So you made it all up in other words.
No i formed an opinion on a plethora of information spanning back 10 years.
Idle speculation
If former Waterford hurlers opinions, published books, press interviews and a host of public tantrums are/is idle speculation then yes, its idle speculation.
Anyway, he says he is injured. So lets leave him off with that. Ken McGrath was a fantastic hurler for a long time.
Watched the highlights of the Cork-Waterford game last night. Fucking hell, Dillon got an unbelievable roasting from Shane Walsh. Don’t know how he’s done up to now but that performance would put a serious dent in any player’s hopes for a championship spot. Walsh isn’t the quickest full-forward around either. He ha strength alright but Dillon’s challenges didn’t even call on him to use that.
Fitzgerald will serve out his reduced ban
By John Fogarty
Monday, March 21, 2011
DAVY FITZGERALD will serve his reduced four-week suspension — despite vehemently denying he verbally abused referee James Owens in Waterford’s Allianz Division 1 game against Tipperary earlier this month.
After a mammoth five-hour meeting with the Central Hearings Committee on Friday night, Fitzgerald presented a strong case against Central Competitions Control Committee-recommended 12-week ban and had it cut by two-thirds.
As his ban starts from last Friday, the Clare native will not be allowed to patrol the sideline for Waterford’s next two league games away to Kilkenny on Sunday and Offaly the following weekend. However, he will return just in time for the final round game at home to Galway, which could turn out to be a battle for a league final spot.
The dilution of the CCCC’s judgement represents a success for Fitzgerald. The proposed punishment was handed down for “threatening” language. However, that now appears to have been downgraded to a category two offence for “abusive language”.
Owens is believed to have quoted Fitzgerald in his referee’s report as threatening to “sort him out” after the match following an incident involving Seamus Prendergast. However, Fitzgerald contended there had been a misinterpretation. He claims he had asked the referee about the decision to hand Prendergast a yellow card to which Owens said they would “deal” with it after the match.
In response, Fitzgerald argued that he said, “Fair enough; we’ll deal with it after”.
Fitzgerald was also cited by fourth official Alan Kissane for making comments in the direction of the referee which he interpreted as being disparaging towards Owens.
But, Fitzgerald — backed by witnesses — strenuously denied the claim, pointing out that the remarks were made by another Waterford official.
Fitzgerald refused to comment last night, only to say that he wanted to “draw a line under the matter”.
However, a source close to the Waterford manager claimed he is still disappointed by the outcome of the hearing.
“Davy’s taking the hit for somebody else,” said the source.
"He probably should be making more of a bigger deal about it but he just wants the matter put to bed.
"Other managers have been getting away with murder giving out about decisions on the sideline and nothing has happened.
“Right now, he doesn’t want anything to upset the team. He just wants to concentrate on the hurling.”
Brendan Maher has broken his ankle.
20 wides 
http://www.sportsfile.com/winshare/watermarked-b/Library/SF697/501775.jpg
The Waterford captain, Stephen Molumphy, himself a Captain in the Army, prepares to be driven away, at half-time in the game, as he was preparing to start a short tour of duty in Poland.
Declan Ryan oozes charisma.
Sorry to see Eoin Cadogan getting picked on again today, Its amazing how often other players single him out for special attention, your heart would go out to him.
FFS did the ref in the KK/Waterford match ever hear of square balls?
Cummins was pretty shit for the Cork goal.
Cant be easy to move quickly when youre wearing 15 differing jerseys.
Mul talking some load of bollocks on the Sunday game. Wexford are getting relegated because they are shit and Clare are in division two because they lost to Wexford. Both teams are terribly managed (along with Offaly) and Wexford and Offaly are terrible underage. Stop making excuses - they are shit because they are shit not because of the league.
I don’t think you understand. The current system means that some teams are always going to be in this situation, and being in this situation has a direct effect on the ability of these teams to recover as playing against quality opposition is very important.
Make it two up two down. Problem solved.
Mul was acting like the structure of the league was holding hurling back - that is bollocks. Counties are holding themselves back.
Not really. It still means that possibly a quarter of the teams in hurling are going to be stuck in a year on/year off cycle in terms of their exposure to top level opposition. It arguably isn’t as bad because of the increased hope for promotion but balance that against the increased difficulty of consolidating Division One status and it’s not much better.
There’s unquestionably a realisation that underage structures are crucial and in Clare at least this issue has been addressed in a serious way. I don’t think however, that you understand the damage Division Two status does. Firstly the revenue problem is a very serious one as inter-county hurling teams are very expensive to prepare. In div2 a county like Clare or Wexford are losing out on three or four big gates every year. That could be as much as a hundred grand and maybe more they lose out on every year. That’s not insignificant. If Limerick didn’t have JP to spend the massive money needed to bring DOG in they’d be in a lot worse shape than they are now, never mind what they might look like if they don’t get promoted and DOG leaves.
Secondly the blow to morale in the county is absolutely massive. That impacts on the the game in the county in a multitude of ways and makes it extremely difficult to promote the game. I don’t know if Cooney even considers these issues, but given the Cork county boards traditional attitude towards smaller clubs in their own county I strongly doubt it.
So what do you want, a 12 team premier division with no promotion or relegation? Tell Down, Kerry, Antrim etc to go fuck themselves or have Carlow playing against Kilkenny in front of a couple of hundred and Kilkenny winning by 20+ points at a canter? Thats much much worse. Have a closed system and you ensure a lot more meaningless games and do even more damage to teams outside the league. Have a bigger league, include more weak counties and you ensure there are even more hammerings and pointless games.
A two up two down 8 county league system with the semis is the fairest way to go. The teams that deserve to go down go down, the teams that deserve to go up go up. Fucking around with the structures won’t solve the problems you are noting - which lay overwhelmingly in ineptitude at underage and club level.
Yes it does. It directly addresses the problems I highlighted in the second paragraph of the post you are replying to.
There are tiny crowds showing up to watch the league games this year, so the argument that the current system is making it a more attractive product for the public falls down immediately. That’s one of the major justifications for it and it doesn’t hold water.
What I suggested on here several times was that the league should be expanded further, I’ll just paste them here rather than typing them out again:
This would probably mean two groups like:
A - Kilkenny, Waterford, Cork, Offaly, Clare, Laois, Antrim, Westmeath
B - Tipperary, Galway, Dublin, Limerick, Wexford, Carlow, Down, Kerry
You’re still looking at seven games for most teams and nine for the top 2 from either side, almost the exact same as it is now. However, the same question comes back to haunt it. This system would largely guarantee the top 10 or 12 teams safety from relegation. One of the major features of the current system is the very real danger of relegation for 2 or 3 teams in Division One, and the very lively competition for promotion in Division Two.
The question then is whether the danger of relegation is a good enough reason to maintain the current system. What benefit does it actually bring? Laois and Carlow have definitely turned in improved performances in the championship over the last two years, but is that attributable to the league system or to other factors? Either way, anyone from Clare, Wexford, or Offaly would argue that the current system is not cost-free either.
and
Look at it in terms of the objectives teams currently have:
Kilkenny, Tipperary, Waterford, Cork, Galway:
Current System - Try out new players and ideas, competition for places, if things go well maybe win a trophy. 4 or 5 games against high quality opposition.
Bigger Top Division: Same applies. Number of games against high quality opposition reduced to 2 or 3.
Dublin, Wexford, Offaly
Current System: Stay in division one, stay in division one, stay in division one. In Dublin’s case they are trying to push on to another level but essentially these teams are fighting against having to play all lower quality games and trying to come up to the level of the better sides.
Bigger Top Division: Threat of relegation and attendant negativity gone, less pressure at early stage of the year, 3 or 4 games against similar or better teams. Looking upwards instead of downwards.
Clare, Limerick
Current System: A disaster. Not going to play against a team that could win a provincial championship until they meet them in the championship itself. Extremely negative for the game in the county. 3 or 4 competitive games. Pressure for results throughout.
Bigger Top Division: Now have 3 games against opposition at similar level, 3 games against high quality opposition. Relegation fears eased.
Laois, Carlow, Antrim
Current System: 4 games against similar or better opposition. Objective is to finish in top 2, although this is yet to happen after three years of current system.
Bigger Top Division: 2-3 games against similar level opposition, 2-3 games against top guns.
Westmeath, Down, Kerry
Current System: Avoiding relegation the priority. Shipping beatings at the hands of the promotion candidates.
Bigger Top Division: Avoiding relegation the priority. Shipping beatings at the hands of the top half.
I honestly don’t see what’s so superior about the current system. All that would change is that the level of high quality games would be reduced for the top 4 or 5 teams, and greatly expanded for the teams in the middle.