Waterford GAA Thread - Mod note post #1

Looked like cotton buds to me, possible ear infection and trying to keep the wind/rain out of them

It’s interesting to see lads here complaining about the league, its quality. And at the same time Limerick, Tipp & our own Rebels have no complaints at all. Kilkenny too, I suppose.

Is it a case of if you’re using the league properly you have no cribs about it?

Would you not be more interested in commenting on a cork thread instead of a Waterford one so?

They’d want to keep their opinions for the “Real Capital” never mind what we’re doing down here 😂😂

i seen that earlier today , i blame one man for this regression amd its a clare man !!

thank god someone else saw it , i taught i was going mad , totally ruined mcgrath in my opinion

I’m not from Clare

But rather than set a team up to maximise the strengths of the players he has Davy always just goes with his system backs running up the field taking pot shots all the Lethal forwards running away from the opposition goal or out towards the corner flag to collect ball usually with 2 men on them with no option but to pass the ball back the field did it with Clare o donnell inside on his own chin Mac Donald Rory o Connor Dessie Hutchinson even Tony Kelly

Its desperate to watch him having all these classy forwards miles from the goal not being allowed shoot from where there most dangerous

There just wasted running around out at midfield handpassing and laying ball off

Another game and not one bit the wiser with what Davy is actually attempting to achieve with this bunch of players.

In my opinion we have a very talented group of players, with enough talent to push for an All Ireland but at the moment we have no direction, or strategy. reading some of the comments of the Wexford and Clare lads who have had previous experience of Davy, his blueprint seems to be exactly the same., as it was when he first came to Waterford - he seems to think he is the cleverest and most astute of tacticians, always looking to pull a master stroke by placing lads in unexpected places. When it works once in a blue moon he a genius, when it goes wrong it is never really his fault is it!!

The best Managers tend to identity their players best strengths and try to build good strategies that allow players to use these strengths to the best of their ability, while putting in good structures and work ethic designed to cover any weaknesses.

One comment on yesterdays game, I know Billy Nolan is supposedly a good long distance free taker, but he came out for three frees yesterday put one a good distance wide, and the other two dropped into the square. I thought maybe he was hitting into a gale, but then in the second half you see the KK player driving one between the posts from similar distance. What is he doing hitting the ball so high, from puck outs also, unless you have a gale behind your back that catches the ball and carries it, it takes so much distance can off the strike and also makes it a backs ball all day long when it drops short. Surely this can and has to be addressed, it is so frustrating to watch.

It is only the league, we have a lot of injuries (which is a major concern) and Davy is trying to learn about his players but honestly has anyone seen anything that would give you confidence that we are on on the right road - because I for one am trying to pick out some positives but so far it is slim pickings.

I don't share the doom and gloom of most on here. I do accept the match yesterday was a dreadful spectacle and there's no denying that Dessie isn't as threatening when so far withdrawn. I also accept that some people just dislike Davy.

However any discussion of yesterday can't ignore both teams set out with 7 defenders and at least 3 midfielders. The conditions also acted as an extra defender for both sides as the surface was surprisingly poor even allowing for the recent rain. That was also reflected in puck outs as both sides went short as a rule. Indeed both teams only won a single puck out each beyond the opposition 65.

Waterford had 12 wides, 4 dropped short. Kilkenny had 7 wides, 1 short and Billy made one save which came back for a free as the ref played advantage. Waterford also had the best goal chance when Tom Barron should have scored. They also had two more opportunities when they had free runners off the shoulder but only got a point from one of them. Kilkenny did have a scramble that went wide in the second half. For me this wasn't Kilkenny having an "off day" and Waterford not good enough to beat them, the stats simply don't support that.

Kilkenny had no player score more than a point from play which to me indicates that we played well defensively. I was surprised that Mark Fitzgerald was criticised here for losing a ball when coming out with it as he had no long option and had no alternative but to come from deep. Even Tadhg who was excellent lost an odd ball in the conditions. Ironically our best player up to now in Calum Lyons had a below par outing. I haven't seen him mentioned previously but I think Monty has shown up well in every game thus far and could be the physical presence in midfield we've missed since Kevin Moran.

I totally agree we need to have another option rather than running it, and the return of Michael Kiely would address that. We obviously has a string of other players to return, same as Kilkenny do, but despite media talk last year I think the loss of a big player affects us more as we don't have the depth of other teams.

I still think our performance against Tipp was our best so far up until the red card and if Owens saw the full incident it would have been a red card each. The intensity of that match eas way beyond any of our other games but we still got more out of yesterday than we did against Laois or Antrim. Whether it's enough to get out of Munster is questionable as the standard is higher again this year.

If anyone is interested, I get my stats from gaastatsman on Twitter and there's more there to look at once the game is shown on tv.

It couldn't be recorded as a free as the ball was played to Billy and passed again. It wouldn't be recorded as dropped short either as it wasn't an attempt at a score but a pass. If you look at the chart with the shots on it, it doesn't appear as one that dropped short.

And I agree that the chances of it working were minimal.

Are the players off on a training camp now? These breaks have worked wonders for squads in the past. With regard to heavy training, I did notice one passage of play in the second half where Fagan’s legs were completely gone and he had to dig deep just to close someone down. You wouldn’t know what’s going on in that regard.

Munster and Leinster councils will never vote for their own competitions to be abolished so thats unlikely to change.

We can't really complain as we have just been sh1te every year of the round Robin!

Your point is….? 🤔

We’re happy enough with qualifying from the much stronger group in first position. It’s good to see the young lads improving. And they’re playing hurling which is more than everyone can say. Plus their manager can keep his mouth shut.

You're manager had the Waterford job heading into the 2019 season but due to factors could not take it the role at the time. Ryan is definitely doing great job with ye at the moment,

What could of been for us if he took it

Think it was a Portugal trip after the League final defeat