When the supporters got seated, they were itching for something to make noise about. As the misses mounted and first touches failed to stick, the groans became louder. They flooded out smartly following Cathal McAllister’s final whistle. The players or management didn’t delay either as the Waterford went through a brisk warm-down routine. Kevin Moran was the last to trudge off the sodden turf towards the dressing room.
“We just didn’t turn up at all and we have a lot of work to do obviously”, Derek McGrath summarised immediately afterwards. He felt that they forced the issue and never settled down properly. “Lads were probably over trying things and trying to implement the short game and we made handling errors and things like that. I wouldn’t put it down to bad attitude; it was more down to just over trying in actual fact and not relaxing in terms of the hurling.”
Nothing could disguise their difficulties in attack and he readily admitted to those shooting shortcomings that resulted in a yield of five points from play and ten all told. “There was no penetration and we didn’t really create any openings in terms of goal opportunities. We had plenty of possession. Look, we are in the middle of heavy training at the moment. It’s not an excuse; the reality is UL looked better than us at times. It’s a good starting point for the year ahead.”
This game will be buried deep in the undergrowth of memory with the passage of time. Waterford put their best foot forward in terms of the starting line-up. Eleven of the fifteen featured against Kilkenny at one point or another last summer. The attacking numbers didn’t stack up to a satisfying seventy however. 17 wides (9 in the first half and 8 in the second) sucked the life out of the home challenge. One forward out of nine managed to score from play (Maurice Shanahan on 54 minutes). The free taking also chipped away as three different players tried their luck. Five 65s raised no return. In stark contrast, UL only shot three wides. Substitute Tommy Heffernan took over from the injured Tom O’Brien to hit a combined total of six. The fluency shown during stages of the challenge games earlier in the week was also missing.
They railed against these frustrations right through to the end. Philip Mahony, Michael Walsh, Kevin Moran and Maurice Shanahan desperately searched for a key but only a goal would unlock UL. Half chances fell to Ryan Donnelly and Stephen Molumphy. A flowing move on 58 minutes involving Michael Walsh, Jake Dillon and Stephen Roche led to an opening for Kevin Moran but he struck his shot into the ground and Shane Hassett saved.
UL arrived without their Clare contingent (Podge Collins included) and as 5/1 underdogs. The outcome was almost inevitable after the first half sparing. Michael Walsh won the toss and elected to play with all the advantages that the weather offered. Undeterred by the circumstances and the fact that goalkeeper Shane Hassett could barely hit the sliotar 30 metres, UL hurled with surprising steadiness and structure led by captain Padraic Walsh. Although wearing seven, he appeared all across the defence and pushed forward when he saw a gap.
Waterford opted to use a two man full forward line with Jamie Barron appearing in a withdrawn role and this backfired as the maroon shirts frequently surrounded Ryan Donnelly and Maurice Shanahan. This forced shots from distance with Shane O’Sullivan successful on two occasions along with one apiece from Jamie Nagle and Kevin Moran. Shanahan managed two frees as the forwards became increasingly isolated with little support play in evidence. Seven different players contributed to the tally of nine wides. UL relied on four frees but that’s all they required to stay in touch.
When Brian Stapleton’s delivery loomed over the goalmouth three minutes into the second half, Jonathon Glynn merely needed the barest of flicks to guide it past Ian O’Regan. The towering full forward from Galway caused constant discomfort for Barry Coughlan and apart from the goal, he spurned earlier chances for three pointers, won a couple of frees and teed up Brian Stapleton for pick of the points late on. UL really kicked on after that green flag as the substitutes also contributed to work up a seven point lead (1-11 to 0-7) before three Shanahan frees made a minor dent towards the tail end.
UL boss Brian Lohan expressed his satisfaction with their ball retention in the opening 35 but acknowledged that their path was cleared by the many misses from their wayward opponents. “We have got smart guys and guys who are well able to hurl. In those sort of conditions, you want to keep the ball for as long as you can and we did that fairly well in the first half. Waterford missed an awful lot of scores and an awful lot of frees and that helped us as well.”
The security of weekly fixtures and competitive exposure for new faces and formations is now removed for the Waterford management team. It leaves a longer than anticipated gap to Tipperary on February 15 but McGrath still thinks there is wriggle room when the league eventually throws in. “You might go and run the risk of experimenting and develop the team. That’s not to say that you won’t worry about your standing in the league. I think there is a certain blooding that has to happen in terms of players and where we want to go over the next three years.”
McGrath batted away the suggestion that finding his favoured front six will be a challenge in the season ahead. “Looking from the outside in, people always point to the fact that Waterford look very good from one to nine. The performance of the backs is often dependent on how hard the forwards work. The game the way it’s gone it’s more a case of everyone working together so we certainly don’t operate as a one to nine and a separate six. It’s just everyone working hard together. I think in the long term our forward line will be okay.”
Another spin on the challenge circuit is planned to fill in the blanks. “We are playing Offaly on Tuesday night in Tinryland and we have another game lined up for the weekend. Just plenty of games and plenty of gametime and that’s what we need. We need plenty of games. You could argue that Limerick and Cork, who are in Division 1B, are probably rated sixth and seventh and we are eighth. We have a huge amount of work to do but we are not too despondent. We will talk about it inside and get to the end of it.”
Semple Stadium at the end of May felt a million miles away on Sunday. This offered a pre-season reminder for all concerned of the journey to travel and of the blending, mixing and mistakes to be made in order to reach the desired destination by then. As displayed by the body language of players and management afterwards, an opening day defeat hurts. Even in January.
Nothing could disguise their difficulties in attack and he readily admitted to those shooting shortcomings that resulted in a yield of five points from play and ten all told. “There was no penetration and we didn’t really create any openings in terms of goal opportunities. We had plenty of possession. Look, we are in the middle of heavy training at the moment. It’s not an excuse; the reality is UL looked better than us at times. It’s a good starting point for the year ahead.”
This game will be buried deep in the undergrowth of memory with the passage of time. Waterford put their best foot forward in terms of the starting line-up. Eleven of the fifteen featured against Kilkenny at one point or another last summer. The attacking numbers didn’t stack up to a satisfying seventy however. 17 wides (9 in the first half and 8 in the second) sucked the life out of the home challenge. One forward out of nine managed to score from play (Maurice Shanahan on 54 minutes). The free taking also chipped away as three different players tried their luck. Five 65s raised no return. In stark contrast, UL only shot three wides. Substitute Tommy Heffernan took over from the injured Tom O’Brien to hit a combined total of six. The fluency shown during stages of the challenge games earlier in the week was also missing.
They railed against these frustrations right through to the end. Philip Mahony, Michael Walsh, Kevin Moran and Maurice Shanahan desperately searched for a key but only a goal would unlock UL. Half chances fell to Ryan Donnelly and Stephen Molumphy. A flowing move on 58 minutes involving Michael Walsh, Jake Dillon and Stephen Roche led to an opening for Kevin Moran but he struck his shot into the ground and Shane Hassett saved.
UL arrived without their Clare contingent (Podge Collins included) and as 5/1 underdogs. The outcome was almost inevitable after the first half sparing. Michael Walsh won the toss and elected to play with all the advantages that the weather offered. Undeterred by the circumstances and the fact that goalkeeper Shane Hassett could barely hit the sliotar 30 metres, UL hurled with surprising steadiness and structure led by captain Padraic Walsh. Although wearing seven, he appeared all across the defence and pushed forward when he saw a gap.
Waterford opted to use a two man full forward line with Jamie Barron appearing in a withdrawn role and this backfired as the maroon shirts frequently surrounded Ryan Donnelly and Maurice Shanahan. This forced shots from distance with Shane O’Sullivan successful on two occasions along with one apiece from Jamie Nagle and Kevin Moran. Shanahan managed two frees as the forwards became increasingly isolated with little support play in evidence. Seven different players contributed to the tally of nine wides. UL relied on four frees but that’s all they required to stay in touch.
When Brian Stapleton’s delivery loomed over the goalmouth three minutes into the second half, Jonathon Glynn merely needed the barest of flicks to guide it past Ian O’Regan. The towering full forward from Galway caused constant discomfort for Barry Coughlan and apart from the goal, he spurned earlier chances for three pointers, won a couple of frees and teed up Brian Stapleton for pick of the points late on. UL really kicked on after that green flag as the substitutes also contributed to work up a seven point lead (1-11 to 0-7) before three Shanahan frees made a minor dent towards the tail end.
UL boss Brian Lohan expressed his satisfaction with their ball retention in the opening 35 but acknowledged that their path was cleared by the many misses from their wayward opponents. “We have got smart guys and guys who are well able to hurl. In those sort of conditions, you want to keep the ball for as long as you can and we did that fairly well in the first half. Waterford missed an awful lot of scores and an awful lot of frees and that helped us as well.”
The security of weekly fixtures and competitive exposure for new faces and formations is now removed for the Waterford management team. It leaves a longer than anticipated gap to Tipperary on February 15 but McGrath still thinks there is wriggle room when the league eventually throws in. “You might go and run the risk of experimenting and develop the team. That’s not to say that you won’t worry about your standing in the league. I think there is a certain blooding that has to happen in terms of players and where we want to go over the next three years.”
McGrath batted away the suggestion that finding his favoured front six will be a challenge in the season ahead. “Looking from the outside in, people always point to the fact that Waterford look very good from one to nine. The performance of the backs is often dependent on how hard the forwards work. The game the way it’s gone it’s more a case of everyone working together so we certainly don’t operate as a one to nine and a separate six. It’s just everyone working hard together. I think in the long term our forward line will be okay.”
Another spin on the challenge circuit is planned to fill in the blanks. “We are playing Offaly on Tuesday night in Tinryland and we have another game lined up for the weekend. Just plenty of games and plenty of gametime and that’s what we need. We need plenty of games. You could argue that Limerick and Cork, who are in Division 1B, are probably rated sixth and seventh and we are eighth. We have a huge amount of work to do but we are not too despondent. We will talk about it inside and get to the end of it.”
Semple Stadium at the end of May felt a million miles away on Sunday. This offered a pre-season reminder for all concerned of the journey to travel and of the blending, mixing and mistakes to be made in order to reach the desired destination by then. As displayed by the body language of players and management afterwards, an opening day defeat hurts. Even in January.
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