Hes a fine defender and he isn’t operating in a great defensive unit
Beavens and Baldhead
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Is there anywhere to rewatch that game I never recorded it
Rte player
That was an immense second half by Waterford. Really enjoyed it. Takes a lot of mental strength and great management to recover at half time from a collectively panicky, snatchy, uncertain first half to steamroller Kilkenny in the second half. It’s very hard to turn things around when plenty of stuff is going awry, but they delivered in spades. The turnaround was embodied by Gleeson’s improvement but Bennett was deserved MOTM. Not everything came off for Barron tonight but it was a definite return to form overall; he was heavily involved and very influential. @Fagan_ODowd was brilliant in the air - not just under the Waterford puck out but also dropping deep on the Kilkenny one. There’s a lovely flamboyance about Waterford when their dander is up. I hope they win it now. Congrats Fagan, @Thornhill, @anon76546466.
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While I hope Limk win it out if they get to the final, you wouldn’t begrudge Waterford a win.
Congrats lad. If it can’t be us I hope it’s ye. But if it can be us then fuck ye
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That result tonight will potentially fuck with Limerick heads. Could they decisively win Munster for the second year in a row, yet not make the All Ireland final and watch on as the vanquished Munster finalist wins the All Ireland? I thought Waterford were emerging as a smashing side, despite losing to Limerick. And the quirk of the quarter final draw to avoid Tipp allied with the best team in Leinster conspiring to lose the provincial final from a position of control meant they had a nice route back to the final. They might have had to go through Tipperary and Galway in another world, but Clare and Kilkenny are about the standard that Tipp had to deal with last year when disposing of Laois and Wexford having lost the Munster Final. Caroline Currid will have her work cut out tomorrow.
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I think I said it here last week but there is something absolutely iconic about this Waterford team.
With other teams like Limerick it’s all so structured and ‘process driven’. With Waterford it’s completely off the cuff. The likes of Caylum and Bennett taking off on these solo runs and they haven’t a clue where it’s going to take them. They are making it up as they go along.
Maybe Barron and De Burca know what they are at with their give and go’s but the rest are just playing freestyle.
Gleeson is absolutely box office whether it’s working out for him or not.
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I heard Cummins mention the process tonight. Excuse my ignorance but what does the process in hurling terms mean?
They are the people’s champions.
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Enda McEvoy wrote a brilliant article a few years back drawing parallels between Waterford and the Brooklyn Dodgers, I can’t find it online but would love to read it again
Congrats @Fagan_ODowd, a well deserved win, showed great character and this Waterford team is much better equipped than Kilkenny to deal with whatever is thrown at them in the final.
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They are very very organised and well-structured; it’s very impressive.
They’ve been good all year but today was definitely their best performance. There was no whinging & feeling sorry for themselves at half-time; they continued to do what they were doing and just did it better. They were creating some decent chances in the first half that they missed, and they were just a lot more clinical.
They completely wiped out the Kilkenny puck out with the half-forwards dropping back in front, Fagan in particular was huge. TJ did his utmost to turn it but he was doing it on his own. Kilkenny continued to work but they were unable to maintain the highest level of pressure for 70 minutes.
And Waterford have it drilled into them to take teams on time and time again. Sometimes they overrun it, but they go again & again and that is a killer for backs. Jack Prendergast is a great bit of stuff aswell.
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When Reid goes Kilkenny are in a spot of bother.
What’s their plan b?
I don’t know; I haven’t seen them use it yet. Against both Limerick & Kilkenny when they fell behind, they just continued to run at them and they came back into it on both days.
I thought against Limerick maybe they lacked a little bit of firepower even though they were nullifying Limerick quite a bit but they’ve racked up two serious tallies now.
Maybe Kilkenny played right into their hands in the second half today but still, they capitalised on it.
Has Derek McGrath claimed credit for his teams vicrory yet?
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They are not purely off the cuff, their thinking is to immediately attack, to break tackles and to beat the first man and scare teams and to have support runners alongside. They aren’t structured like limericks directed passes to runners in the full forward line but they are in that they move together hard to pressure backs and play the game from midfield up, not hit and hopers. They are a team of Con o Callaghan’s, run at and turn. They are also very good tacklers, good disrupters they caused Limerick trouble and destroyed kk. How often do you see Kilkenny so overpowered they hit passes directly to opposition or to no one. They did several times. Waterford lived on very few frees tonight and in the Munster final which is a great sign. The worry is that Clare minus Tony Kelly and Kilkenny plus only Reid aren’t world beaters. But Waterford are solid right through the middle, as long as Barron is going well. He’s as key as lynch is to Limerick.
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The fact Kilkenny didn’t change this was shocking and telling