An an All Ireland every few years. Well, in Tippās case at least
Hurling in general is gone that way. Id hate to be playing in full forward line these days.
Tipps win rate in munster round robin to all Ireland victories is insane 
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Tis
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Ye are some team to nip in while the going is good. Very admirable
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Darragh OāSullivan and David Franks trying to replicate Ballugunner seniors template at inter-county minor level with predictable outcome.
Waterford county teams over think things too much now at every level. If you go back to the only period of relative success that they had in modern times under Justin McCarthy, they just went out and had a cut at things.
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that waterford team under Justin were just sublime in the sense of lets just hurl the fuck out of it mentality
Justin was that way wired as were the players
the big question is - would they won an All Ireland with a less lets hurl the fuck out of it manager ?
i think the answer is no. They had the tactics men after in Derek and Davy and whilst they got to the AI final ok , they were just so much more natural and fun under Justin
No. The team under Justin were ultimately undone by having to carry a few players. You canāt be carrying fellows at goalkeeper and in the full back line.
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If you couldāve put the standard of Mayo football backs with Waterford attacking hurlers for the last 25 years, youād win everything
absolute manure , just populist stereotypical talk re Mayo side of it and I respectfully request you to think about what you have said about Mayo backs
Mayo backs!
2 own goals in 10 mins of an ireland final and not an own goal scored in a final 100 years before that
Donegal had 2 goals scored in the first 5 mins of an ireland final against them
Kerry forwards played ring a ring a rosey with Mayo backs in a few matches especially finals and match won by HT
Donie Vaughan Mayo back , all he had to do is keep calm and not get a second yellow
1998 - mayo goalie just attack the ball and not let a 60 yard Colm Coyle shot bounce over the bar to level the match
Another final, an u12 div 6 side would have put up more a defence as Con O C walked through them for a goal early door in a AIF
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Mustāve been all of those maarquee forwards that held them back so
They hadnt too many marquee forwards fair enough but generally hadnt a bad sextet of forwards
the cluster fucks were happening at the backs end
come on man, I was able to list off all the examples off the top of my head
do you really think the Mayo backs set some kind of a standard? there was always a heap of clusterfucks come the big day
surely some of these amazing Mayo backs could have laid a glove on Maurice Fitz in 1997
Teams concede scores, even top teams, it happens; the greatest hurling team of all time conceded 4 goals against Tipp in 2010 and got beaten, what does that make JJ and Tommy Walsh?
My point as such is that Waterford have never been able to field a back line with the equivalent strength (going forward and defending) of a Keith Higgins, Lee Keegan, Paddy Durcan, Chris Barrett and Colm Boyle while Mayo have never ever had a collection of forwards like Dan Shanahan, Eoin Kelly, Paul Flynn, John Mullane, Ken McGarth and nothing ever remotely on the planet of an Austin Gleeson that came along later
Both great teams of that era, Mayo got closer and are greater but Waterford probably had greater potential and were really carrying a few which you wouldnāt expect to do at that level.
To me, the Mayo midfield and defenders of that era are pretty heroic and its aa case of backs and forwards, Britney and Christina, one envied what the other had but you need both.
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From the modern day revival of Waterford hurling starting in 1998, they made 13 All Ireland semi finals in the 20 seasons between 1998-2017. Only Kilkenny made more in that period.
The split season/microwave championship/round robin system has been an utter disaster for Waterford hurling but equally their current day travails are also very much attributable to the tale that is told by going 10 years since 2016 All Ireland U21 final without winning a game in Munster U20/21 championship.
Waterford have been hugely reliant in recent years on the 30 something crew of Stephen Bennett, Jamie Barron and Tadhg de Burca. This season has already highlighted that De Burca is done, Stephen Bennett if as feared sustained a serious knee injury last night is surely done as well and Jamie Barron will be 34 next year.
Waterford have remained competitive enough over last few seasons but outside of 2024 (when they were utterly blackguarded by officiating in dying minutes of Tipperary and Clare games) have never really looked like advancing from round robin stages. The real and imminent danger for Waterford now is that they end up very quickly like how Offaly were for 20 years or so post 2000 and how Wexford are now.
Waterford won just 7 Munster Championship matches in 35 years between 1963 and 1998. They are more or less back to those sort of rates of return for a few years now.
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Ye appear to have decent underage teams coming through again though?
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What is the player population in Waterford? Iāve a feeling itās smaller in Clare.
Almost 130k population.
An awful lot of rural clubs in the mid/west.
Ballygunner have approximately 16% of the population but do provide over 25% of players across Minor/20s/Senior.
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A fairly patched up looking Waterford team going to Limerick tomorrow with all the injuries. This could be very ugly.
My 12 year old has concluded that Limerick have the most trampish supporters out there. Two little gurriers ran in and nicked his two sliotars when he was pucking around on the pitch afterwards. Heās never lost a sliotar at a match anywhere before.
Waterford were game enough for an hour against a lacklustre Limerick and were probably even the better side. Game turned on two goals in a minute. Mark Fitzgerald showed a great burst of speed to get out to a ball that he had no business getting to, then he showed heās a half back out of position at full back not clearing his lines and getting dispossessed. The second Limerick goal should never have materialised as it was a Waterford free when the Limerick player dropped the hurl.
The Big House was well looked after when the game was in the balance and a nice 74th minute consolation penalty for Waterford from James Owens.
Few decent showings for Waterford. Callum Lyons roasted Kyle Hayes in the first half and Shane Bennett was good.
Iād say Jamie Barron, Tadhg de Burca and Stephen Bennett have all hurled their last game for Waterford. Possibly some or all of Aussie, Dessie and Patrick Curran as well.
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Hardly Barron? Heās pushing on a bit but fit as a fiddle and still hurling well
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