Waterford 0-20 Galway 0-12
Any team that plays an overtly defensive game and still comfortably outscores their opposition must be doing something right. And so far it seems nothing about Waterford’s style of hurling can go wrong.
After topping Division 1B they welcomed their so-called 1A superiors to Walsh Park, and promptly gave them a lesson in every facet of hurling to earn a semi-final place against Tipperary.
Playing with the stiff breeze in their backs for the first half (Galway opting to rely on it for the second) Waterford surged in front and only briefly looked back. Because even if Galway rallied with five unanswered points immediately after the restart, it hardly disguised their comprehensive defeat.
For Waterford manager Derek McGrath there was no certainly no disguising the satisfaction. This time last year his team were relegated to Division 1B. Now, they’re on the rising curve in every sense, especially in confidence.
Last year
“It’s a lot different to last year, I have to say,” McGrath said with a smile. “Of course we were crestfallen. But we’re very aware that a team like ourselves, who are young in development, when they’re hit they’re hit hard, and it’s how you react.
“The atmosphere in the camp now, there’s a selflessness there, and that’s what you ask for. You want lads to put their shoulders to the wheel and not to sulk, and we’ve no prima donnas or egos. That takes you places in life in general, if you have a team willing to do that . . .”
McGrath was was asked if his side were deliberately tailoring the blanket defence now so popular in football.
“No, and I’d be absolutely disgusted with it,” McGrath said, with an even bigger smile.
“It’s not a totally different game, but it’s not blanket defence or anything like it. It’s a game-to-game situation.
“The lads have a hunger, and tactics are dictated by fellas attitudes on the day, dictating what happens on the field. The tactics row in behind their attitude.”
There was certainly no faulting Waterford’s attitude here.
Even with that wind in their backs they were all over Galway, opening up with some furious yet efficient and accurate hurling – Kevin Moran, Brian O'Halloran and Austin Gleeson setting the pace with three long -range points in the opening minutes
Then Pauric Mahony started to chip in (already the top-scorer in division 1B), and by the end helped himself to another 0-10, nine of those from placed balls, increasing his six-game tally to 1-66.
Indeed Waterford have now scored 9-133 so far in this league campaign, not bad for a team built on defence.
Galway's problem was twofold: their defence kept coughing up either possession or frees – even the old reliable David Collins guilty of both – while their forwards were largely marked absent. No forward scored from play in the first half, and while Cathal Mannion and Joe Canning contributed to those five unanswered points early in the second half, reducing the deficit to 0-14 to 0-10, that didn't last.
Galway then went a desperate 22 minutes without a single score, before Canning closed up with two placed balls.
Very honest
Far too little, far too late, with Waterford finishing every bit as strong as they started, substitutes
Maurice Shanahan
and Tom Devine helping to push the winning margin back out to eight points.
No wonder Galway manager Anthony Cunningham in no way disguised his dissatisfaction: "We didn't want that game in the first half, and we have to be very honest in saying that, and there's no hiding from that. We showed some signs of that in the second half, of wanting it, and hurled much better, but not in the first half.
“So to come down, and basically be stuck to the ground in the first half, is not on.”
Word is Galway had put every possible emphasis on this game, travelling down the evening before to help focus the body and minds. Instead, and with a nine-week gap now before their Leinster championship opener against Dublin, it’s difficult to find many positives from their league campaign.
“We are way better than that,” added Cunningham. “For whatever reason we weren’t up for the battle there, and whether we’ve our eye on other things down the line . . .
“But we would need that first 20 minutes of the second half for the entire 70 minutes.
“But we know we’ve huge ability in this team, and guys just need to turn around their form. You have to be on top of your game every single minute of every day you are out. We’re definitely looking forward to the championship, but we have a massive amount of work to do,”added the chastened Galway manager.
WATERFORD: I O'Regan; S Fives, B Coughlan, N Connors; A Gleeson (0-2, one sideline), T De Burca, P Mahony; J Barron, K Moran (0-2); M Walsh (0-1), P Mahony (0-10, nine frees), J Dillon (0-1); B O'Halloran (0-2), Stephen Bennett, C Dunford. Subs: M Shanahan (0-1) for Bennett (47 mins), T Devine (0-1) for O'Halloran (61 mins), S O'Sullivan for Dunford (64 mins), G O'Brien for Dillon (68 mins), M O'Neill for Mahony (69 mins).
GALWAY: C Callanan; D Collins, P Killeen, J Coen; J Hanbury, P Mannion, G McInerney; A Smith (0-2), I Tannion; J Cooney, J Glynn, J Canning (0-8, six frees, one 65); J Flynn, J Regan, C Mannion (0-2). Subs: G Lally for Killeen, N Healy for Regan (both half-time), A Harte for Flynn (53 mins).
Referee: Brian Gavin (Offaly)
