Footballers Jason Curry of Waterford and Steven O’Brien of Tipperary pictured at the launch of the Munster GAA Senior Hurling and Football Championship 2024 at Cahir Castle in Tipperary. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
By John Harrington
Waterford football team manager, Paul Shankey, says his players will have no fear of Tipperary when they play them in the Munster SFC quarter-final on Sunday.
The two teams battled to a draw when they met in Division Four of the Allianz Football League on March 3.
That was the only point that Waterford registered from their seven League games, but Shankey is confident his players are in a positive frame of mind coming into the championship campaign.
“Historically the lads don’t have any fear,” he says.” Some of the games it looks like we got hammered but we missed an awful lot in some of those matches.
“From a club point of view they have played the likes of Clonmel Commercials and other various club teams over the years, and they all compete so there is no fear that way.
“There is a healthy rivalry there and while it’s a rivalry Tipperary might seem to come out on top in by a point or two, historically the teams compete quite well.
“The draw in the league was a good game, but that was a game we had to come back from two points down so it could have easily have been a Tipperary win. But the championship match is one the group is really looking forward to.”
Waterford senior football team manager, Paul Shankey.
Player retention year on year has been a consistent issue for Waterford senior football teams and it’s a challenge that Shankey has had to wrestle with again.
A good chunk of last year’s panel weren’t available to him this year for a variety of reasons, but he’s been delighted by the attitude of the players who could make the commitment.
“It has been brilliant, to be fair,” he says. “We reached out to every club in the county and asked them to send as many lads in as possible, and there has been a great response.
The facilities are fantastic by the county board. There have been a couple of lads who have gone travelling, which is great for their own personal development – gone teaching in Dubai or travelling in Australia, that kind of thing. They are gone for a year and hopefully they will come back next year.
“We have a lot of new players, there has been a big turnover of players from last year until this year – 10 or 15, maybe more.
“From the team who played against Meath in the Tailteann Cup last year, only four of five of that starting team are around this year. So there is a big turnover of players.
“We’ve competed well, some of the scorelines have looked bad, but we did create a of chances in those games. As we progressed through it, we competed well against Longford, had a good chance to beat Longford, we drew with Tipperary, we had a disappointing result against London – we were a couple of points up with a few minutes to go and just hit the self-destruct button but that’s hopefully something to learn from.
“A lot of the other counties have probably had a consistent group for three or four years whereas we have a lot of lads who are 20-21, it’s a fast learning curve but they are competing very well.
“We are just trying to get better at every session, playing football that is enjoyable to the group.
“We don’t have any lofty ambitions or anything like that, because you have no control over it, we’re just trying to get better on every occasion we go out. If we can get the best performance out of the group when we play then that is all you can ask for.”
