He’s not on county panel is he ?
He was on the extended panel for a couple of years under Cahill I think. His first two years in the role.
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I think he was there for one of Cahill’s years maybe 2021 but think he stepped away after a season to concentrate on his more illustrious club career.
Leavy played a bit for Waterford in the season just gone.
Jumping to conclusions maybe it’s not the case but it’s hard to respect some of the decisions the Ballygunner lads made regarding Waterford SH team, optics don’t look great.
Thing is then I think a lot of their players are between a club and inter county player In terms of ability I would say.
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That’s my own feeling on it too. They’re happy to be big fish in a small pond. When Ballyhale were winning club All Irelands, they were backboning Kilkenny All Ireland winning teams year in year out too.
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Yeah the Ballyhale lads were just unreal altogether no comparison
Ballyhale are the only club team who’ve been able to do that.
Ballygunner are probably right to put all their eggs in the club basket. I dont think they’d have been as consistent if they didn’t.
Since Limerick started winning Senior Inter County All Ireland’s, they’ve beaten their Club Champions by a cumulative total of 37 points across 5 games.
Come again.
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They don’t have a serious club game until November every year. They could be a bit more involved in the inter-county set up with most of the heavy lifting now done in April and May and the All Ireland Final played off my mid July.
If Pauric Mahony, Philip Mahony, Soky, Coughlan and Ian Kenny were still busting themselves with Waterford from January to June i don’t think they’d be as good for Ballygunner in November.
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They’re not right and you know it really. They’d of won the counties anyway. It’s lads own lives obviously and they’re ‘ entitled to make their own decision but just no coincidence they all dropped off. There’s a touch of arrogance with that. .
I think if we win feck all and Nap players started dropping off panel Caseyx2’ & WOD you’d be seriously questioning them & the club.
Look it’s probably all the one anyway Waterford won’t be good until Muont Sion start churning out hurlers again for them.
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If Waterford were successful are you suggesting they wouldn’t be hurling with the County?
If you put yourself in their shoes it’s a no brainer.
Ballygunner and other elite Club teams is a full time commitment from June onwards.
You see it all over the country.
Kieran Fitzgerald played nearly 90 minutes in an All Ireland Club Final at 40 years of age. He retired from Galway at 30.
Conor Laverty played 90 minutes in a Club Final too at 37. Retired from Down at 31.
Aaron Kernan gone from Armagh at 30. Got another 10 years with Crossmaglen.
Playing on with the County until you are 33/34 generally means you are done within a year or so at Club Level too but if you go at 30/31 theres a fair chance you could give 7-10 good years back to the Club.
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Ballygunner just seems to churn out a conveyor belt of samey club players who contribute very little and are not game changers for the County team.
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Nearly all your examples come from counties who aren’t too successful at inter county gaa.
That tells me there’s too many games and players probably have to make a choice between one or the other which is a pity.
Its anazing to see how Na Piarsaigh have gone backwards since Limerick started winning. Luckily for them they have their Munster Clubs and All Ireland. The one year they looked very good was the Covid year when Club came first.
Ballymun Kickhams were the same.
Its virtually impossible to do the two now.
Has the coaching/management at inter county level anything got to do with that. Truth be told , Waterford at inter county level have been a shambles since and including the last year of Justin McCarthys time at the helm
That’s a bit melodramatic. It was early in the 2008 season when Justin McCarthy. Waterford have made 9 All Ireland semi finals out of 16 since then. I reckon only Kilkenny and possibly Tipperary have featured in more.
Waterford for good chunks of that time have probably punched above their weight considering the haplessness of the County Board who never seem to be able to rub two shillings together to finance a county team, a few complete dud managerial appointments and more latterly the mini blitz format which militates against counties with smaller playing demographic.
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Austin might have have no county medal but he’s worth 5 Ballygunner lads & will be remembered.
Since 1998, when Waterford made their breakthrough in the modern era, I’d say Paul Flynn is the only Ballygunnar player who will be fondly remembered and may be in the conversation for top 5 Waterford players in that timeframe. That says a lot for all their dominance of the club scene
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