Waterford were poor today, no doubt about that. Just a real lack of confidence & spirit, heads dropped so easily and then the frustration set in. I always thought that if we were in touch at half-time that we would go on and win; for them to allow us to go 6 points up against what was a very strong wind was simply inexcusable. They didn’t seem to have any puckout strategy- the first couple of bombs caused a bit of bother but we dealt with them well after that, and the touch of their backs was simply not good enough for short ones. Very little movement though. I felt sorry for the likes of Brick and Moran; they must be wondering how it’s come to this.
As for us, we worked very hard and that was a huge improvement on the last game. Our puckouts were also so much better and that gives you such a platform. I think the game was over by half-time, but Hegarty’s goal really killed it.
I thought Quaid was excellent with the puckouts, didn’t have any saves to make.
There has been criticism of the use of the ball by our full-back line at times but I thought Casey & English in particular were excellent on the ball (admittedly given a lot of time). Defensively all superb, but under very little pressure compared to the Cork game where they were all quite poor.
Some debut by Paddy O’Loughlin, laid down a marker. Big smiley head on him after he scored the first point, made clever support runs throughout. Morrissey very solid under the high ball this week, always smart in possession. Deccie classy & composed. Again though, not tested the way Cork did and Clare will bring something different.
You could argue that Lynch was quietish but still got through an amount of work. Will O’Donoghue is excellent at reading breaks, breaking a tackle and popping a handpass. Hurling is certainly not as sharp as DOD but when he keeps things simple, he’s very effective. In fairness to O’Donovan, he was excellent when he came on too.
Half-forward line were so much better, worked their socks off. Kyle & Hegarty were the two best players on the pitch, picked off 1-4 between them and won some amount of turnovers. Hegarty set up the first goal, but also won frees for our first two scores when we were really fighting against the wind. Kyle got on some amount of ball and just never stops. Morrissey was better too, I think, put in some big tackles. Dowling & Reidy both got some nice scores off the bench, Dowling nailed some big frees aswell.
Mulcahy didn’t score but I thought he was excellent. So busy, worked his socks off and set up some amount of scores. Gillane wasn’t unbelievable but did get out in front, got his goal and nailed his frees against the wind which was huge. Peter Casey lost the first couple of balls but once he got his first score, he settled, and was very busy after that. Barry Murphy did well when he came on too, real pity about his injury. Pat Simon only got a handful of minutes, think he got one ball.
Good win, in fairness but a lot to do.
and at 2am 