You need to find this cunt & deal with him.
#rugby terminology has no place in hurling talk
Back to Nowlan Park on Easter Sunday, I imagine?
That’s a relief pal. I thought you’d gone awol on us.
Nice of Brendan Rogers to turn up all the way on the right there
I can’t help feel that today’s result was the culmination of a long process ignited in 1993 when a certain young man ran riot in the county final.
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Davy amongst his flock, cast aside by his own parish, he has become the proverbial prophet in another land. Hurling needs prophets, and Davy is preaching the good word to attentive ears. God bless him.
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That’s interesting, can any of the Wexford lads enlighten us as to the huddle that took place 6 mins from throw in where Davy was in the middle and the panel as a group bowed down 3 times in a circle as if in some sort of satanic verse
Division 3 county final?
It’s a little tradition us former altar boys have.
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Well done Wexford
Already looking forward to Hop Ball’s column in tomorrow’s Wexford People. Last week he was on about the Devereux / Fitzgerald / McEneaney axis in Wexford GAA. Latest odds on ex county chairman Devereux getting another mention have shortened to 2/9 after yesterday’s result.
That was a great result yesterday. Not so much the fact e went up and won by 5, but there is clearly still more in the tank. It wasnt the most polished performance and there is more to get out of some players. The shooting is still very erratic at times, in typical Wexford fashion, hitting a lot of wides and shooting in bad positions or when very unbalanced. But the running and work rate is fantastic. It’s now very clear to see the game plan that was being implemented in the early Walsh cup games of the runs from deep and angled handpassing to get in for goal chances. The very little highlights I saw from the UCD Walsh cup game in particular were reminiscent at times yesterday where you’d have one or 2 handpasses and a switch of play then to a win forward coming through at pace.
Conor Mac is an exceptional player too. I know we all knew that, but his quickness of shooting, his side step to create space, all magnificent. He is not a pacy player at all, but more than makes up for a lack of pace with exceptional talent. I wrote about it on here before, but I genuinely dont know which is his stronger side. Anyone know when he changed his free taking style? He used to strike off his right hand side, now he was changed and strikes off his left. I dont ever remember seeing a hurler who changes free taking or sideline taking techniques as much as MacDonald does. I’m nearly sure he was hitting frees this year against Limerick and Galway off his right, yesterday he was hitting them off his left. In spite of that, neither him nor Chin are reliable enough free takers at the absolute top level, so it is still a concern to me. Paul Morris is a nice tidy hurler, will pick off a few scores, but he really goes missing for huge chunks of games. The defence is solid out. Shaun Murphy has taken on the sweeper role brilliantly, and even if he were to go down, I think Reck is a perfect player to take over there too. Both a bit on the small side, but can get away with it in that role. Shore will find it hard to break back onto this team. Glad to see Guiney get a nice run out too. Took a few speculative shots, but probably over eagerness to try and contribute.
The big time is back!*
*not really. I’d far more prefer beat the cunts in the championship, but this is a nice little win all the same.
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McDonald’s a left hand on top hurler anyway and catches the ball in his right hand when it comes in. If you recall the catch just before half time when he was fouled and levelled it up from the free - those diagonal balls from our right across to him allow him to hold off a defender on his inside with his left and pluck it with his right. He’s got several goals for us from balls like that - Clare replay 2014, Dublin in the Leinster championship earlier that year to name a couple.
How many frees did he hit left sided yesterday? All of them or just one or two? I was oblivious to it and I’m really annoyed now because I pride myself on my commentator’s eye. Not to come across twiceasniceish but possibly the first time I saw him play for us at any level was the 2013 Leinster minor away to Kilkenny where he buried a penalty off his left and a few minutes later pointed a free from the sideline on the 45 with his right. His free taking is pretty brutal though - a big high lift and almost an ugly sideways swipe at the ball when it’s at its highest point. 
How did you not notice that? Omfg
I’m very angry with myself.
The mistake Pádraig Walsh made yesterday was trying to compete in the air for clean catches with McDonald. Far more limited hurlers have had more success marking him by simply using spoiling and / or fouling tactics. Referees don’t pick up on all arm grabbing / holding down the shoulder to prevent a jump etc.
The Waterford ful back in recent league and championship meetings has basically done this to stop him claiming clean possession and then one of the other 8 or 9 defenders was usually on hand to nip in and clear.
That’s why I’m a fan of Davy’s policy of rotating McDonald between the half forward and full forward lines. If the full back is getting away with that kind of stuff then bring him out to get involved as his point taking from distance is improving all the time.
I had thought he took all the frees yesterday in an orthodox technique, ie left hand on top and striking off the left. The long range one he hit in the first half was terrible, you could see what he was trying to do, almost baseball style strike through it to get a hard lower trajectory on it, but prone to mis hitting it like he did.
I’ll go even more twiceasniceish on you and saw my first real viewing off him in a proper county championship game was the semi final win over Laois in the Park in 2012. Scored 1-6 or 7 or so. Was unplayable at that age if the opposition were any bit weaker. I noticed striking style then and have been left confused ever since. Couldnt decide then which was his stronger side as any ball that came into him he would hit either way with absolute ease.
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He’s exceptionally good at breaking the ball to himself when he knows there’s too many men on him though. Surprised that teams don’t counter it by putting a man in front of him as well as behind him but won’t take long for that to happen.
I remember him single handidly winning a minor game against Offaly in Wexford Park when he was still U16. Every ball was just cleared away and he caught nearly all of them.
Would Paul Morris be a better option as a free taker?
Yeah, a great example of that was for the point to make it 1-12 to 0-12 and he also did it for the goal effort in the first minute. But again Walsh was going up to catch those balls - I’m talking about a fullback literally grabbing both his shoulders from behind and pinning him to stop him jumping and even raising his arms above his head to break it or catch it.
Wouldn’t be first choice free taker for his club so don’t think so. Fanning should be left on them all from midfield out.