Waterford GAA Thread - Mod note post #1

Mixed emotions after that game. Obviously good to have pushed Limerick to the end (on the scoreboard at least) and only have been a puck of a ball away from a result which is the closest we have got to them in the last few championship years. Aussie and Dessie did well, Jack Prendergast also took his scores well and it was a positive to at least have hit their net twice, something we haven’t done in recent years.

Plenty of negatives also that have to be looked at, not scoring a point in the last 20mins was very disappointing and very uncharacteristic of this team that usually finish games strongly. Disappointing how we just couldn’t live with Limerick in that last quarter and couldn’t win a puck out or breaking ball. Really needed lads to step up then and stop the game slipping away but to be fair when Limerick get going it’s so difficult to stop them. If you try go through them there’s always the risk of being bottled up and losing possession which happened numerous times but if you try avoid contact and go around them (like Cork tried) that doesn’t fare much better.

Hopefully Iarlaith’s injury isn’t too bad and he makes a speedy recovery. Suppose if there’s a “good” time to pick up an injury it might as well be now when we have a three week break. Regroup and get the heads right again to go all out for Cork.

If it’s any consolation, should we meet Limerick again it at least won’t be in their own back yard which is surely worth a few points to them. Probably grasping at straws but obviously preferable to play them in Thurles or Croke Park than the GG. The hardest part about today I think is just that it’s hard to know what we could/should/would do differently if we were to play them again next week. There aren’t many mitigating factors you could point to and claim “things might be different if….”. We had pretty much a full strength team and they were missing a few key players so a lot of disappointment stems from not taking that chance presented and we may not get a better one. It would have been a nice hoodoo to end and finally get one over this Limerick team but hopefully it will come another day in this championship. Hard to see it though.

I agree @Cake Man that hard to see how we can beat Limerick after that considering the players they were missing. If Cian Lych stayed on, you'd imagine he would have scored 5-6 points giving that he would have got into the positions that Cathal O Neill did and taken the scores.

The one area where we have never got much off Limerick is their half back line. I think (I don't know how) but if we could win more long puckouts it would give us a more platform but besides for Aussie we don't have many ball winners in the forward line.

On home advantage, I think it helped but not as much as if Lynch had not got injured. I also think if Iarlath hadn't got injured Gillane wouldn't have scored 6 from play.

We still are a bit off Limerick but hopefully we can get closer.

Tadgh would want to up his performance's been very poor the last two games. I believe he will get back to his normal levels.

Since when has scoring two goals to reduced the deficit to the bare minimum been seen as some sort of consolidation effort?

Fair enough, they still won and we didn’t score any points in the last twenty, but that shouldn’t detract from the fact that we hit their net twice.

Lessons to be learned for sure, but I’m not despondent.

I disagree, I find it very hard to see Waterford beating Limerick at a later stage. Limerick missing Hayes and Lynch they are two massive additions alone to that team and I felt Limerick were 9-10 points a better team than Waterford last night. Waterford won't score two goals like that next time against Limerick. I wasn't happy to see the Waterford players taking the ball into contact last night, theres only going to be one winner there. I think fast ball into the Waterford forwards is the way to go. I think speed will beat power anytime in a game. Move the ball fast. Anytime Waterford took the ball into contact yesterday they were surrounded and gave away possession and that's as good as giving a score to Limerick and build their momentum. The fact that Tipp could have beaten Waterford last weekend too must be a worry, Tipp matched them for 55 mins before Waterford pulled away. I fancy Waterford to beat Cork and Clare by 5-6 points. I think someone like Kilkenny or Galway will beat Limerick when it does happen.

I don't know about that, I don't think anyone else will beat them, but for a close game Kilkenny, Tipp or Galway are all capable of having respectable scoreboards vs Limerick.

Without being an absolute moaner, of course they’ll have that conditioning. They get everything, and I mean everything that’s required.

Hegarty for example has a gorgeous new Merc. They get their hols to the Bahamas. They get everything 5 star from JP. They’d have no excuse not being in unreal nick

Couldn't understand why Kiely wasn't brought out to the half forward line in the second half and put Bennett into the inside line, as he wasn't winning much there.. Also, we need to be making better decisions when on the ball..On the plus side, we scored goals against a limerick side we had failed to do against in three years..we never gave up and hopefully we'll get another craic at them later in the year..Munster is a mine field, so nothing can be takenbfor granted

that round robin table is incorrect - Clare at plus 8 and Tipp at minus 12

Think this one is right 😃

^^^^

Better long range free taker like Byrnes and we dont lose that game

An interesting star from above is that Limerick only used three subs, one of whom played nearly all the match. Clearly the Limerick bench is not inspiring Kiely. That could be important yet if Lynch’s injury is a high grade tear or if there are suspensions or further injury. I don’t think the AI is the gimme people are predicting here.

The ball is is travelling way too far these days mainly due to the rims being non existent on the sliotars... Players hitting them like tennis balls. Diarmuid Byrnes hits his frees from way out but his technique is actually illegal. A free should be one movement but Byrnes balances it on the hurl longer than should be allowed. I remember years ago there was a period refs were pulling it up but it's a long time since I saw someone penalised for it. Byrnes frees are a major source of scores for limerick... It would be nice if refs actually went back policing this!

https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/gaa/arid-40858127.html?fbclid=IwAR3Jrme_vTcZGzB4lCnl31Cv1WOw3m0aXcfZjGVJRS2JeZkOj5UgAhj70K4