AI series (Qualifiers)

[waterfordlad]

It was a exciting game in Kilkenny on Saturday night with a great atmosphere in the stadium and around the town. The noise from the Wexford fans when the final whistle went was amazing. Waterford did well to come back into it with Dunford's two goals and went ahead but we only scored 1 point after that and Wexford deserved the win. It'll be tough for them facing Limerick again next week. Peter Canavan was on Today fm earlier and was at the match and really enjoyed it and was comparing it with the disappointing football championship so far.
It's Waterford 3rd year in a row to fail to get to Croke Park so times have changed  but it is a young team in general so I wasn't expecting too much this year.

[deiseach]

A hard week for Waterford hurling. I can live with losing in a slugfest with Limerick last night in the Munster Minor final, and the Seniors also went down fighting to a resurgent Wexford. But the result I fear typifies the medium term future of Waterford hurling was a sickening loss at home last Wednesday to the Cork Under-21's. I had high hopes for that team, a combination of players already blooded at Senior level and All-Ireland Minors, but as soon as they came under any pressure they imploded. Grim times ahead.

[Milltown Row2]

So what has Wexford done this year to raise the standard? They may come a cropper next week with all the extra hurling they have been doing or it may just give them the sharpness to outscore Limerick. Once Cork got on top of Limerick it looked easy, so it will be interesting to see how this develops, both teams have come out strong in the first half

I'll take Wexford (providing they haven't picked up injuries) to keep the momentum going, to think Antrim beat Wexford not that long ago, but Wexford give us a roasting this year, all good in terms of progressing teams

[johnneycool]

So what has Wexford done this year to raise the standard? They may come a cropper next week with all the extra hurling they have been doing or it may just give them the sharpness to outscore Limerick. Once Cork got on top of Limerick it looked easy, so it will be interesting to see how this develops, both teams have come out strong in the first half

I'll take Wexford (providing they haven't picked up injuries) to keep the momentum going, to think Antrim beat Wexford not that long ago, but Wexford give us a roasting this year, all good in terms of progressing teams

Wexfords current rise started a good few years ago with the appointment of their hurling Czar of George O'Connor to get in place the right structures for Wexford, not a copy of the Dublin model or the Clare model, but for Wexford. I'm sure he took ideas from them, but to put these types of structures in place you need to know the lie of the land.

I don't think they've won a Leinster minor championship in a long while, but are now competitive and with that comes good hurlers which is where the current crop and last years crop of U-21's have come from.

They gave Clare a good rattle last year so this years evolution wasn't really that big of a surprise although Dublin saw them off in Leinster and that was probably a set back of sorts for them, but they've recovered well and in Liam Dunne they've a hardy, astute manager who knows a thing or two.

[theskull1]

I think everyone has enjoyed the yellow belly's joyful resurgence. Seemed different when Dublin we're making inroads against the top sides.

Only time will tell if Wexford enthusiasm will last for a sustained period or if they'll dine out on these recent performances (like Tipp appear to have been doing)

[Two Hands FFS]

So what has Wexford done this year to raise the standard? They may come a cropper next week with all the extra hurling they have been doing or it may just give them the sharpness to outscore Limerick. Once Cork got on top of Limerick it looked easy, so it will be interesting to see how this develops, both teams have come out strong in the first half

I'll take Wexford (providing they haven't picked up injuries) to keep the momentum going, to think Antrim beat Wexford not that long ago, but Wexford give us a roasting this year, all good in terms of progressing teams

I remember reading this at the time especially the bit about cutting in half one players body fat. They are a big strong physical team with a nice blend of skill & pace. Their fitness has certainly came though in the last 3/4 weeks

http://m.independent.ie/sport/hurling/its-a-manly-game-but-how-far-do-you-let-the-manly-go-30013595.html

[Asal Mor]

A hard week for Waterford hurling. I can live with losing in a slugfest with Limerick last night in the Munster Minor final, and the Seniors also went down fighting to a resurgent Wexford. But the result I fear typifies the medium term future of Waterford hurling was a sickening loss at home last Wednesday to the Cork Under-21's. I had high hopes for that team, a combination of players already blooded at Senior level and All-Ireland Minors, but as soon as they came under any pressure they imploded. Grim times ahead.

A bit surprised at the pessimism deiseach(although I'm worse when it comes to Galway). Still early days for last year's minors and the next couple of years will tell a lot. I think there was only 4 or 5 of them on your u-21 team this year and they'll develop a lot physically in the next 12 months. I'm looking forward to seeing how good Austin Gleeson will get. Sky's the limit for that boy. I reckon I'd hit a better penalty  though.

Great article btw.

[deiseach]

A hard week for Waterford hurling. I can live with losing in a slugfest with Limerick last night in the Munster Minor final, and the Seniors also went down fighting to a resurgent Wexford. But the result I fear typifies the medium term future of Waterford hurling was a sickening loss at home last Wednesday to the Cork Under-21's. I had high hopes for that team, a combination of players already blooded at Senior level and All-Ireland Minors, but as soon as they came under any pressure they imploded. Grim times ahead.

A bit surprised at the pessimism deiseach(although I'm worse when it comes to Galway). Still early days for last year's minors and the next couple of years will tell a lot. I think there was only 4 or 5 of them on your u-21 team this year and they'll develop a lot physically in the next 12 months. I'm looking forward to seeing how good Austin Gleeson will get. Sky's the limit for that boy. I reckon I'd hit a better penalty  though.

Great article btw.

Thank you. We've now lost the opener for each of the last five years at Under-21 level and there is a clear link between the tactics being pursued at Under-21 and Senior level. There seems to be a dislocation past Minor level. At least in Galway you get some underage success! I suppose I am pessimistic, but I'm not disconsolate. Wexford won the All-Ireland in 1996 and within a decade they were being pounded by all and sundry. It's looking like they are back now. I think these things are cyclical and we'll get back someday.

[seafoid]

A hard week for Waterford hurling. I can live with losing in a slugfest with Limerick last night in the Munster Minor final, and the Seniors also went down fighting to a resurgent Wexford. But the result I fear typifies the medium term future of Waterford hurling was a sickening loss at home last Wednesday to the Cork Under-21's. I had high hopes for that team, a combination of players already blooded at Senior level and All-Ireland Minors, but as soon as they came under any pressure they imploded. Grim times ahead.

A bit surprised at the pessimism deiseach(although I'm worse when it comes to Galway). Still early days for last year's minors and the next couple of years will tell a lot. I think there was only 4 or 5 of them on your u-21 team this year and they'll develop a lot physically in the next 12 months. I'm looking forward to seeing how good Austin Gleeson will get. Sky's the limit for that boy. I reckon I'd hit a better penalty  though.

Great article btw.

Asal did you get a chance to read the thrybune on the tipp match ? They just go into superficial stuff.
And the negativity /nihilism of the fans. No structural analysis which is where the issues are IMO.
No wonder the fans are so negative and they win nathin'. 
It is a vicious circle

[Asal Mor]

Asal did you get a chance to read the thrybune on the tipp match ? They just go into superficial stuff.
And the negativity /nihilism of the fans. No structural analysis which is where the issues are IMO.
No wonder the fans are so negative and they win nathin'. 
It is a vicious circle

I didn't get to read it seafoid. It's hard to be optimistic and I'm not sure what's causing the problem but some Galway fans definitely take a perverse pleasure in being overly negative, and seem to secretly delight in being proven right when we're beaten.

There's two ways to look at this season. One is that we ran Kilkenny close twice and were going well against Tipp until we lost some key players to injury. The other is that we scraped past Laois and got a freak draw against Kilkenny before being annihilated by Tipp once the pressure came on.

Either way, until we find a few more forwards who can win contested possession we'll struggle to beat any of the top counties. Our backs must have felt like they were hurling in a handball alley in the second half against Tipp, the way the ball kept coming back at them.

I sometimes wonder if our style is flawed and maybe we need to look at how the game is coached in Kilkenny and Cork. Our hurling seems to get the job done at the lower levels but at senior championship, where the intensity is greater and the space is much less, we struggle. We should send the minors into Leinster too, to prepare our young lads for how difficult it is to win an All-Ireland at senior.

Very hard to have any (genuine) optimism about it though.

[Asal Mor]

Thank you. We've now lost the opener for each of the last five years at Under-21 level and there is a clear link between the tactics being pursued at Under-21 and Senior level. There seems to be a dislocation past Minor level. At least in Galway you get some underage success! I suppose I am pessimistic, but I'm not disconsolate. Wexford won the All-Ireland in 1996 and within a decade they were being pounded by all and sundry. It's looking like they are back now. I think these things are cyclical and we'll get back someday.

I didn't realise the u-21 record was as bad as that but I still don't think we'll know whether last year's minors will be a special bunch (like Cork u-21 1999, Tipp u-21 '10 or Clare u-21 '13) until next year anyway. They looked pretty special as minor winners in last year's final. I'm guessing that McGrath will be gone now, and that you won't be too upset about it.

[johnneycool]

A hard week for Waterford hurling. I can live with losing in a slugfest with Limerick last night in the Munster Minor final, and the Seniors also went down fighting to a resurgent Wexford. But the result I fear typifies the medium term future of Waterford hurling was a sickening loss at home last Wednesday to the Cork Under-21's. I had high hopes for that team, a combination of players already blooded at Senior level and All-Ireland Minors, but as soon as they came under any pressure they imploded. Grim times ahead.

A bit surprised at the pessimism deiseach(although I'm worse when it comes to Galway). Still early days for last year's minors and the next couple of years will tell a lot. I think there was only 4 or 5 of them on your u-21 team this year and they'll develop a lot physically in the next 12 months. I'm looking forward to seeing how good Austin Gleeson will get. Sky's the limit for that boy. I reckon I'd hit a better penalty  though.

Great article btw.

Thank you. We've now lost the opener for each of the last five years at Under-21 level and there is a clear link between the tactics being pursued at Under-21 and Senior level. There seems to be a dislocation past Minor level. At least in Galway you get some underage success! I suppose I am pessimistic, but I'm not disconsolate. Wexford won the All-Ireland in 1996 and within a decade they were being pounded by all and sundry. It's looking like they are back now. I think these things are cyclical and we'll get back someday.

Last year you were beat by a hairs breadth by Clare after losing a man to a red card, probably the toughest game Clare had all year, so there must have been some hurlers with potential on that team, so I wouldn't be getting overly pessimistic about them although I see a good few are on the senior panel already.

What is the tactical issue you have with the current set up?

[deiseach]

Last year you were beat by a hairs breadth by Clare after losing a man to a red card, probably the toughest game Clare had all year, so there must have been some hurlers with potential on that team, so I wouldn't be getting overly pessimistic about them although I see a good few are on the senior panel already.

What is the tactical issue you have with the current set up?

We did come close against Clare last year which made the implosion against Cork this year, when we had the man advantage, all the more galling. The problem is they are too negative. This bullshit of withdrawing players from the full-forward line . . . there were times when there wasn't a single Waterford player inside the opposition 45. This image from the replay against Cork was typical:

[Asal Mor]

Dublin look very good value at 11/4 or 12/5 Draw No Bet. I'd be worried about Seamus Callanan who's looking like the phenomenal player he always had the talent to be, but Tipp have only beaten Galway and Offaly so 4/11 looks a bit off. 

[AZOffaly]

I was over at them, and while it was promising to be a great occasion, the first game killed all sense of atmosphere. I felt sorry for Wexford because limerick were in the mood to be brutal, and when Wexford missed those early chances they looked like a team that had emptied the tank.

Dublin were poor, and you'd think that is the end of Dalo. Great work he's done there but that had all the hallmarks of the end of a cycle. Tipp weren't good and cork will eat them if they don't improve massively. Their forwards are as tough as kittens fighting for ball, bar maybe Ryan and bonner maher. Dublin on the other hand are all about intensity. When they don't have that, they offer very little. This year they've not had that really.