner fielded 4 teams in the top 4 adults grades and all 4 were extremely competitive. To be able to field 4 teams, presumably with a panel of 20 for each is something most other clubs could only dream of.

Ballygunner have won the last 5 minor A titles which again would be a conveyor belt of at least 40 players through to adult level, allowing that at least a 1/3 would not continue to play adult level. Ballygunner are a clearly a very well run club, and fair play to them but the numbers they have playing at underage, in the area of the city with the youngest (newer houses) & highest population, is an issue. They virtually have a monopoly on that side of the city while De La Salle, Roanmore and Mount Sion compete for players in a much less densely populated area. And despite having a huge number of players, it's a shame that Ballygunner don't cater for football in the area.

For all their success since the 90's, the fact that Ballygunner have only won 2 Munster titles is a blot on their copybook seen as DLS have the same number for only 3 county titles, and also reached an All-Ireland. The 8 week gap ahead of Ballygunner before they face off against the Clare champions is not going to help them in their quest for Munster but perhaps Philip Mahony will be back.

I wouldn't say they closed that game out against Mount Sion. If Kirwan had got the goal, it was virtually game over.

It was a very disappointing county final and it on tv too, we all want a good final but Roanmore just weren't up to it, not much Ballygunner can do about that, the game was over after 10 minutes.

Ballygunner will want to add provincial and all Ireland titles and will likely not consider the season a success unless they win them.

I was amazed to see the way roanmore set up at the start, extra defenders and inviting Ballygunner on to them. I thought other teams pushing up on Ballygunner and not allowing them to get their passing game going in earlier rounds along with high intensity showed how best to take on Ballygunner, but Roanmore opted to set up defensively and allowed Ballygunner to build out of defence and play the ball into the likes of dessie, with predictable results.

was t just me or was the ref playing for a draw, some very strange calls in roanmores favour ,even the commentators were puzzled