The Deise system needs tweaking not scrapping

THERE was a haunted look about him as he sat looking on, wishing no doubt that he no longer had to. What was to have been a day of crowning achievement turned out to have been anything but.

The best laid plans – and whatever else you want to say about the man, he had plans – lay in tatters beneath him. Was it all for this? All the hard work, the plotting, the planning, the painstaking regeneration?

It was as bad a day as any Waterford side have experienced before. It carried about it the whiff of the bad old days, those days he had long sought and fought to banish to the dustbin of history.

Never again was the cry and never again was the cornerstone of his philosophy. Never again would Waterford ship a handful of goals in a big game. Never again would they be singled out as easy marks.

That was the premise upon which the entire project was based. The principal idea to breed confidence, to forge a new Waterford without many of the old hang-ups, without the scars inflicted on big days and bigger defeats.

If that required sacrificing some of the traditional Deise values and upsetting a couple of traditionalists – including former manager Justin McCarthy – along the way then so be it. Derek McGrath’s conscience was clear.

McGrath did what he did to ensure – as best he could – a brighter future for a promising bunch of young hurlers. Let nobody now take delight in the fact that those hopes and dreams have been dealt a sickening blow.

The traditionalists will crow and have been crowing since about five o’clock last Sunday afternoon. By doing so they show themselves to be narrow-minded and, in our view, carelessly cruel.

Why should it be that there’s only one way of playing the game? Why should Waterford and Derek McGrath be castigated for showing the type of imagination that so many others so clearly lack?

Sunday’s defeat was a tragedy for Waterford and not an affirmation of those old time values of man-on-man hurling. Those who believe that – straight after the game commentator Michael Duignan seemed to be one who did – are sure to be disappointed.

Already McGrath has indicated that the system will remain for the quarter-final against Wexford in a couple of weeks time. Rightly so. Now is not the time to throw the baby out with the bath water.

That, of course, is not to say that the system didn’t play its part in Waterford’s downfall on the Ennis Road on Sunday afternoon. It did. It absolutely did. It put them under severe pressure to get the scores they needed against a Tipperary defence more than capable of holding its own.

The problem is not so much with the system, but with how it’s being implemented. A little too rigidly, without sufficient evolution from one year to the next. Leaving Maurice Shanahan isolated on his own up front practically ensured Waterford were going to struggle for scores or, at the very least, goals.

To beat Tipperary they were always going to need goals, especially when their usual outlet – long range point-taking – seized up with a depressing succession of wides. Each wide knocked them that little bit more off their game, affected their equilibrium.

Sensing this Tipperary horsed into the game and horsed into the Deise. Waterford, who already dropped bodies in an around their half back line, struggled consequently to gain a foothold in the game.

Tipperary with very little to trouble them in defence – and besides Cathal Barrett is having the season of his life – could focus on what they do best, creating space and exploiting weaknesses.

This time last year the Waterford system was new to them and they struggled to break it down. That experience and the experience of watching the Deise for the past twelve months and watching how others approached it undoubtedly stood to them.

It’s fair enough to point out that three of Tipperary’s five goals came by the time Waterford had pretty much abandoned their structure in an attempt to chase the game, all the same that they felt the need to do so is hardly a ringing endorsement of it either.

The Waterford system, as it’s presently constituted, is a high wire act that needs all the moving parts to work correctly if it’s to succeed. Too many players failed to show up on Sunday for that to happen.

The situation McGrath found himself in at the start of the season is analogous to the one Jim McGuinness found himself in after the 2011 All Ireland semi-final. McGuinness had a system, he knew it worked... to a point. To get to the next level, to win silverware and All Irelands, the Donegal man knew he’d have to change. He knew Donegal would have to become that bit more expansive and tweaked accordingly. He got the best out of Colm McFadden, Michael Murphy and to a lesser extent Patrick McBrearty. Waterford’s task now is getting the best out of Maurice Shanahan, getting the best out of Patrick Curran, getting the best out of Shane Bennett. In the US they say that defences win championships, well in the GAA forwards win All Irelands.

McGrath has done remarkably well with Waterford, this is as set-back, no more than that. Just as long, that is, as he opens up just a little bit more. Surrenders control to gain more. Better late than

never.