DISAPPOINTMENT IS RELATIVE to investment, in my experience.
Supporters will feel upset when their team is eliminated, especially those who are committed, who think and talk about the team during the week, who travel to watch games and spend a lot of money in the process.
When their side loses then it’s tough to take, even more so if they’ve had a lot of knocks over previous years. You’d want to be one hard-hearted individual not to feel sorry for Waterford supporters, whose summer is over before it began.
Though probably because of my own background I’d feel most sympathy for the players and management. Trust me, no one is more at a loss to articulate the depth of frustration in Waterford than the people in that group.
You often hear that players and coaches “give up their lives” to be involved in a county panel. I’m not so keen on this term, or “sacrifice”. It makes it all sound a bit involuntary.
Austin Gleeson watches on during the closing stages of Clare's win against Waterford. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
We make playing or coaching at the top level the focus of our lives, as a result nearly everything else is slotted in around our cause: eating, sleeping, travelling, work, relationships, attendance at family events, holidays. It’s a necessarily selfish pursuit, with most of the sacrifices being made by others.
We do it for many reasons, but I think most of all it’s to test ourselves against the best people and teams in our passion. It’s that sense of shared purpose with our teammates, the deep friendship that comes with pushing each other to our limits in pursuit of a common goal.
When it works, when you get your hands on a trophy or even have a big win against a serious opponent, then there’s nothing quite like it. In those moments your life has profound meaning. You’re doing what you love, investing everything of yourself in the purpose, and the stakes are raised exponentially as you see all around you do the same, so success is magnified. It brings an unreal sense of contentment, albeit fleeting because the next game is never too far off.
A sense of failure in defeat is exaggerated too. You’re at a loss to comprehend why it didn’t work out. One of the first truisms we hear as kids is that you get out of something what you put in. So when you give pretty much everything of yourself, while all around you do the same, and then you lose . . . well, it’s an almighty headwreck.
Sport is different to many other aspects of life in that it’s a zero sum game. You can’t have a winner without someone else losing. Tough and all as work can be, it’s not so cutthroat. We could have the best teacher in Ireland in our staffroom, but that doesn’t make the rest of us losers. With the right application we can all do well.
Any number of companies can have success in a given industry, whereas in sport it’s a perpetual famine. There’s a strictly limited amount of silverware and only one team ultimately wins.
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Whether that means everyone else is a failure depends on your outlook. Giannis Antetokounmpo recently made a compelling argument to the contrary, but in those few days after a big defeat you certainly feel a sense of failure.
I had this in 2016, when Cork lost badly to Tipp, before Wexford dumped us out of the championship. Wexford were decent then but not the force they became under Davy Fitzgerald.
One evening the following winter a friend in Kanturk asked myself and Alan Cadogan to come down and open his bike shop.
Aidan Walsh after Cork's loss to Wexford in 2016. Ryan Byrne / INPHO
Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
I told him we weren’t a big draw given what had happened. This was borne out by the crowd that came along to meet us. Five or six people turned up, one of whom did so to give out. Think Giroud and the AC Milan boys getting a grilling from the ultras last weekend, only in a rural Irish setting in bleak midwinter, surrounded by carbon fibre and lycra instead of flags and flare smoke.
The human spirit will help you out in the end. Once you’ve processed the disappointment you’re able to reset to the next challenge, the next game, the next season.
Waterford and Davy will get to the point, even if it takes a little more time to unravel what’s gone wrong in 2023. Finding that out is more difficult and you’d think. Pat Gilroy gave a fascinating interview to Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning on the Free State podcast. In it he details trying to get to the bottom of Kerry’s routing of Dublin in 2009, Gilroy’s first year in charge.
He thought obsessively about the 17-point defeat and spoke to 10 sports psychologists before settling on someone he thought could help him to help the Dublin team get to the right mental place to fulfil their potential.
Pat Gilroy's Dublin side were hammered by Kerry in 2009. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
With that said it feels glib to offer solutions to Waterford’s problem here because the truth is I don’t know. Many other teams will find themselves in the same situation as them over the coming weeks and if any of us could pinpoint exactly what went wrong and propose the winning solution then we’d be in ceaseless demand as sporting consultants, charging whatever price we like.
That said, we have to try. As an outsider my view of Waterford is of a hurling county of flair and daring. It’s in their nature to want to play an exciting brand of the game. That doesn’t mean they ought to eschew a systematic approach – which would be madness in the current game.
The system, though, should harness the talent and character of the players. With Waterford this year, it has appeared that the players are being deployed to the plan, rather than the plan being drawn with them in mind.
Little things like Calum Lyons appearing at centre-back, when he’s a considerable attacking threat at wing-back. Dessie Hutchinson stationed out the field away from where he can inflict a lot of pain on defences. The overall defensive nature of the system, which does not serve their attacking threats such as Hutchinson, Mikey Kiely and Patrick Fitzgerald.
Criticism of Davy’s management by Ken McGrath has to be taken seriously because of his exploits as a player, his intelligence and feeling for Waterford hurling. Is Davy missing a trick by not having more of a Waterford flavour to his management team? Peter Queally is involved, but otherwise the balance is in favour of those from outside the county. It’s not a question of them having to go, but perhaps adding someone of McGrath’s stature would bring a bit more buy-in from the wider constituency. Though not the man himself probably – what’s been said can’t now be unsaid!
The overall sense of Waterford is they’re over-complicating matters. All through the league they were playing a certain way with, it seemed, Limerick in mind. Davy has spoken before about recognising areas that could be exploited here.
My feelings are contradictory on this. I don’t think Waterford need a revolutionary game plan to take on anybody. They have the skills, power and speed to go toe-to-toe with opponents.
But, then, the preparation for Limerick almost worked. They had the All-Ireland champions where they wanted them last month. But for inaccurate shooting, particularly late on, their season takes on a different complexion.
From there it has unravelled. This can happen. When you have built up psychologically to a certain point and then it slips away, something is lost – a focus, a shared belief – and it’s hard to get back.
An even more stark example from this year is Kildare, who led Offaly at half-time in the Division 2A final on 2 April. They went on to lose the game by three points. Since then they’ve lost all of their Joe McDonagh Cup games and have been relegated to the Christy Ring Cup for 2024. So you have a team that was 35 minutes away from competing with teams like Limerick, Kilkenny and Cork next season to contemplating life in the third tier, in championship at least. Tough to deal with.
Something Gary Neville said has stuck with me as a means of dealing with triumph and disaster. Alex Ferguson, sensing his pre-match nerves, asked him what he’d do if United beat Liverpool that day. He’d go home and have a Chinese takeaway. It turned out he’d do the same if they drew or lost.
“It doesn’t really matter then, does it?” said Ferguson. “What’s the point in getting worried? You’re still going to go home to your family and have a Chinese.”
Win, lose or draw, you’re still the same person. Waterford will be back to have another cut at winning an All-Ireland next year. Kildare will try again to get promoted to Division 1.
Sport may be a ruthless master but it at least gives you more chances, a new day with the score back at 0-0.
Cork won Munster in 2017. Dublin won the All-Ireland in 2011 – and quite a few since. Success is fleeting, so too is defeat.
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Anthony Nash: Sport is a losing game. I know all too well how Waterford's players feel now
DISAPPOINTMENT IS RELATIVE to investment, in my experience.
Supporters will feel upset when their team is eliminated, especially those who are committed, who think and talk about the team during the week, who travel to watch games and spend a lot of money in the process.
When their side loses then it’s tough to take, even more so if they’ve had a lot of knocks over previous years. You’d want to be one hard-hearted individual not to feel sorry for Waterford supporters, whose summer is over before it began.
Though probably because of my own background I’d feel most sympathy for the players and management. Trust me, no one is more at a loss to articulate the depth of frustration in Waterford than the people in that group.
You often hear that players and coaches “give up their lives” to be involved in a county panel. I’m not so keen on this term, or “sacrifice”. It makes it all sound a bit involuntary.
We make playing or coaching at the top level the focus of our lives, as a result nearly everything else is slotted in around our cause: eating, sleeping, travelling, work, relationships, attendance at family events, holidays. It’s a necessarily selfish pursuit, with most of the sacrifices being made by others.
We do it for many reasons, but I think most of all it’s to test ourselves against the best people and teams in our passion. It’s that sense of shared purpose with our teammates, the deep friendship that comes with pushing each other to our limits in pursuit of a common goal.
When it works, when you get your hands on a trophy or even have a big win against a serious opponent, then there’s nothing quite like it. In those moments your life has profound meaning. You’re doing what you love, investing everything of yourself in the purpose, and the stakes are raised exponentially as you see all around you do the same, so success is magnified. It brings an unreal sense of contentment, albeit fleeting because the next game is never too far off.
A sense of failure in defeat is exaggerated too. You’re at a loss to comprehend why it didn’t work out. One of the first truisms we hear as kids is that you get out of something what you put in. So when you give pretty much everything of yourself, while all around you do the same, and then you lose . . . well, it’s an almighty headwreck.
Sport is different to many other aspects of life in that it’s a zero sum game. You can’t have a winner without someone else losing. Tough and all as work can be, it’s not so cutthroat. We could have the best teacher in Ireland in our staffroom, but that doesn’t make the rest of us losers. With the right application we can all do well.
Any number of companies can have success in a given industry, whereas in sport it’s a perpetual famine. There’s a strictly limited amount of silverware and only one team ultimately wins.
Whether that means everyone else is a failure depends on your outlook. Giannis Antetokounmpo recently made a compelling argument to the contrary, but in those few days after a big defeat you certainly feel a sense of failure.
I had this in 2016, when Cork lost badly to Tipp, before Wexford dumped us out of the championship. Wexford were decent then but not the force they became under Davy Fitzgerald.
One evening the following winter a friend in Kanturk asked myself and Alan Cadogan to come down and open his bike shop.
I told him we weren’t a big draw given what had happened. This was borne out by the crowd that came along to meet us. Five or six people turned up, one of whom did so to give out. Think Giroud and the AC Milan boys getting a grilling from the ultras last weekend, only in a rural Irish setting in bleak midwinter, surrounded by carbon fibre and lycra instead of flags and flare smoke.
The human spirit will help you out in the end. Once you’ve processed the disappointment you’re able to reset to the next challenge, the next game, the next season.
Waterford and Davy will get to the point, even if it takes a little more time to unravel what’s gone wrong in 2023. Finding that out is more difficult and you’d think. Pat Gilroy gave a fascinating interview to Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning on the Free State podcast. In it he details trying to get to the bottom of Kerry’s routing of Dublin in 2009, Gilroy’s first year in charge.
He thought obsessively about the 17-point defeat and spoke to 10 sports psychologists before settling on someone he thought could help him to help the Dublin team get to the right mental place to fulfil their potential.
With that said it feels glib to offer solutions to Waterford’s problem here because the truth is I don’t know. Many other teams will find themselves in the same situation as them over the coming weeks and if any of us could pinpoint exactly what went wrong and propose the winning solution then we’d be in ceaseless demand as sporting consultants, charging whatever price we like.
That said, we have to try. As an outsider my view of Waterford is of a hurling county of flair and daring. It’s in their nature to want to play an exciting brand of the game. That doesn’t mean they ought to eschew a systematic approach – which would be madness in the current game.
The system, though, should harness the talent and character of the players. With Waterford this year, it has appeared that the players are being deployed to the plan, rather than the plan being drawn with them in mind.
Little things like Calum Lyons appearing at centre-back, when he’s a considerable attacking threat at wing-back. Dessie Hutchinson stationed out the field away from where he can inflict a lot of pain on defences. The overall defensive nature of the system, which does not serve their attacking threats such as Hutchinson, Mikey Kiely and Patrick Fitzgerald.
Criticism of Davy’s management by Ken McGrath has to be taken seriously because of his exploits as a player, his intelligence and feeling for Waterford hurling. Is Davy missing a trick by not having more of a Waterford flavour to his management team? Peter Queally is involved, but otherwise the balance is in favour of those from outside the county. It’s not a question of them having to go, but perhaps adding someone of McGrath’s stature would bring a bit more buy-in from the wider constituency. Though not the man himself probably – what’s been said can’t now be unsaid!
The overall sense of Waterford is they’re over-complicating matters. All through the league they were playing a certain way with, it seemed, Limerick in mind. Davy has spoken before about recognising areas that could be exploited here.
My feelings are contradictory on this. I don’t think Waterford need a revolutionary game plan to take on anybody. They have the skills, power and speed to go toe-to-toe with opponents.
But, then, the preparation for Limerick almost worked. They had the All-Ireland champions where they wanted them last month. But for inaccurate shooting, particularly late on, their season takes on a different complexion.
From there it has unravelled. This can happen. When you have built up psychologically to a certain point and then it slips away, something is lost – a focus, a shared belief – and it’s hard to get back.
An even more stark example from this year is Kildare, who led Offaly at half-time in the Division 2A final on 2 April. They went on to lose the game by three points. Since then they’ve lost all of their Joe McDonagh Cup games and have been relegated to the Christy Ring Cup for 2024. So you have a team that was 35 minutes away from competing with teams like Limerick, Kilkenny and Cork next season to contemplating life in the third tier, in championship at least. Tough to deal with.
Something Gary Neville said has stuck with me as a means of dealing with triumph and disaster. Alex Ferguson, sensing his pre-match nerves, asked him what he’d do if United beat Liverpool that day. He’d go home and have a Chinese takeaway. It turned out he’d do the same if they drew or lost.
“It doesn’t really matter then, does it?” said Ferguson. “What’s the point in getting worried? You’re still going to go home to your family and have a Chinese.”
Win, lose or draw, you’re still the same person. Waterford will be back to have another cut at winning an All-Ireland next year. Kildare will try again to get promoted to Division 1.
Sport may be a ruthless master but it at least gives you more chances, a new day with the score back at 0-0.
Cork won Munster in 2017. Dublin won the All-Ireland in 2011 – and quite a few since. Success is fleeting, so too is defeat.
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munster hurling championship Slings and Arrows Waterford