It’s embarrassing from Lohan. You’d think at this stage he’d want to puff his chest out and name his team and tear into Limerick instead of this pissing about.
Lohan is loyal to a fault it seems.
We always do it though. Malone named at 10 and the likes with Fitzgerald midfield etc
There is more of a chance of me starting than SOD on the bench.
The bould @Joe_Player would have lads losing their minds tonight, fair play to him.
We’ll look eachother in the eye Sunday lads, perhaps with a second date in mind.
Enjoy it, it’ll be gone long enough.
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“The psychology on Sunday will be back to basics and that will be the butt of the hurley. It will be back to hurling and Munster championship like it was played in my time and in the 90s”
Tom.Ryan should be doing pep rallies.
Cmaaaaan
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Not a hope that Limerick team line out as named. Out of character for Kinnerk
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I’d follow Tom into battle. From a safe distance mind. You wouldn’t know what side he was going to attack.
A leg end. He should be on the Sunday game. Twould be essential viewing every night. Joanne would faint
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They wont line out as named but all of them will start, the fannying around of naming players on the bench who will start is Clares level particularly Lohan the pig headed cunt that he is.
and people used get upset over Larry McCarthy getting his club wrong, Limerick cant get his name right
We need our programmes mate
Lohan has stepped on a few toes here it seems
Poor Liam Cahill was chastised last year when he stuck in the numbers alphabetically. Ronan Maher at 12, Forde at 7, etc. It must have bamboozled the banjo boys all the same. The stupid cunt should have stuck with that system as it was the only game we won in Munster.
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I understand the wire fencing has been taken down in Cusack Park. Is there a chance the tight confines will be replaced with the wide open spaces?
I’ll be seated near that erstwhile fencing and shall report accordingly once in situ.
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I’ll be in the shed, uncaged.
Sun Tzu, he never went away you know. Opening line to Derek’s article today:
The notion that “all warfare is based on deception” (Sun Tzu) could well be applicable to the protagonists of this weekend.
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Derek McGrath: No doubting Davy’s pedigree. The trick now is to bring the Déise people with him
There is a sense of sanctimonious patronising to the commentary around Waterford. The Déise can fool them all Sunday.
“Listen, we have a good bunch of players, so we have. People can say what they want but we always knew it would come down to today and I’m delighted for the lads that they produced. And look, the genuine supporters who came out today, it’s great to have them behind us. They really were the difference today, so they were.”
Davy Fitzgerald, 5.35 pm Sunday, April 21st, 2024.
DISGUISING IT A BIT BETTER
The notion that “all warfare is based on deception” (Sun Tzu) could well be applicable to the protagonists of this weekend. If Waterford weren’t meeting Tipperary at U20 level Friday night, Davy Fitzgerald might have been tempted to call Tipperary U20 manager Brendan Cummins and ask him a question.
Listening to the excellent TippCast preview show this week, the straight talking Shane Brophy lauded Tipperary 20s for “going back to their DNA”. Musing that they had been “caught up with systems and puckout strategies” last year, Tipp’s dismantling of Limerick last Friday night was supposedly based on keeping it simple and doing it the Tipperary way.
His guest, former Déise defender Brian Flannery, while rightly remarking that all teams now play “with two inside and a plus-one” (irony not lost on me), also pointed out that the Waterford minors, 13 points down into the second half against Tipperary “threw the shackles off, hurled with freedom, and went more direct”.
I saw both games a little differently. The systematic process the pundits criticised was followed by Tipp in the U20 game. Shane O’Brien’s early troubling of Golden’s Ben Currivan was fixed by the astute placing of Sam O’Farrell on O’Brien, effectively leaving Currivan as Tipperary’s sweeper (sorry plus one). Conor Martin’s relocation left Tipp with only five forwards. Rewatch Oisín O’Donoghue’s goal and you will see it’s a well-rehearsed puckout call rather than a “Tipperary Way” see-what-happens approach. The trick Cummins pulled off is he disguised the script well.
STRUCTURE PROVIDES THE FREEDOM
Winning helps. Coaches declare in public that they like to play “front foot hurling, push up on our men, go with a high press.” It seems to be pushing a self-promotional button. All coaches want this, all coaches want their team to put their bodies on the line, give their all and marry instinctive expression with instruction.
Whilst never forgetting the importance of the connective piece, ex-Ireland international Shane Horgan’s sentiments that Andy Farrell’s attack-minded philosophy comes from “a really strict, rigid philosophy and game plan” sounds counterintuitive but is very accurate. The more structured you are, the more unstructured you can play. Clarity can result in good chaos.
WE FORGOT THE PAST AND GOT KEY MEN BACK
Davy’s act of deception must unfurl on Sunday. There is no doubting his pedigree as a coach and manager. The trick now is to bring the Déise people with him. Davy’s job is a very difficult one. It’s clear he does not enjoy the support of all the Waterford faithful. Sometimes he can contribute to this unpopularity, but there also seems to be a thirst to see him fail amongst some heavy hitters within media circles.
Waterford’s dismal record in the round-robin has been well documented. Lack of a home venue, injuries, tactical approaches, lack of underage success are all factors perhaps. Far more accurate, but maybe not as interesting, is that outside of the ghost goal game v Tipp in '18 and last year’s first round against Limerick, the common denominator is that we have been beaten by better teams on those days.
Waterford’s success on Sunday will be based around the honesty, integrity and ability of their key warriors. Iarlaith Daly, Mark Fitz, Jamie Barron, Jack Fagan, Paddy Leavy and Jack Prendergast are outstanding individuals in every capacity. Crucially they understand the concept of team better than most and personal accolades mean nothing to these lads.
Allied to this the return of the red helmet (TDB) to the centre of defence will provide steadiness, direction and pure class. I met Tadgh before Christmas at a first year hurling blitz with his school St Augustine’s. Whilst asking him how he was recovering I would never engage much with him about training etc because it’s almost an unwritten rule when you step away not to ask.
I do however think about the young students of St. Augustine’s who can count their blessings that their school is graced with a presence like Tadgh, the perfect mix of humility, charisma , decency and steel. People talk of O’Donnell and his ability to be right for championship. Same as for De Búrca.
THE PLAN WORKED
Davy may well consider playing Tadgh as a rotational plus-one, alternating with Billy Nolan as the day progresses resulting in supporters thinking that “we threw off the shackles” by being a tad more conventional.
The danger that Dessie and Shane Bennett presented to Kilkenny close to goals in the last round of the league will be continued. So we may have a situation where Calum Lyons, Jack Fagan and Tadgh are with their men far from goal, but also offering an attacking threat with the comfort of having Billy Nolan in a protective role also. Waterford may decide to leave Damien Cahalane free on Cork’s puckout and will certainly ensure that the second ball option to Coleman, Joyce or Downey is met with vicious resistance.
Given Patrick Horgan’s assertion that Cork have two for each position the inference in Pat Ryans’s mid-week musing that the home games would decide the Rebels fate was very surprising. The attacking riches at the disposal of the Cork coaching team is rivalled only by Limerick. Yet many Cork observers would like to see more of the successful 20s promoted to the starting line-up. I wholeheartedly disagree.
When Cork won the U21 All Ireland in 1998 the following year Dónal Óg, Diarmuid O’Sullivan, Wayne Sherlock, Sean Óg, Timmy McCarthy, Mickey O’Connell, Joe Deane, Ben O’Connor and Neil Ronan were all part of the senior winning team. They were on it because they weren’t just good enough, they were exceptional. In time perhaps Jack Leahy, William Buckley, Ben Cunningham, Oran O’Regan etc will make their way but for now I feel the management are on the money. Horgan, Harnedy and Lehane are still worthy of their spots.
On Waterford’s puckouts last year Cork pushed up to make it a seven on seven in Waterford’s defence. They may well repeat this approach but will be wary that Waterford’s strategy to bring their inside forwards inside their own 21 on Sean O Brien’s puckouts may well be more functional in Walsh Park.
Don’t rule out Davy targeting the brilliance of Ciarán Joyce by repeating his long down-the-middle approach used by Wexford on Mikey Kiely with runners coming from everywhere on to the break.
Dismissive, often insulting references to Waterford possibly shipping a heavy beating have noticeably been replaced this week by “they won’t be too bad”. There is still a sense of sanctimonious patronising to that commentary. Waterford can fool them all Sunday.
MEANWHILE, IN ENNIS THE DECEPTION CONTINUES
Fellow coaching anoraks would be well advised to listen to the brilliant Orla Comerford of The Sideline View Podcast interview former Dublin and current Leinster rugby performance coach Declan Darcy. Darcy talks of the five-in-a-row season and of the Dubs’ early season trip to Clonturk Park, the venue for Dublin’s first All-Ireland success. All players arrived in their club gear to ensure an authentic connection with their place and spoke of legacy, of playing for something of far more significance than themselves.
Undoubtedly Limerick’s messaging after Sunday will be of the game-to-game mantra, but the inner sanctum may guise a dual purpose. You can be sure that Joe O’Connor has continued Caroline Currid’s focus on process. However, maybe Limerick also need an angry edge on Sunday. Tribalism has led to the conclusion from some that Clare “have their number” or observations that they “all went to college together” and that Clare have shown the way by going man-to-man with Limerick. Maybe elements of all this are true. There comes a time though when the champions will come with a statement performance against the Banner and I think that will come Sunday. The league semi-final will be heralded as a brilliant act of deception.
SPEAKING OF DECEPTION
The manipulative craft involved in “winning a free” for your team will come under closer scrutiny this weekend. The highlighting of such, largely based on Adam Hogans’s clever way of ensuring his head becomes entwined under the hurley of his opponent, may see referees more inclined to offer frees to the opposition tackler. The race to win the title of best free winner over the coming weeks for each of their teams will have to include Hogan’s colleagues Shane O’Donnell and David Reidy, Tipperary’s Dan Mc Cormack and Cathal Barrett, Galway’s David Burke, Kilkenny’s Mikey Butler, Peter Casey when back, and if he was available Waterford’s Conor Gleeson.
MAYBE WE ARE ALL VICTIMS AND VILLAINS BUT HERE GOES
Populist theories suggest it’s a fight for third place between Tipperary and Clare, but it’s not inconceivable that the new league champions will be sitting on 0 points after the first two matches, awaiting the arrival of Waterford who will have at least two by then. In fact in my opinion that’s more likely than unlikely. Throw into the mix, Micheál O Donoghue’s ability to fool everyone and conjure a Dublin victory and the national league will have proved itself the most mendacious source. Alternatively, like many of the protagonists my duplicity might echo Da Vinci: “The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions”.
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Christ… I gave up with the plus one snarky comment