2 major major f*ck ups by the head man on AFR. There was an article posted on a topic about justin mac by a fella called fallon. there was always talk on PV that fallon and cormac are alter aliases of AFR himself and this confirms it. Have a look at the email address at the end of this article that fallon posted. the thread has since been deleted.
Leinster GAA News
http://www.gaa.ie/leinster
Last night`s Justin McCarthy statement in full
Friday June 06 2008
"Today I informed the Chairman of Waterford County Board that I intend to step down as manager of the Waterford Senior Hurling team.
"I made the decision as I feel I no longer have the full support of all the players on the team.
"I would like to thank the County Board for their cooperation, and for the support they have always given me, and I wish the players and the new management team every success in the future.
"I also want to thank the select ors and backroom team, and the great loyal supporters who have followed Waterford through thick and thin.
"Over the last seven years Waterford has enjoyed unprecedented success on the hurling field and I am privileged to have been involved with such a great team.
"I regret that my decision to step down has come in the middle of the championship season, however I feel it is the best course of action for everybody involved.
āI will be making no further comment at this time.ā
Justin McCarthy
Justin`s Dise reign over
http://www.irishexaminer.com/irishexaminā¦4432-qqqx=1.asp
By Michael Moynihan and John Murphy
JUSTIN McCARTHY resigned dramatically last night following a request from his players that he step down as Waterford senior hurling manager.
In a brief statement issued late yesterday evening McCarthy said he had made the decision as he felt he āno longer had the full support of all the players on the teamā.
In his statement McCarthy thanked the Waterford County Board for their support but said his position had become untenable following a lengthy meeting of the Waterford senior panel on Wednesday night.
The team had informed the county board yesterday they would be withdrawing from inter-county activity, training sessions or matches while manager Justin McCarthy remained at the helm, and with a training session scheduled for this evening, matters came to a head swiftly, with McCarthy informing the board of his intention to resign yesterday evening.
The players met again last night, following the county`s U21 hurling defeat to Limerick in Walsh Park, to review their position, while an emergency meeting of the Waterford County Board exc utive was also held yesterday evening.
Following their disappointing loss to Clare last Sunday in the Munster SHC, the Waterford players were told by text to attend a training session in Tramore on Wednesday, but when they arrived a meeting was convened with almost the full panel in attendance, including the U21s due to play last night.
Several players are understood to have expressed their dissatisfaction with McCarthy`s man-management skills at the meeting, and those present decided to approach the manager and ask for his resignation the following day. It was also decided not to participate in training until the situation had been resolved.
The meeting on Wednesday night, which began at 7pm in the Majestic Hotel in Tramore, ran on until well past midnight as players expressed their unhappiness with the management regime, with fringe players on the panel in particular expressing their frustration at their lack of involvement.
The recent player meetings have brought tensions between McCarthy and the panel into the open. Supporters in the Gaelic Grounds saw star forward Dan Shanahan avoid shaking hands with the manager when he was substituted with 10 minutes left, but the problems go back further.
It is understood that Shanahan sought some time off earlier in the season, before the beginning of the National Hurling League, but that management insisted hat he attended all practice games and training sessions.
More recently, on Waterford`s recent training trip to Portugal, the team asked management to consider a list of suggestions regarding equipment and training - āsmall stuffā, in the words of one player - but McCarthy did not accept that his methods needed to be changed.
āAll of this has been gathering momentum for a long time,ā another member of the panel said yesterday. āIn Portugal, we were asked to express in writing our views on all aspects of the set-up within the camp and many of the players availed of that opportunity to express their opposition to Justin McCarthy`s management.ā
It is difficult to see who Waterford GAA officials will be able to appoint to replace McCarthy in the middle of the season, and with most likely candidates either managing teams already or tied down with media work, a replacement for McCarthy will probably have to wait until next year, with current select ors Seamie Hannon and Nicky Cashin likely to take up the reins on a caretaker basis for the rest of 2008.
The name of former Clare goalkeeper Davy Fitzgerald was raised a possible successor at the players` meeting on Wednesday night.
Fitzgerald is universally respected in the game as an outstanding coach, having enjoyed notable success with Limerick IT in the Fitzgibbon Cup. McCarthy took over as Waterford hurling manager in the Dise seven years ago and ended a 39-year famine by winning a first Munster championship in 2002.
He won two more provincial titles, in 2004 and he led Waterford to a first National League title in 43 years in 2006.
Laying the blame or playing the game?
http://www.irishexaminer.com/irishexaminā¦4433-qqqx=1.asp
By Michael Moynihan
UNREST in the southeast. Stormy times in the Dise. The Gentle County, gentle no longer.
However you want to describe it, the Waterford hurlers sudden putsch against manager Justin McCarthy has surprised observers not so much in its substance as in its timing. Theres been some muttering about unrest in the Dise camp for some time. you could say the same about every team in Ireland, but this is different.
In an era of short managerial reigns, McCarthy has been at the helm in Waterford for seven years. in an era of abbreviated inter-county playing careers, that`s a lifetime.
The glass-half-full account of his time in charge shows plenty to smile about. McCarthy has been the most successful Waterford manager of all time, leading the county to three Munster championships and a first national title in 43 years with the NHL win last year.
On the other hand, the manager made mistakes along the way: giving Ian ORegan an All-Ireland semi-final debut as goalkeeper against Kilkenny back in 2004 looks a rash decision in hindsight, as was cutting players such as Brian Wall and James Murray adrift from a shallow enough pool of talent. A modern full-back was never discovered either, and the team suffered in last years All-Ireland semi-final against Limerick as a result.
Finally, theres a general consensus that McCarthys man-management skills were a distant second to his coaching ability, and the uprising by his players certainly seemed to bear that out. By any reckoning, his position last night was untenable either way.
EXHIBIT A in the case against the manager seems to be the display of Waterford last Sunday at the Gaelic Grounds against Clare, when the team in white and blue managed all of five points if you remove the combined contributions of Dave Bennett and John Mullane.
However, perhaps the prosecution team should look on that performance as a hostile witness. Losing to Clare by nine points and not scoring a goal isnt indictable all by itself. in a game of hurling a couple of late goals can always give the scoreboard a lopsided look that doesnt truly reflect the 70 minutes just gone.
What was far more significant was the attitude and display of many players, which was far below the level required for the Munster senior hurling championship.
In an informal chat some time ago an inter-county hurler of this column`s acquaintance remarked that the first few minutes of a Munster championship game was savagery: you were going to cut the head off your man for the first few balls that came in, he said calmly, and you knew that the man in the next dressing-room was going onto the field with the same intention.
Some of the Waterford players who lined out last Sunday didn`t bring the minimum standard of savagery to the table , to put it bluntly, and they suffered accordingly.
To put it even more bluntly, they gave up. That was the opinion of their best player on the day, John Mullane, directly afterwards.
"As defending champions,`` he said, āwe threw in the towel awful early, and for me that`s what hurts most. Our loyal supporters deserve better.ā
Seeking the head of their manager is an implicit transfer of blame by the players to the man on the sideline, a harsh move in the context of a pallid display which ended with a nine-point defeat. Granted they were without three All-Star teammates - Ken McGrath, Eoin Kelly and Eoin Murphy - but a collapse like last Sundays was depressing for its lack of spirit. By moving decisively against their manager the Waterford players - those who lined out last Sunday in particular - have signalled that theres more in them. They have the rest of the summer to show exactly how much.
michael.moynihan@examiner.ie
How did it come to this?
By Cliona Foley
http://www.independent.ie/sport/hurling/how-did-it-come-to-this-1399553.html
Friday June 06 2008
HOW has it come to this?
That was the question that crestfallen Waterford hurling fans asked yesterday when word filtered through of an apparent heave by their players against county manager Justin McCarthy.
When word got out that the players had organised their own training session on Wednesday __ meeting at 6.45pm in Tramore for a run on the local sand dunes __ and held a private meeting in the Majestic Hotel afterwards, it was clear that the fallout from Sunday`s Munster championship loss to Clare could be seismic.
There are two conflicting versions of what happened.
One is that it was a straight Get Justin Out mutiny and that their feelings were then conveyed to the county chairman.
The second is that they gathered their thoughts and submitted a set of requests to the county board afterwards, which asked for changes to their training programme and the way that McCarthy communicates with them.
Rumours
The upshot was a hastily convened meeting of the county exc utive at Walsh Park last night, immediately after a Munster U-21 championship match against Limerick, amid rumours that McCarthy would not countenance such a challenge to his authority and would resign.
All season, there have been rumblings of discontent from the Waterford camp and when Dan Shanahan, the countrys hurling marquee player last summer and the Player of the Year` swerved to shun the comforting hand of his manager after he substituted him last Sunday, it was obvious things had turned very sour.
What makes the rift so unusual is that the players were turning on a man who has helped to make superstars of many of them by bringing them to the last two All-Ireland semi-finals.
And given that this is a team which most of the rest of the country has taken warmly to its heart, this very public difference of opinion between players and manager has left many puzzled.
Outsiders will wonder how things have deteriorated so quickly for a team whom McCarthy has led to three Munster titles since 2002 and a National League title last year.
Having come so close to glory __ only Cork super-sub Cathal Naughton stood between them and the 2006 All-Ireland final - questions are being asked as to how one loss could so sunder a team who have become household names.
And the great fear for Waterford fans, player and management alike is that this ugly turn of events will forever tarnish their achievements.
But the legacy of those recent successes appears to be exactly why Sunday`s capitulation was so painful and prompted such an extreme player reaction.
Insiders say the rift was on the cards all season and that defeat by the Banner only brought it to a head.
Rumours of discontent have surrounded their camp all year, despite the fact that they were only ousted from the knockout stages of the league after being pipped by Cork in a playoff.
They werent helped by a disastrous casualty list during the NHL and injuries didnt help last week either as they were without Ken McGrath, possibly the most influential centre-back in the modern game, whose presence makes the Decies tick.
They were also without Eoin Kelly and on the eve of the game there was media speculation that he had been left off the panel, though the management maintained he had an injured hand.
There were also rumours that Seamus Prendergast was carrying a serious shoulder injury and should not have been played.
Training methods this year appear to be at the heart of the player discontent.
It is believed McCarthy, working with an ageing squad, has deliberately cut back on the heavy physical training this year to spare them but some of his players feel this is the wrong option.
They want to do more training not less and this is believed to be one of their big criticisms.
They are also believed to have been critical of McCarthy`s communication skills.
A former Cork star with a very analytical, detached attitude to the game, McCarthy`s austere personality has not helped when things have gone wrong.
He is a man of few and straight words and his understated reaction to last Sunday`s defeat __ allegedly to simply tell the players he would meet them for training again tonight __ upset many of them who were already critical of his communication.
These things, combined with a 12-point trimming by Clare, have brought Waterford hurling to a sudden crisis and yet the players themselves must feel some responsibility.
Resolutely
McCarthy has stood by them through thick and thin and been resolutely loyal and supportive when they have previously gone awry. While there are those who feel that a seventh year is too much to spend with any team, he still got great performances from them last year when they beat Cork not once but three times and made the last four.
After scoring eight points from play last week John Mullane, one of their few players to shine, spoke for many of their fans when he openly criticised his own teammates for throwing in the towel.
It is not known if they addressed this problem on Wednesday night but they surely most have faced their own culpability.
The immediate reaction of some TV analysts was to hint that their capitulation to Clare was a deliberate ploy to have an easier route to an All-Ireland semi-final.
That, ironically, may yet be the case. They next face the losers of Galway/Antrim in the second round of the hurling Qualifiers on July 5.
But the players` extreme reaction this week rubbishes the notion that this was their intent, and the speculation emanating from the not-so-sunny south-east last night proved correct as McCarthy called time in the middle of the hurling season.
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There was also a thread started about the death of PV. Link above. The tool got .com and .ie mixed up!