A second heavy defeat for Waterford footballers in 2015

About 6 months ago on this blog I wrote of my disgust of how low the experts had rated Waterford when it comes to the Senior Inter county scene.

With six months to go in 2015, I am going to admit that should Waterford receive a similarly low or even lower ranking for 2015 I won’t be too surprised.

Right now, I hate say it, but Waterford when it comes to senior football and football in general on the inter county scene across the different grades, things are at a very low level.

From the outset it must be pointed out that I do not point the finger of blame to the players.

At club level we have seen time and time again that we have club sides that have proven to be as good as anyone else in the province.

The Nire, Stradbally and Ballinacourty have in the senior club football championship have shown that little separates them from the rest of the football clubs in any of the other five counties in Munster. No Waterford club have won the Munster Senior Club Football Championship up to now, but surely its only a matter of time before one of them or another club from within the county does win a provincial championship. Sometimes to win such championship you need some lady luck and when it is most needed it has a habit of deserting Waterford sides.

After two heavy defeats in this years championship against Tipperary and Offaly, two sides that Waterford are more than capable of beating it clear that things are not the way it should and no stone should be left unturned in trying to get the county to the level we should be at.

Waterford started the year brightly, winning the McGrath Cup for the first time in 34 years back in January and followed it up with a win over Wicklow in the first round of the league, but since then the tide turned against Waterford.

Waterford senior Football manager Tom McGlinchey after the loss to Tipperary said a second tier championship is needed for the likes of Waterford. I know every player wants to play against the best, but sometimes playing in the same competition as the best players and suffering heavy defeats is doing more damage than good.

I am sure if during the upcoming Summer Camps if some research was done amongst the participants, if every boy was asked right now how many would want to play football for Waterford in the future, the numbers would be very low.

Its clear that right now something has to be done if Waterford are competing as at high a level as possible in the future.

However, where do you start the work that is needed? Is it at the top of the tree and work down, or is it vice versa. Maybe the work should start somewhere in the middle and it then slowly works its way up and down the grades.

Questions have to be asked. Do we really have 12 clubs capable of competing in the senior grade? Are our underage grading correct? Saint Saviours and Portlaw were on the wrong end of heavy defeats in the recent Under 13 Football County Finals against Stradbally and An Gaeltacht respectfully. How did this happen. Did the two loosing sides have an off day or were the grading completely wrong.

Why are there so many walkovers given in the Minor and Under 16 football championships? Is it a case that there is no interest amongst players to travel for example from Dunmore East to Tallow or from Ballyduff Upper to Ferrybank. Do players want competitions to revert back to divisional competitions? Is it the timing of the championships is wrong. Would it help that when teams have to travel distances of 20 miles or more to games that there is school that day or the following day that players just don’t want to do it, as their studies are more important.

I must admit that I am not as much up to date as what I used to be in what is happening at Bord na nÓg levels. When I was involved in Bord na nÓg there was hardly a Saturday that I was not aware of under 8, 9 and 10 hurling tournaments taking part in the different clubs and I firmly believe that these tournaments have in no small part helped develop players that have us where we are right now and in recent years and not just on the inter county scene but also on the club scene as club players from the likes of Dungarvan, Lismore, Cappoquin, Modeligo etc. have benefited from tournaments run by the likes of Magoo in Cappoquin down the years.

I remember a time in the mid 90’s when clubs like The Nire, Kilrossanty, Clashmore, Ardmore and Naomh Brid tried to do something to help raise the standard of football in the county and were hosting different tournaments. Maybe someone should take it upon themselves to start organising such competitions to restart. Maybe now is the time also to try and ensure that at least two Waterford group scenes in the Munster Senior Colleges championship.

There is a old saying that says a good start is half the work and for Offaly on Saturday afternoon just like against Tipperary a few weeks back they got off to a great start, one which Waterford were never able to recover from.

Offaly had a magnificent start here racing into a five point to no score lead inside five minutes of the game starting.

While Waterford were comprehensively defeated in the end (14 points), it has to be pointed out that at the break just one point separated the sides and mid way through the second half Waterford were not out of contention as Tom McGlinchey trailed by just four points.

Offaly had the umpires reaching for a white flag after just 28 seconds when Graham Guilfoyle slotted over the bar and it was followed up in the next four and a half minutes with efforts from Joseph O’Connor, a brace from Nigel Dunne and an effort from Anton Sullivan to give the mid-landers an early 0-5 to 0-0 lead.

Mark Ferncombe and JJ Hutchinson pulled points back for Waterford in the eight minutes, but Graham Guilfoyle and a brace of scores from Bernard Allen followed for Offaly before Tommy Prendergast landed Waterford’s third score of the game on 27 minutes.

Joey Veale and Mark Ferncombe landed further scores for Waterford with William Mulhall responding with a point in between and Patrick Hurney just before the break landed another point for Waterford to leave the home side trailing 0-9 to 1-5 at the break.

Midway through the second half Offaly had stretched their lead to four points meaning that Waterford were still in contention, but Waterford problem in the second half was that the side added just two points to their first half total while Offaly would add 1-11.

Nigel Dunne and Joey Veale exchanged early second half scores but Offaly would add a brace of scores from Nigel Dunne as well as single efforts from Conor McNamee and Eoin Carroll in an eight minute spell to give Offaly a five point advantage.

Liam Lawlor pulled a point back for Waterford on 51 minutes, but this would prove to be the sides last score of the game.

Nigel Dunne, Johnny Moloney, Peter Cunningham and Dunne again all landed points for the visitors by the hour mark which gave them a 0-18 to 1-7 lead

Offaly in the final 10 minutes continued to control proceedings as Graham Guilfoyle and Nigel Dunne landed points before Anton Sullivan completed the scoring five minutes from time with a goal for the visitors.

Offaly: Alan Mulhall; Brian Darby, Paul McConway, Cian Donohue; Niall Darby, Johnny Moloney, Joseph O’Connor; Conor McNamee, Niall Smith; Peter Cunningham, Graham Guilfoyle, Anton Sullivan; Bernard Allen, Nigel Dunne, William Mulhall. Subs: Nigel Bracken for William Mulhall (HT, bc), Eoin Carroll for Bernard Allen (HT), Jamie Evans for Graham Guilfoyle (62), Daithi Brady for Brian Darby (67), Niall Geraghty for Niall Smith (67), Paul McPadden for Johnny Moloney (70).

Scorers: Nigel Dunne (0-8, 0-4 frees); Anton Sullivan (1-1); Graham Guilfoyle (0-3); Bernard Allen (0-2); Eoin Carroll, William Mulhall, Conor McNamee, Peter Cunningham, Joseph O’Connor, Johnny Moloney (0-1 each).

Waterford: Sean Barron; Dean Crowley, Peter Crowley, Tadhg Ó hUallacháin; Shane Briggs, Paul Whyte, Stephen Prendergast; Tommy Prendergast, Craig Guiry; JJ Hutchinson, Mark Ferncombe, Michael O’Halloran; Liam Lawlor, Joey Veale, Patrick Hurney. Subs: Darren Guiry for JJ Hutchinson (25 mins), Liam Ó Lonáin for Michael O’Halloran (47), Cillian O’Keeffe for Patrick Hurney (52), Michael Curry for Craig Guiry (60), Kieran Murphy for Tommy Prendergast (67), Jason Curry for Joey Veale (67).

Scorers: Joey Veale (1-1); Mark Ferncombe (0-2), JJ Hutchinson, Patrick Hurney, Tommy Prendergast, Liam Lawlor (0-1 each).

Referee: Fergal Kelly (Longford).