Clare beat Dublin in 2012 in Ennis. That was a big win for them. They’d been right down in the mire for the previous few years. Despite losing to Limerick they put in a very creditable performance and there was suddenly a feeling Clare hurling was on the up especially when they went on and won the under-21 again a couple of months later.
I think Wexford’s win over Kilkenny in 2017 alone, despite it not being a good Kilkenny team, was enough to classify that as a decent year for Wexford hurling, given the pummelings Kilkenny had so routinely inflicted on them. Galway and Waterford contested the All-Ireland that year so it was hardly shameful to lose to either. I think the Wexford public really bought into the excitement Davy brought which would culminate in the 2019 Leinster success.
2017 was Wexford’s first championship win over Kilkenny since 2004 so it was inevitable as you’ve alluded to that excitable Wexford folk who are easily enough pleased were going to beatify Davy for that win.
The 2016 All Ireland final hammering was the end of the road for Cody’s great team though and Davy throughout his 5 years in Wexford was contending with Kilkenny at probably their lowest ebb since the late 1980’s.
It was lucky for Davy when he was in Wexford that he had Kilkenny there to provide rare Championship wins. Wexford under Davy lost 5 out of 5 to Munster opposition and in 4 meetings with Galway there were 3 losses and 1 draw, the 3 defeats by margins of 9, 9 and 13.
After the first injury, the way the season worked out Tadhg had the club championship to help ease him back and get up to speed again. He himself thought he was miles off it in those initial club games but he eventually settled down.
This time he was straight back in with the county team and at that level every issue stands out like a sore thumb. His striking, passing and reading of the game were off and it showed.
I’d accept all that. I think in truth Davy is a bluffer but he’s a bluffer who has the ability to occasionally bluff his way to success. A manager, especially a big name manager, can sometimes do that in the short term through emotion and especially if they strike lucky with assistants, and as long as the graph is rising. But when the graph falls, Davy tends to fall for good, and even worse, he tends to stick around too long. 2015/16 and 2020/21 were wasted years for Clare and Wexford respectively.
Davy reminds me a bit of the Kevin Keegan/Roy Keane/Frank Lampard/Steven Gerrard school of management. All of those have had instances of what could be termed success or relative success, all have been driven primarily by emotion, and all are pretty much universally accepted now as big name bluffers in the management game.
When Davy was appointed by Wexford there an astute poster here who predicted that he would be an excellent appointment for Wexford given the particular circumstances Wexford hurling was in at that stage, but would have a shelf life of three years. That’s exactly how it panned out.
With Waterford I’d say it all hinges on year 1. I’d give him about a 45% chance of making it work in Year 1 and a 55% chance it will go arse over tit. The bet is that Davy’s personality might galvanise the Waterford personality in the short term. He’s the sort of personality where you imagine players could easily warm to him at first, but after the first major setback grow more and more sick of him. It’s possible it could work, and more possible it will not.
Seriously though lads, there’s surely a middle ground regarding Davy’s achievements as manager/coach? He’s had his fallow years but he’s won senior All Ireland, National League, Munster and Leinster. He’s won the third level education national championship and gotten to a final in the lady hurling competition recently. He’s also won county titles in Clare and I don’t know if he’s had success in other counties or in the children’s hurling arena but there’s plenty of boxes ticked on his CV.
I think there’s definitely a middle ground on Davy’s management career as a whole, much as there was with say, Tommy Lyons, another man Davy reminds me of a bit. But Davy has been around the block as a manager, he’s pretty much 15 years at it now and has become more and more of a known quantity, and there is such a thing as the law of diminishing returns unless you continually learn and evolve and as people grow older they find it harder to do that. You’d wonder if we’ve now entered the Davy by numbers era. Most managers who stick around a long time enter that phase at some point.
After 2013 we only had wins against Laois and Offaly for 3 seasons. Our sole win against a stronger county was TJ’s Limerick on their last legs in 2016. And we even managed to make hard work of that. His record with us is probably without parallel. Delivered an All-Ireland way ahead of schedule in 2013. But the rest of his tenure was worse than we would have achieved with just about any other manager. Simply awful.
His own record in Munster combined with Waterford’s makes them very long odds to escape the round robin next year.
Losing Ryan was massive though. He was on track to be one of the best centre backs in country. Would be interesting how things would have turned out had he stayed fit.
Losing Kinnerk was worse. That was purely because he was getting recognition for his input and Davy couldn’t abide it. In retrospect he didn’t get half enough
He had McGrath at his peak and tried to shove him out the door. You wouldn’t know with Davy. Ryan is a stockbroker or something decent in finance anyway so would have come under the microscope too due to work commitments.
We had him in 2014 and 2015. And Conor Ryan alone wouldn’t explain us not winning a single munster championship game for three years. The problems were elsewhere and people saw them coming. As strange as it sounds, at the end of the 2013 championship many were hoping he would bow out on a high note. There was already a lot of concern and it proved to be justified. He’s just a total ego-maniac. The Waterford project like all the others will be about proving his critics wrong, which means the same old approach with the same results.
Accepting all that, I thought Davy was finished as an intercounty manager at the end of his time in Clare.
He did a great job in Wexford imho. He made them relevant and genuine contenders and no one took Wexford for granted during his time there.
I think he learned from his Clare experience and would be hopeful the same may happen with Waterford.
Imho, he is inheriting a much better group of hurlers than he did in Wexford. Wexford players improved measurably under him. I could easily see him unearth some more improvement in Waterford.
Time will tell, but I think this is a great appointment. Lads want a professional set up at this level as a starting point. Davy gives you that.
I think it’s clear enough he’s learned as he went along. Whether it’s enough time will tell. He may not get a better opportunity than this Waterford squad. I still think there’s bags of talent in it.
Davy’s results in Wexford don’t bear that out. Defeats of 9, 9 and 13 points to Galway. Three dismal losses to Clare in 2018, 20, 21 and a very tame quarter final loss to Waterford in 2017. 5 losses from 5 against Munster opposition.
His immediate predecessor in Wexford, Liam Dunne dethroned Clare as All Ireland Champions in 2014, best Waterford in 2014 and recorded a first Championship win over Cork in 60 years in 2016.
