All valid but it is also true that their better players are aging out as well as the system. Limerick, Cork and Clare are going to have this in the near future.
I donât think theyâre beating a Cok/Limerick/Clare team that peak to play them in a backdoor/knockout championship at the moment either in all honesty.
Tipp donât have huge depth in terms of real quality. Theyâve a lot of depth of middling inter-county standard players who can step it up a bit if they really put the work in but if not they get brutally exposed. In the last decade they donât tend to have settled teams year on year in the way Limerick and to an extent Cork and Clare have had. The one in a row culture in Tipp is being exposed not just in terms of winning All-Irelands now but in terms of qualifying from Munster.
Even if there was an U20 team they could follow it would be something for the summer but those games had to be rattled off in front of two men and a dog on pissing wet Wednesday nights in late March/early April too.
I remember being down at the U21 Munster Final in July 2016 and it was some carnival atmosphere. Must have been 10k at it as the home town hero Austin Gleeson gave the greatest underage display of the century.
That was a great night in Walsh Park. The U21 championship in late July and into August and September was a staple of the summer.
Heady days. Felt like the sun was always shining.
Waterford nearly took out a star studded Clare in 2013 before a late sending off on a balmy July night.
Even the Leinster Championship threw up some corkers when Wexford and Dublin were going well in that 2010-2016 period.
Did ye not win the All-Ireland Minor championship last year? The way youâre talking youâd think yeâre after burying the last 4 hurleys in the county.
The evening Wexford scored a last gasp goal to beat Kilkenny in a Leinster under-21 final at Wexford Park was the definition of summer.
2013 I think.
Wexford then got tonked by Antrim.
I wouldnât like to speak for @ChairmanDan but the 2025 Minor win is incomparable to the 2013 Minor win for a County like Waterford.
2013 wasnt a great year for Waterford Seniors but having your Minorâs involved on the biggest days even as a curtain raiser to a Senior Munster Final or All Ireland Semi Finals and Finals is a big deal.
Compare Waterfordâs 2013 All Ireland Semi Final win over Kilkenny which was played in mid-August and before the big Cork v Dublin Senior Semi Final to their 2025 encounter which was played late on a Saturday night down in Wexford Park in front of about 1500 people and its hard to argue which did more to promote the game in the county.
Well Clare is a hurling county like Waterford. And we didnât care a jot that the 2023 minor All Ireland wasnât a curtain raiser to the senior final.
The fact is they produced the best minor team in the country last year, which is damn hard to do when you have the resources of a Waterford, Clare, Wexford etc.
Whoâs making those calls now? Can you list out their names?
Limerick had a decent minor team in 2013 as well. Funny the way things go.
@ChairmanDan is a Carlow man
At least that was played as a double header in thurles on a Sunday so had some semblance of occasion and big game feel to it.
Unlike last years final at 5 o clock on a Saturday evening in direct opposition to a big all Ireland senior football match.
would cork have more soccer international players than Waterford?
Theyâve had a fair few recently.
Pretty poor conversion rate, two finals and no wins.
They definitely would ya. At the moment, kelleher, egan, browne, ogbene, idah
Is there much whinging from Waterford people though? I havenât heard it. Iâve heard Mullane bemoan the damage that Waterford not playing any hurling during the summer the last few years has done to the profile of hurling in the county and he is 100% correct. You can say tough shit thatâs the new system and you would be right but anyone who thinks having 6 teams hurling during the summer every year isnât going to do long term damage to hurling has their head up their holes.
Listen to Dan
Dan Shanahan had plenty to say about it today.
Iâd get a sense of apathy and indifference more than anything really in Waterford these past few years . Waterford are still reasonably competitive at the moment, but youâd be fearful if things donât improve they could go the same way as Wexford or Offaly of the last 20 years before their recent mini-resurgence. Thatâs the level Waterford were at for most of the 30 years or so prior to 1998.
Waterford are in miles a better place than wexford.