‘We were in the zone,’ says Waterford manager Derek McGrath

Post-match reaction: Waterford v Tipperary

Waterford manager Derek McGrath at Nowlan Park on Sunday. Photo: Inpho/Cathal Noonan
Waterford manager Derek McGrath at Nowlan Park on Sunday. Photo: Inpho/Cathal Noonan

Derek McGrath doesn’t really do over the top. His biggest result yet as Waterford manager is parsed in the language of analysis – calm, measured, rational. Process over result, the way the textbooks say it should be.

“At the 67th, 68th minute, I was saying to the lads I was happy. I’m not saying I didn’t want to win, but we were in the zone. It was a nice place to be, to be as competitive as we were, it was lovely. It didn’t really matter about getting the win, it was about going toe to toe with a team like Tipperary.

“I thought we started poorly and we looked a bit stuck to the ground early on. But from the 17th minute on we seemed to get a bit of belief in ourselves, in terms of our communication and so on. Even on the line we struggled a bit dealing with the crowd and so on. There was a championship feel to it and we were saying we’d learn a lot from today.”

For Eamon O’Shea, the maths of the thing were simple enough. It was a game Tipperary lost by a point. Could just as easily have gone the other so there’s no point tearing your hair out over it.

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“Everybody plays defensively against Tipperary. So we’re used to it. I wouldn’t put it down to that. We were just lacking a bit of energy today, coming off the back of a week of heavy training. But again, you never know how that’s going to affect you. We said we wanted to win the game – and we didn’t. It’s a fairly straightforward analysis for me.

“Waterford are a really good side. Very skilful. They have a lot of energy, a lot of good players and a really good manager who knows what he’s doing. You just go out to play the game. It’s a really good challenge when you have different formats. It would be terrible if we all played the game the same way. They deserved the game on merit.”

Malachy Clerkin

Malachy Clerkin

Malachy Clerkin is a sports writer with The Irish Times