They did a great job on it.
Pitch and all is top drawer. Probably my favourite hurling venue at the moment
4 Likes
Not a bad seat in it.
1 Like
The North Stand is the place for me. Loved it as the Uncovered too
1 Like
Stop lying
A happy hunting ground.
Davy Fitzgeraldâs back . . . and heâs reworking minds and bodies at Waterford
Sunday February 05 2023, 12.01am GMT, The Sunday Times
The Monday after the Waterford hurlers had been taken to the cleaners by Clare in the Munster championship in June 2008 they gathered at the Majestic Hotel in Tramore. It felt in those days like everything was on the line. In the previous six seasons they had broken their endless famine with two Munster titles and made four All-Ireland semi-finals. But the years were dragging on. The joyous abandon unleashed in them by Justin McCarthyâs ethos and attitude to hurling was being replaced by disgruntlement.
The players were afraid of being left behind. Together, they demanded change. That night, only seven players voted against seeking McCarthyâs removal as manager. He was gone before the week was out. The following weekend, the day before Davy Fitzgerald made his first appearance on the Sunday Game as a pundit, the Waterford chairman, Pat Flynn, called him to ask about becoming Waterford manager.
The rumour was in full flight by Sunday when Pat Spillane asked Fitzgerald the question. âI have nothing to say about that,â he said.
âWe all saw Davy on the Sunday Game,â Dan Shanahan said in his autobiography. âAnd though he foxed a bit, you could tell he was interested. Even the look on his face gave him away.â
As Fitzgeraldâs second spell with Waterford begins to take shape this weekend, without the same electricity his appointment generated in 2008, it is difficult to grasp the scale of that shock. The players had expected maybe Donal OâGrady or Nicky English to replace McCarthy. Some mentioned John McIntyre, Liam Griffin and Anthony Daly.
ADVERTISEMENT
Even if another lifetime as a coach was already firmly pre-ordained, his own playing career with Clare had scarcely finished that spring. The Waterford team was still governed by the warriors against whom Fitzgerald had waged running battles for a decade. The night of his first training session, Fitzgerald paused outside Walsh Park, the scale of what he was undertaking overtook him. âI could have thrown up on the footpath,â he said in his most recent autobiography.
âThe first thing that struck me was the tensions on both sides,â said Peter Queally in 2008, one of Fitzgeraldâs selectors back then and again this time round. âDavy was a bit nervous . . . the players were bit apprehensive. They had more or less been vilified in public and the media for the action they had taken. It not alone affected them but it affected their families. I know from talking to different fellas that they felt very hurt. Morale was down.â
Workrate was everything for Fitzgerald, the centre of attention once again, in his first spell at Waterford
BRENDAN MORAN/SPORTSFILE
When Fitzgerald spoke to them that night, he cut quickly to the chase. âTrust me lads,â he said. âIâm as shocked as ye are that Iâm standing here tonight.â Then they got to work.
The first thing that struck Fitzgerald was their fitness levels. The players, he felt, were miles off. Every drill was performed at high speed with little room in between to recover. If Fitzgerald demanded them to gather around him in 10 seconds, any stragglers would cost the entire group 50 press ups, 100 press ups.
âThere were nights when they couldnât walk after a session,â said one backroom team member. âThe biggest thing was how organised and intense everything was,â says Clinton Hennessy, goalkeeper in 2008. âIt was another level. We had training gear, all the little things. You were away from one drill and straight into the next. It was how Davy is, training was like that. You werenât given a chance to breathe.â
Blue-and-white wristbands were ordered that contained a plus sign representing positive thoughts, âNBâ for next ball and âFâ for family. Every week a new order was placed for 180 fresh sliotars with another dozen thrown in during the week. An inhouse video crew had free access gathering footage for motivational videos. Modified baseball machines were brought in and set to fire out low, bouncing balls for the players to manage. The speed started at 70mph and ended up at 110mph by the end of the summer.
After all the years of McCarthyâs skeleton backroom teams, Fitzgeraldâs entourage was a total culture shock. His 14-person staff included teams of video analysts and statisticians, a sports psychologist and specialist coaches. The dressing-room walls were decorated with motivational phrases that changed depending on the theme Fitzgerald wished to drive home on a given week.
The basic principles of Fitzgeraldâs hurling ethos were installed quickly, sometimes painfully. After years of swashbuckling hurling, Waterford were forced to squeeze themselves into a tactical framework. Workrate was everything. Defence became a more focal part of the conversation and after years of letting fly, possession was now precious. For the first few months, every time Hennessy had a puckout he was obliged to look to the sideline for a signal, directing him where to hit the ball.
ADVERTISEMENT
âI didnât mind at the time but at the end of the season I went to him and Iâm not really comfortable with this. I had to look over for a signal for every puckout. But teams cop onto this kind of thing.â
The reaction of the players to such radical change was mixed. The defenders appreciated the extra cover after years of living on their nerves. Others worried if too much colour was being drained from them.
âUnder Davy we were sterile, structured and often boring,â Ken McGrath said in his autobiography. âHe learnt a lot from his time with us and given the systems now at play in hurling â and not to the betterment of the game â I think he started that with us.â
âThe structure thing was a problem for a lot of lads nearing the end of their career,â Hennessy says. âIt was a big change. We were a team that hurled off-the-cuff. We suffered defensively for that â when youâre playing attacking hurling like we did thatâs going to happen.
âYou could see what Davy was trying to do. Looking back when we were finished ourselves, you thought if Davy came to Waterford in 2010 or 2011 and he had a good crop of young lads, they might have bought into his way quicker than we did. We had to be more balanced between defence and attack, but it went from one extreme to the other. Any success we had, we werenât just winning Munster titles. We were winning with style.â
Fitzgeraldâs legacy back then? Waterford regathered and won four matches to make the All-Ireland final that year; what happened that day is another story. To some people that progress was almost inevitable, given a sympathetic draw that got them to the All-Ireland semi-final against Tipperary and the pressure bearing down on a hardened, talented group of players.
âAnyone would have got us to the All-Ireland semi-final that year,â said Shanahan in his book. âWe had to do it. After Justin left we had to produce the goods, weâd made a rod for our own backs and we knew it.â
ADVERTISEMENT
But Fitzgerald also introduced a level of detail and preparation to Waterford that reset their expectations for a new decade. In his four seasons, Waterford made four successive All-Ireland semi-finals, lost their single final and won a Munster title in 2010. In some ways the demands this time mirror elements of 2008: stories are already seeping out of brutal training sessions designed to toughen bodies and minds.
Waterford had a sweeper in place for their exhibition match against TG4âs Underdogs team and while running and protecting the ball against Clare in the first half of their Munster League game last month pleased Fitzgerald, neglecting those principles and allowing Clare push past them in the second half to win did not.
Like 2008, league titles and heroic Munster championships wonât butter too many parsnips either. Waterfordâs ambition remains set for an All-Ireland. That should suit Fitzgeraldâs own levels of ambition. How both marry together will again decide a lot.
A bad weekend for programme compilers; Buff giving out shows about an error on the Clar - Westmeath programme
Davy is gone like a little fucking hobgoblin
1 Like
Great to have him back. Cant wait to see himself and lohan on the sideline
Just after seeing the score of a Kildare v Carlow Division 2A game from yesterday. Kildare won by 14 points. Theyâre coming like a train.
Level here at half time. Waterford started like a train but a couple of defensive howlers have left Dublin back into it.
1 Like
Carlow were down loads. It would be a lot closer with even teams.
Seconfd red for Waterford. Backhander from stephen bennett
I saw Dublin were 7/2 this morning and after hearing reports of Waterfordâs training during the week I thought they had a fair auld chance. Sorry now I didnât back it
Saw the second half of this. Dublin will be disappointed not to have win it when Waterford had to play last 10bmins with 13 men. Waterford played great composure in those last few mins. Outrageous score from Donal Burke in injury time to level it.
I most certainly do not
No time for any of that shite in any sport
Not at PUC
Turnerâs Cross
PUR
Never,and I donât care whether it was aimed at Cian or anyone
I ate ppl near me at Turnerâs Cross last year
And nearly fisticuffs with fellow city support ref John Caulfield,and booing
Explaining = losing
No itâs actually called â mannerâs â
Laois know all about losing
1 Like