Waterford GAA Thread - Mod note post #1

I'm kinda done with people complaining about the championship. The norm for Waterford used to be one Munster fixture, defeat and curtains.

The backdoor changed that, and the club scene was been destroyed and the majority of your hurling was in July,August and if you were lucky September.

We now are guaranteed 4 games with two of those games at home.

If we are not good enough to get into the top three in Munster then we are not good enough for the AI series, simple as.

Yes we can complain, the top three in Leinster might not be as strong as the bottom two in Munster but that might also not always be the case.

The whole Joe Mc teams entering the AI probably needs looking at, but a top 4 qualifying would take the shine off it in my eyes. In that scenario a lot of games become dead rubbers.

Munster has been fantastic to watch the past few years, the club scene will be back in the next few weeks and we will have wall to wall back to back club games, it's not like the AI finishes and that is hurling done and dusted.

If four qualify from Munster then four need to qualify from Leinster, or else you keep the Joe Mc Winners, you end up having the same or more dead rubbers in the AI series.

Limerick could have been knocked out in the last round of fixtures this season, where as if we had have allowed four teams qualify, none of those final games would have meant a thing. Waterford V Clare wouldn't have meant anything either as we could not be caught on 3 points.

We allow 4 to qualify and say both 4th and 5th end up on the same points most years, then the next argument would be, "it's not fair 5th place ends with with the same points as 4th place and can't qualify while Dublin or Antrim get out of Leinster"

What is making Munster so special is big teams don't make it. Had we have took our chance we would have had an all Ireland series without heavy hitters such as Tipp and Cork and that is what is making it special.

I get how the other side is in-balanced and Munster in it self if like an All Ireland but allowing 4 teams qualify is not the solution.

look,whatever way you do it, at some point teams will be knocked out, some years you will be lucky some unlucky, some there on merit, no matter how many changes you make that will still be the case

Couple of issues with the structure

1. Imbalance - talked to death, no point going over old ground
2. No jeopardy for bottom team in Munster
3. Attendances - the argument for preservation of provinces often lands on revenue, but it's killing attendances in Leinster. I don't believe for one second that there was a bigger attendance in PUC for Lmk v Cork because it was in a Munster round robin instead of an all ireland one.
4. The schedule - it should start two weeks later I think. Get rid of the provinces, get rid of prelim qtr and you have an extra 2 to 3 weeks to play with then for spacing.

The championship started in late April with a bang and had a lot of early momentum. It loses this though every year with those ridiculous prelims, and then often one sided quarter finals.

Having the best 6 teams in the Country qualifying would mean it gains momentum as the championship goes on and I think that would serve everyone better.

Ultimately, I agree with those that say it won't change and the focus has to be to try and ensure that the next 5 years of it are not the same as the first 5 championships in which we have failed to get out of Munster every time.

Oh absolutely you could and would have lob sided draws sometimes. But nobody could argue about fairness.

And totally agree, we can keep making excuses or fix the problems. Hopefully a major effort goes to the latter and we get better days ahead.

Absoloutely we haven't been good enough but if we somehow were relegated to JMcD and ended up losing a final to Laois, the system deems us good enough to qualify for the AI series. That's a huge flaw.

It's more the format as a whole I was talking about rather than our own shortcomings.

Albeit it would be nice to have had another day out, I did think coming away from the Gaelic Grounds that there's little point progressing until we think we can compete and even beat the best team in the Country.

the manager killed us that year. He spent the winter basking in the glory of getting beaten in an All Ireland final when all other counties were getting ready for the new round robin system, they didn’t go back training until after the team holiday to New York in January and never caught up and were well off the pace for the championship. He admitted as much himself afterwards

given the years that have passed since he last managed the team he may have learned and be able to adjust his philosophy to better suit the current squad….? A second coming of DMcG is surely more palatable than the ‘6 mile bridge maestrs’ return……also it’s with noting that since 1998 no non-native manager has won an all Ireland in hurling and I think the same applies to football…?

Has it been reported somewhere or are these just rumours?

The correct name would be ballygunner v Na Risigh

Why are Mount Sion and Saviours joined at u15?

don’t think this incident happened at the end of the game so your comment is a bit weak/juvenile…..irrespective as to when it happened though those involved should be ashamed of themselves

Fascinating, thanks for the detailed reply 914. It’s hard to believe a city club would be struggling for numbers, I would’ve associated amalgamations with rural sides who at least have the excuse of a small village to pick from etc. Although I think I do recall some city sides amalgamations they trialed around the early 00’s and it never really went anywhere.

Surely 12 months isn’t enough though? You could have lads going in and out of different teams constantly over a few years.
You’d think it would make more sense as well to amalgamate with the one club rather than, like above, Sion 13/15’s then EO 16/minor?

Suppose it’s better those lads get to play somewhere but you’d then ask the question why don’t they just end up transferring to the “parent” club that took them in originally.

Do you know what or who sparked the melee/incident……was there a dirty pull, punch thrown or something or just morons on the sideline who couldn’t restrain themselves…?