Huge reliance on this years U17âs to turn out to be good.
The future of the Munster Round Robin probably depends on them.
Fair chance Barron/Bennett/TDB are gone in the next year or two. Three huge holes to fill and the replacements arenât there.
Ah thatâs a slight exaggeration considering theyâve beaten everyone else in Munster bar Limerick in the past 24 months and even then they probably shouldâve beaten Limerick in 23â. Youâre right that theyâre in huge trouble in the medium term though. Hugely reliant on a crew of lads who are turning 30 this year and wonât be replaceable.
Dungarvan Colleges was a big thing for Waterford Hurling winning back to back Harty Cups. They got a lot players off those teams from small clubs like Colligan, Clashmore and Modeligo.
Blackwater were competitive too. I remember attending a great game between them and Flannanâs in Tipp Town in November 2011. Barron and the Bennettâs on show for Blackwater, Kelly, OâDonnell, Duggan and Cleary for Flannanâs.
The reality is the round robin is never likely to suit Waterford as theyâll never have the pool of numbers that Tipp/Cork have.
The old qualifier system was optimal for them as they could recover from a Munster loss by beating the Leinster minnows and generally had a strong record v Galway/Wexford/Dublin.
Waterford would beat Wexford by about 5 or 7 points if they played them next weekend.
Christ, lads are overlooking that they only played in division 2 of the league this year as well. It counts for an awful lot.
West Waterford made the fatal mistake of being too successful.
Blackwater still do relatively well for a small pick.
West Waterford hurling in general has declined. I remember Tallow had some excellent underage teams. Tallow are intermediate now are they? Even Lismore are average.
Would I be right in saying Lismore still have a reliance on the two Shanahanâs?
If you look at the last 10 years at Munster Minor/U20/Harty Cup, there have been 30 cups handed out across the 5 counties and the breakdown is as follows:
Tipp - 12
Cork - 8
Limerick - 6
Clare - 3
Waterford - 1
Waterfordâs sole win was at U21 in 2016. Hard to think it wonât get worse before it gets better.
A lot has happened since Donal Og went on the Cork success rant on Sunday Game.
Lot of the West Waterford clubs are really struggling with numbers. Case in point, last summer down at an underage match against Shamrocks in Knockanore. Shamrocks werenât too far off winning the Premier Intermediate and going Senior the year before. Talking to a few prominent club members that night, they were saying that they had been decimated from year before with fellows gone to Australia and were put to pin off their collars to field adult teams.
They were saying it was much the same in Ballysaggart, who will nosedive in a few years when all the Bennettâs are gone.
Shamrocks and Tallow are amalgamated as Cois Bhride at underage level and there are generally all sorts of amalgamations at underage level in the West and mid county.
To be fair Galway and Limerick won All-Irelandâs from the old 1B in 2017 and 18â.
Waterford would qualify as top 3 in Leinster every year Iâd say. Theyâd be regulars in the Leinster final. A quirk of geography has screwed them over. The old 2001-2017 qualifier system suited them down to the ground as mentioned above.
They did, but at least they had themselves (and a very competitive Wexford wasnât it?)
Theyâd bring an awful lot to the party, 100%. Might be like Galway are in Leinster. At least bring the competitiveness anyway.
Clare and Waterford have the same population yet we donât hear these watery excuses from the Clare crowd regarding numbers.
Clareâs issue at underage were entirely self inflicted. The underage is now fairly humming and energised. We will have some short term pain as we have fuck all talent aged between 26 and 29 as the older brigade move on but we have had four years of decent under 20 sides and minor sides and a lot of talented prospects between 16 and 20.
Those involved realise that another four or five years worth of graft is needed to keep bringing on teams. More importantly unlike previous underage success there are now a slew of coaches involved and plenty driving it. Rather than the likes of Donal Moloney and Gerry OâConnor swimming against the tide like 15 years ago.
None of this guarantees anything at senior level but after a bit of transition over the next two to three years we will have a very competitive team for a decade+
East Clare has a much healthier club demographic than Waterford. There are probably 15-20 strong clubs in Clare compared to Waterford who have 4/5 in the city and 4/5 outside of it.
Since Covid ended in early 2022, my table above across Harty/Minor/U20 would read:
Tipp - 7
Clare - 3
Cork - 2
Limerick - 1
Waterford - 0
Perhaps more interestingly, the runners up table for the big underage competitions would read
Clare - 5
Cork - 2
Limerick - 2
Tipp - 2
Waterford - 1
Limerickâs 2x Runners Up spots held by ASR which is half Clare anyway.
Clare are doing a fair bit right.
Well they are doing better with the materials that they have at their disposal than what Wateford clubs are doing, clearly.
Maybe if the clubs outside of Ballygunnar in Waterford started getting their houses in order instead of being cuckolded every year and playing the poor mouth Waterford hurling would be in a healthier state.
Iâd imagine not having a parish rule in Waterford is a big detriment as well. Lads transferring around as if they are playing soccer is hardly going to generate much pride in the club
Thereâs too many Micky mouse clubs in Waterford, especially in mid & west Waterford that produce little or nothing. If they were joined theyâd be more solid units capable of playing senior hurling sporadically and producing for the county.
The balllygunnar juggernaut obviously doesnât help either, youâd think passage would get some of the overlap but it seems the opposite.
This lad looks handy enough.