A DAY OF conflicting emotions for Waterford boss Derek McGrath.
There was obvious pride and satisfaction at seeing his players deliver a supreme performance in Croke Park.
And yet some frustration as well that it did not carry them into the winners enclosure to deliver a famous All-Ireland semi-final victory over Kilkenny.
“It’s a mixture of emotions. I think we should congratulate our lads for the nature of the performance. It was heroic. It was epic. They gave everything inside their soul.
“Anytime you have that, there’s a level of congratulations that is merited. There’s obviously a small tinge of disappointment based on being in the position to win the game.
“So I don’t believe in hiding disappointment for the sake of psychological advantages that will be gained the next day. I think we’re disappointed we didn’t close it out.
“But we’re not portraying any bad body language by doing that in my opinion. We feel we’ve a different Waterford team that’s able to recover.
“The general consensus will be that Kilkenny don’t lose replays, that you don’t get a second chance. So we’ll be coming in as much under the radar as we did today.”
McGrath explained why he felt beforehand that his team were perfectly positioned to triumph.
“I just felt it was an ideal scenario in terms of the preparation. I felt the 10 point victory almost kind of was dismissed as a non-event if you like.
“I thought that was harsh on Wexford, and I thought it was an ideal scenario for us coming into the game. It was Croke Park and we could have right cut. but yet be clever as well at times.
“I thought everything was set up and I thought our preparation was excellent. We came up to Carton House yesterday and just got together as a group. Even though in 2008 Waterford went up the night before it was labelled as a mistake.
“We just felt the young group, myself included, on Saturday when you’re together you’re less nervous. You’re kind of together as a group and I thought that worked well. We put everything into it.
“So, yeah, I think that’s the probably hard part to take. To replicate that and simulate that again.”
Waterford caused Kilkenny serious difficulties by playing with a more attack-minded approach but they retreated notably in the closing stages.
“That’s a fair point. We stepped up, but we came back. That’s what we were trying to do all day and I think there was a little bit of fatigue crept in there with 63 or 64 minutes gone.
“So you’re balancing key players being fatigued against that key part of the game where you need those fellas. We had a few really key players that were firing and were doing well.
“And I think that was the reason we didn’t make the sub between the 66th and 75th minute. I think there came a stage where we were clinging to it that you could probably label the fact that we retreated too early, if you like.
“But it’s very hard to control the match day. Especially when you’re on the cusp of 60 years of hurt being evaporated.”
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What system?
@Brian Treacy: Hoof the ball up the field and hope for the best.
@Deviléire: And then panic and take off your midfield when it’s going wrong
Where do you start?
1. Reduce prices for coaches to obtain UEFA coaching badges in order to increase our “quality” coaches per capita number.
Likelihood: FAI have the prices so high so they make more money. Coaching costs more expensive here compared to other nations.
2. This player development plan, do we know if we have it fully in place?
Likelihood: FAI have real divide worj shooks stakeholders and seem to be doing nothing about it.
3. Use international friendlies to cap young players and play a whole new creative and attacking style of play (e.g. field an U25 team)
Likelihood: Capping promising LOI players would help exposure of suffering LOI but FAI dont care.
4. Realise that we have a domestic league that needs serious resourcing and funding.
Likelihood: “Problem Child”
Raise points about failures .
Likelihood : Peter nagle is an idiot with prepackaged answers on who is to blame & why.
We are a defensive team. We cannot play a passing game because when we do we get exposed. Denmark’s second goal was a perfect example. A good passing move then we lose the ball in a bad position, bang game over. The grumpy old men on RTE think we are a little Brazil. Getting sick of their spoof.
@prop joe: but we can be a passing team if we pass the ball. How in the name of Jesus are people missing this point? We have Premiership midfielders horsing the ball everywhere and anywhere. Are you trying to say that Denmark are that more technically gifted than us? The answer is is they are not. Not at all. The negativity of our ‘gameplan’ is an absolute disgrace. We gave Georgia 70% possession after going one nil up.
@prop joe: kinda need to press to win the ball back so then you can pass.
How about bouncing on Martin?
Qualifying for major tournaments is obviously a major feat but if we have to play the way we play in order to have a sniff of qualifying and then don’t, then I’d prefer we at least try and play ball for the next campaign and if we don’t qualify at least we tried it. I don’t expect we play like Brazil away, but I also don’t expect we play like Gibraltar at home.
@Shane Doherty: nice one Dad
Really need to get a few younger players into the squad, other than O Dowda, there was no one in the squad under 25. I reckon it’ll be the last campaign for a good few of the players, O Shea, Whelan, Hoolahan, Murphy and probably Walters will definitely be thinking of calling it quits at this stage
@COYBIG: the u21s look good
@Jordo: time to get a few of those 21s in and get rid of the back passer brigade. Rice Hourihane and Shaughnessy are better than what’s playing. They actually have a brain. I’d rather we got beaten trying to play than at the crap we are at. We’re a laughing stock
This team isnt for anyone who follows football because this isnt real football or anything that even resembles it.Christ the COYBIG and Irish fan culture is a bit of a cult. I dont know if these lads even follow football. We always fall back on ” the best fans in the world ” tag when we get spanked. The Irish will always be great fans. But the acceptance of this utter rubbish football is becoming a farce. It doesnt have to be this bad- no way. We know we dont have talented players but we have some good ones and everyone of them have a great attitude. Under Mick McCarthy and at various times under other managers we have played football with great results. But i have no idea what this ” hot potato football ” is??The players and the Irish football fan deserves better.
System? Pass it to the other team or hood if out of touch
Sick of Ireland getting manky groups though.. England etc always getting relatively piss easy ones.. I know they’re tier one, but it’s annoying when you see teams like Japan constantly in the cup
@Acedeuce: Japan are a lot better than us
It would appear that neither the author or any of the people commenting actually watched the match. When we tried to pass the ball we gave it away quickly. This directly led to their second goal. We play the way we do because we are not good at playing the way you all seem to want us to play.
It’s actually quite a conundrum. Overall, the quality of the players is average to poor, so out skilling and opponents is going to be unlikely, particularly against better teams. O Neil, for the most part as to combat this, has opted for high levels of concentration, tactical rigidity, a strong work ethic and as compact a system as possible. Last night however he compromised (pressure to win and be seen to be more adventurous perhaps..?) and opted for a less compact system, which ultimately greatly weakened the team. Due to what was at stake, I can’t help but speculate and suggest that the reaction would have been the same regardless of whether; we had lost 0-1 to a fluke, had lost on penalties following a nil all draw, or, as what happened, we were trashed 1-5.