Barron insists Waterford are edging closer to All-Ireland
“We hope the boys stay for another year”
JAMIE Barron has insisted that Waterford are finished with ‘moral’ victories and revealed they’ve developed a ‘tunnel vision’ now on winning the All-Ireland.
The Liam MacCarthy Cup won’t be heading to Waterford this season after their 11-point semi-final defeat to Limerick.
But three-time All-Star Barron says they’re ambitious and talented enough to have high hopes of finally scaling their Everest in the coming seasons.
The PwC GAA/GPA Player of the Month for July watched a re-run of Saturday’s painful loss just 48 hours later on Monday evening, to fully understand what went wrong.
He’s intent on coming back even stronger in 2022 and believes the ultimate prize is within Waterford’s grasp.
That would have seemed fanciful just two years ago when Waterford finished the 2019 Championship just like the 2018 one, without a single win.
But they’re a different team now under Liam Cahill and have worked hard on developing a winning mindset.
‘The days of moral victories and being satisfied getting to semi-finals and things like that are done,’ said Barron.
‘I think with our group, that’s the way the mindset has gone. I think probably the older you get and the more years you have on the panel, you start to realise that it is about winning that elusive All-Ireland.
‘When you start out, your aim is probably to get on the team, then to play well and stuff like that, but as you go on through the years, it’s totally focused on winning. We believe we have a good enough panel and team in the next few years to really challenge and hopefully get there. That’s absolutely our tunnel vision at the moment.’
Barron said that ex-Tipp underage guru Cahill has worked hard in his two seasons in charge to breed that winning mentality. ‘We haven’t won many All-Irelands, as you know, so it can be hard to get that mind shift that we can beat and play against the likes of the Kilkennys, the Corks, the traditional counties who have won All-Irelands over the years,’ he said.
‘The management have come in and done a lot of work on developing our minds, changing our mindsets and really just believing in us more so.
‘It’s been very beneficial and hopefully in the next few years we can develop that as well. Hopefully it’ll be something that will get us to where we want to be.’
Cahill staying on is key to that progress. The man himself was noncommittal at the weekend, merely saying he would consider his position.
‘I think they are a great management team,’ said Barron. ‘I think he has assembled a good backroom team, the whole team from top to bottom is very good. The players are 100 per cent behind him. ‘We know how good Liam is. We know how good Mikey Bevans is with him. All the people around him, I don’t think they would be found wanting in any set-up. ‘If we want to progress more, we are going to need the two boys and their backroom team with them. So we are hoping they’ll stay on for another year, if not more.’ Barron and his Déise colleagues put in a huge shift for their manager on Saturday, attacking the game with a manic ferocity.
They were laying down physical markers all over the field in the opening quarter – including Barron’s big hit on Gearóid Hegarty – but struck half a dozen wides and reached the water break a point behind.
‘We did well up until the first water break but just didn’t capitalise on the opportunities we were creating,’ he said.
‘If you are going into that water break maybe three, four points up, it’s a different game, it’s a different approach you have going out for the second quarter and then going on after half-time.
‘You go out there and try your best. We put in a good performance up until that water break. The intensity was high, the tackles were going in. At the end of the day, we needed to make it count on the scoreboard and unfortunately we didn’t do that really to the best of our ability.’
It hardly helped that it was Waterford’s fourth consecutive weekend of Championship action, having previously beaten Laois, Galway and Tipperary.
‘We did everything we could, training was light, but yeah, maybe it does have an effect, I am not sure,’ shrugged Barron.
‘Look, it is not an excuse from us. You would obviously rather a two-week break I suppose, or something like that. I know the Covid has kicked in and Tyrone are after having their game pushed back there, so you’d be kind of wondering could they give you an extra week?
‘But we are not in it to make excuses. We have no complaints, the better team won on the day.’