Waterford GAA Thread - Mod note post #1

Still trying to make sense of the game yesterday. Dont think i'll ever manage!

Gonna be hard to haul myself up the road to Thurles in 2 weeks!

25 years

That was my understanding when he was announced. No idea if that is the reality on the ground though.

Time for fundamental Change!

Having attended the last two championship games, I cant see anyway forward for Waterford. The most worrying aspect is the next generation are not near good enough and I fear in the next 3/4 years Waterford will fall further behind. Crazy money is being spent on teams who simply cannot compete at the level required, not to mention developing a stadium that we could n't fill anytime in the last 3 years. Our schools are a shambles, they are not competing at the top level (De La Salle being the exception- given their size and pick, they should be better than most of the schools in Munster but they are not).

A secondary school pupil will spend 48 months in school from 1-6th year, we should be investing in the schools with full times coaches, S&C, GYMs etc.. if we can get 4 schools competing at Harty Cup level then over the course of a few years we will develop enough quality to compete year in year out. This will cost alot of money but is an investment that Waterford have to make. Ireland will go close to winning the rugby World cup in the Autumn and the majority of the team will have come through 8 schools!! I'm aware the money being spent by these schools is phenomenal but we can do something different and have a similar production line. The GDA's should be employed full time in certain schools and run a hurling program on behalf of the county board who should support them with S&C coaches ETC.. we need to control player development. Just putting this out there because our development squads are operating with one hand tied behind their backs.

We obviously didn’t deserve any luck yesterday but Jesus christ how unlucky were we that none of the 4-5 shots on goal didn’t go in? Every single time it either came off the edge of a Cork hurley, a Cork player or Collins making a good save (from Peter Hogan at the start of the second half). It’s not like the execution was poor, we just couldn’t buy a goal on any occasion and on another day could’ve had 3-4 goals. Who knows how things could have turned out if a few of them went in. That’s 0 goals scored against Tipp, KK, Limerick and now Cork this year, we won’t win much without rattling the net a few times.

Hard to know where to go from here, it seems to be a case of hoping to avoid a hiding in the last two games which is an absolutely dire assessment of where we are at currently.

That famous line from the young lad in Malcolm in the Middle sums up this year - “I expected nothing and I’m still disappointed.”

In this situation you want to win all your points while the teams that have already beaten you must also win all their points.

So let's say cork and limerick end up on 6 points each

With Clare losing to us, Tipp and cork and Tipp losing to us, Limerick and cork, then we'd go through in 3rd on 4 points.

All extremely unlikely.

Other outcomes with 3 ways and points differences are not in our favour to begin with given we have a -11 hole to climb out of.

A draw could complicate things further, and feel there is one coming.

You could have a scenario where Limerick and Cork drew, Limerick beat Tipp, then if Cork win one and lose one of the other two games themselves and Limerick would have 5pts and contest the Munster final if...

Waterford won both their games, and they'd pip whichever team beat Cork on head to head with the other finishing bottom. But definitely Clare winning Saturday makes even a miraculous turnaround in form for Waterford looking likely to be short of good enough to qualify.

It’s not about whether it’s mathematically possible to qualify, we know it’s still very much there. But based on the performances we’ve seen in both league and championship can anyone see us getting anything out of last 2 games?

Not to mention relying on other results to work out favourably

It may be grasping at straws but ....

.... a win against Clare however likely could (depending on other results) lead to playing an already qualified (and possibly understrength) Tipperary.

If we ended up on 4 points as well as say Cork and/or Limerick, then the head to head means we're gone.

Scenario where we would qualify (I know it’s not happening)

limerick beat Tipp and cork ( finish on 6pts)

cork lose to limerick beat Tipp and Clare (finish on 6pts)

waterford beat Clare and Tipp (finish on 4pts)

Tipp lose to cork , limerick and Waterford. ( finish on 2pts)

clare lose to waterford and cork (finish on 2pts)

this scenario avoids scoring difference (ours is not great after last sunday.

if it were to work out like this it would be a winner take all between ourselves and tipp in the last game.

I know I’m grasping at straws but the more I think of Sunday am wondering/hoping was it just down to fatigue mentally and physically from the Limerick game. If you look at Clare last year they never recovered from the Munster final, we’re lucky to get over Wexford and then badly beaten by Kilkenny.

I suppose we will see in two weeks time, if we put in a performance like we did on Sunday then there is serious problems with this group of players.

the difference from last year was that after the clare debacle the year was over and everyone went back to the clubs whereas this year there is no hiding place with two hard games still to play. I hope to god the players use this as an opportunity to prove everyone wrong and put in two performances that we can all be proud of.

if there was ever a time for MiWadi and biscuits meeting its now

This is what you get when one team is managed by a good coach and motivator and the other team is managed by Davy Fitzgerald. Waterford were an organisational shambles. No puckout or sideline strategy. No ability to adjust to developing situations. A team that took to the field not mentally prepared for the battle that was needed to match, never mind subdue, Cork (with the notable exception of Jack Prendergast who put in a mighty shift here). 

I reckon the players have become demoralised by Davy’s team selections (leaving on the sideline better players than some who are being picked) and bizarre game plans. As Anthony Daly put it in the Examiner, “atrocious” Waterford “didn’t seem to know what they were at”, in what amounted to “a complete systems failure”.  This happened several times when Davy was last in charge of Waterford. Pat Flynn was Chairman of the County Board at the time so he can’t say he didn’t know.

Fair dues to the camogie team who, unlike the senior hurlers, were well-coached and organised, with a super attitude. With the camogie minors in the All-Ireland final next Sunday in Nowlan Park (4.30 pm), it is clear that camogie in the county is going in the opposite direction to hurling. The camogie county board would be mad if, as has been proposed, they come in under the county GAA board, perhaps the most inept organisational unit in world sport.

We have just two games to go to a complete whitewash in minor, under-20 and senior hurling. Waterford Rising my eye. What we need is an uprising.

From my position a couple of rows back in the stand you could hear the Waterford maor caman shouting out to forwards instructions for every puck out. Prepare for plan 2, prepare for plan 7 and so on. Stuck me that they are overly focussed on planning and not the basic skills