Well we got our answer, Credit to our management, our boys were superb from the first whistle playing a fast brand of hurling allied to a tremendous workrate and attitude. We will be tested more next week but now we know we have a team
Our set up on opposition puckouts was bang on forcing waterford to go long. Our own puckout strategy still needs refining although Fitzy in particular was getting a lot of joy. The debate on our free taker must be over after today. Hoggy inside then65, Deccie on the long range ones
One criticism or worry I’d have is that we completely lost our shape up front in the second half. If you’re taking off Deccie Dalton or Seanus Harnedy replace them with a like for like in Sean Twomey, Tim O Mahony or Brian Hayes. Bringing on speedsters for them saw us lose the Ariel battle in the second half.
On the players
Patrick Collins mixed the sublime with the ridiculous again today, some of his saves were top notch but that nearly goal is under 12 stiff, this is a big worry going foward
Niall O Leary was superb, tigerish, aggressive and didn’t give Waterford an inch.
Damien Cahalane was rock solid from start to finish, he is so underrated by the keyboard warriors but he is so important to the team
Ger Millerick was tigerish and aggressive and hardly lost a ball all day. Hope his injury is nothing serious
Tommy O Connell had a very good game, especially for his first championship start, despite some difficult moments he showed great character
Ciaran Joyce was just Ciaran Joyce, the man is a rolls Royce at 6, enough said
Rob Downey was absolutely superb epitomised by 2 thundering long range scores. Won a ton of ball all through the game
Luke Meade had a superb game and showed why the selectors picked him. He linked the play so well. Was suprised to see him substituted. Was he injured?
Brian Roche, ah this guy is a gem, a lot of posters on here were not picking him for today which is their right but I just couldn’t understand it, he is critical to our more aggressive hard working attitude. Delighted for him
Darragh Fitzgibbon was a revelation in what was essentially a 2nd center foward role. His pace and skills caused endless problems for Waterford especially in the opening half. He looked jaded in the second half and I thought it would have been wise to take him off. Great performance
Declan Dalton, picked at 12, played at 10 where I believe he is best suited and he showed that today. His workrate, tracking back, ball winning and striking were top class. I thought we lost our shape when he went off which tells alot about his impact.
Conor Lehane didn’t shoot the lights out but he wasn’t non existent either, but he chipped in on the scoreboard and worked his socks off, fair play to the guy
Seamus Harnedy done what Seamus has done for over a decade, led the line, won his fair share of possession and chipped in with a few points. Great to see he still has it
Shane Barrett really worked his socks off today and linked the play well but he had 3 or 4 bad wides which he needs to improve on
Patrick Horgan was sublime, his movement and striking was a joy to watch and he looked so sharp. Again though I thought we should have brought him off with 20 minutes to go to rest him
Robbie O Flynn played like he was never away. Absolutely delighted just to see him back Hurling but to be able to perform as he did when introduced says an awful lot about his character
Shane Kingston looked dangerous on occasions but never really got into the game properly when introduced. A frightening prospect for the opposition to see coming on with 20 minutes left
Padraig Power wasn’t really used properly when introduced and didn’t see much ball but will be all the better for the experience
Conor Cahalane done welll when introduced at midfield, worked hard and linked the play well
Cormac O Brien wasn’t on long enough to really say anything about his performance but just getting a run will do his confidence good
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