WATERFORD AND BALLYGUNNER star Dessie Hutchinson says he doesn’t believe that hurling games should be decided by penalties, after his club was defeated by a shootout in last year’s All-Ireland semi-final.
Ballygunner were edged out by eventual All-Ireland champions St Thomas’ after a thrilling battle that couldn’t be determined after extra-time. The Galway champions progressed to the final after winning 4-2 on penalties. Hutchinson missed his effort during the shootout, but he believes replays or a different form of extra-time would be a better solution for drawn games.
“To be honest I don’t think there is any place for the penalty shootout in hurling. The game is too entertaining and fast to bring a game to penalties. For anyone watching that game, it was an unreal spectacle, and there was no reason why the two teams couldn’t have gone out the following weekend and done the exact same thing again.
“That’s just the way it is at the moment but hopefully that rule might change. Because even if it was the other way round, and Thomas’ had lost on penalties, it wouldn’t have been fair. You saw it in Clare last weekend as well, a team going out in a county semi-final on penalties, it doesn’t sit right with a lot of players. I don’t think there’s a player in the country that would say the penalty shootout works, or even a supporter.
“Of course, you have to call it at some stage if draws keep happening but I think there are better ways to do it, overtime like the NFL, or a golden point, things like that. Implementing the real skills of the game.”
Ballygunner remain the dominant club in Waterford after completing a 11-in-a-row with an 18-point victory over Abbeyside in which Hutchinson posted 1-4. That county final was on 1 September, leaving Ballygunner with a two-month wait before their Munster quarter-final against the Limerick champions which will be either Na Piarsaigh or Doon on 3 November.
In the interim, Hutchinson has played in the Waterford senior football championship with Gaultier who bowed out at the semi-final stage last weekend. The Déise star says he loves playing club football and adds that the Ballygunner management permitted the squad to take two weeks off after the county final to give everyone a chance to recharge. But he also thinks tweaks could be made to the hurling championship structure to address the long wait for the start of the provincial competition.
“It’s not ideal at all because you’re trying to manage where you are in terms of being ready for that first game. Other championships aren’t finished and you can’t really play any challenge games. In Waterford, we play hurling first and football second. There was a couple of us in Ballygunner that went straight into a football championship after the hurling. It is hard to manage it and maybe it could be looked at again.
“Down in Wexford, they’ve gone back to two weeks hurling, two weeks football and it hasn’t worked for them. It’s hard to know what way to do it.”
It was another year of frustration for the Waterford hurlers as they failed to emerge from the Munster round-robin once again. A win over Cork gave them a promising start before they were ultimately undone by a draw against Tipperary and a one-point loss to Clare. Davy Fitzgerald subsequently stepped down as manager, bringing his second stint as Waterford boss to an end.
Peter Queally, who was one of Fitzgerald’s selectors, will take charge for 2025.
“Peter knows what it’s like to play for Waterford,” says Hutchinson. “He has done it. He has played and coached with Waterford, and been successful around the club scene for a long time too. He knows the players already, having been in with the panel for two years.
“So it’s not as if it’s a whole new setup where a new manager is in trying to get to know new players. That’s definitely going to help that we’re not starting from rock bottom and trying to build it up. He has Waterford at his heart and that gives players a good confidence boost, to know that he will do anything for us to achieve what we want to achieve.”
Dan Shanahan has been included as part of the new management ticket, along with Tipperary great Eoin Kelly, who was also part of Fitzgerald’s backroom team.
“Tipp fans might not want to hear it but we’re trying to adopt him as one of our own now,” says Hutchinson about Kelly’s impact with Waterford. He adds that he’s looking forward to learning more from Kelly on how to improve his forward game in 2025.
“He’s one of the best hurlers ever to play the game and you love taking bits of knowledge off them and trying to implement them into your game.
“He is a huge motivator. He believes in us and that’s the reason he came down to Waterford. He saw the talent that was there. He has tried to help me big time in terms of becoming a top inter-county forward.
“There are loads of little different things. He might take you on his own for 15 minutes and just get used to hitting the ball into the back of the net in different ways. He just fills you with confidence that you can go out and do it in the heat of battle. Excited to work with him again this year.”
Dessie Hutchinson was speaking at the launch of this year’s AIB Club Championships which for the first season sees a single sponsor unite four codes of Gaelic Games, honouring #TheToughest players.
