Waterford GAA Thread - Mod note post #1

Wexford showing good fight fair dues to them

Last throw of the dice for Davy

Waterford should get rid of the mighty mouth whether they win or lose

We will see what happens in second honestly there would be more questions asked if Waterford win this then if they lose . Be funny if we win and cork / limerick draw .

Jesus some win for us and no doubt keeping Davy in the job

So will he let them play with freedom or go back defensive ?

January 2024 awaits

hate to admit it, but davy has probably kept his job, but the better question where the **** was he the last 8 months ?

he stumbled over games he should have won over and over again, then when it doesn't matter he suddenly finsds his arse from his elbow

The three year plan is coming along nicely

Fair play to Mikey Bevans ; he went around to shake hands with Waterford players after the match. Cahill probably had to go and lie down in a dark room.

So our recent good record continues against Tipperary ; Waterford 5/1 to win ; a giveaway in hindsight. Would have been hilarious if Limerick match ended in a draw.

Dessie MOTM ; deserved but equally could have gone to Stephen Bennett, Mark Fitzgerald, Iarlaith Daly, Stephen O'brien, Billy Nolan ... to mention but a few. Can we look forward to Billy playing outfield next year

Assuming now this has cemented davey in place for next year will he have learned anything from today…….he threw out a dummy team then a B team and somehow beat a Tipp team who were red hot favourites and needed to this game. Obviously Tipp were overrated by everyone and looking at their results they were gifted a victory by Lohan/Clare the first they when they played a rookie keeper and paid dearly for it gifting Tipp three goals. They then played very well to get two draws but were being tipped (awful pun) to be major contenders.

Hard to read anything into today from a wateford perspective only that it showed that they are able to play somewhere close to competitive and are not that far off. It’s hard to erase the cork and Clare games from the memory though and still don’t think davey is the ‘one’…..don’t think there is anyway that he will get a P45 now so all we can hope is that what we saw today , what ever tactical tweeks and motivational words he gave can be built on for next season but it’s impossible be confident that this might transpire….??

The Achilles heel with this team is we've no traditional ball winning half-forwards and as a result we struggle to win long puckouts. If we win puckouts; this team is competitive. If we don't win puckouts, we look dogshit. The problem with this weakness is that losing puckouts means your hitting the ball against a wall and it's coming straight back in. There's also very little you can do to hide the weakness if the opponents go man to man. Every other tactic or innovation goes out the window if you can't win your own ball. Looking back at the Munster games, this analysis holds up.

Limerick Game -> Consistently won short and long puck outs throughout the game -> Should have won this game apart from inaccuracy.

Cork Game -> Cork went man to man and forced us to go long and we were cleaned out. -> Game over at half time.

Clare Game -> Won the first quarter as Clare gave us a short puck option. They pushed up and forced us to go long in 2nd quarter and had an extra man after Lyons got sent off. -> Won the first quarter, started losing grip in second quarter and annihilated when we went a man down.

Tipp Game -> Tipp gave us the short option in the first half and pushed up in second half. -> not sure on the wind today but we were a joy to watch in the first half and went back to running into traffic in the second half.

Basically we have an extremely competitive team if we can win our own puck outs. But that is an extremely big if. The wishlist for next year is:

1) Find some ball winners. I don't care how we do it, we just need to find the right athletes.

2) Fix the discipline -> this starts with Davy. He can't call lads out on indiscipline if he's indisciplined himself

3) Fix the S&C -> far too many soft tissue injuries over the last few years. Best ability is availability.

4) Have a centre back who's first instinct is to hurl not run the ball -> Nolan was very good on the ball today but I wonder could Patrick Curran do a Conlon like conversion either? This needs to be explored.

Not taking away anything from Dessie but for me Mark Fitzgerald was head and shoulders the best player on the pitch today.

Look credit where it’s due, You’d have to say Davy saved his job today in spectacular fashion. We Came out went up 07-01 up in the first 10 mins that was a serious start from a team that was supposedly dead and buried, and that gave us enough of a buffer to see out the game when the Tipp onslaught eventually came.

Is Fitzgerald the person to get the most out of them…..???

What do you think…!

Social media now full with usual suspects saying more or less Sundays result proves comments made before the game by the vast majority were all wrong talking out both sides of mouths etc . Has anything really changed? We still had a shocking campaign going back to what was going on during the league . We know players have to be played in certain positions and that yes we have a few little gems that should have had way more game time . Regarding Tipp that’s a terrible look again for Cahill at home against a team with nothing to play for and completely uncooked . We still need big changes and implement them, I just fear that this proves well maybe the glass is half full and we go again hoping we have it all worked out by the end of the championship. Let’s hope for the state of Waterford hurling that we do the right things from the bottom up and get this team back going again and have them where we all want them to be .