There is much more in Déise if McGrath allows them to open up
‘IT IS TIME FOR THE GAA TO BRING IN A VIDEO REFEREE’
IT has been a monumental and thrilling Munster Championship so far but we are in for the most compelling chapter yet this afternoon. There’s a knockout feel to both games with Waterford and Tipperary playing for their whole summer.
Everybody in the country would like to see Waterford win an All-Ireland. They are a county that has given so much to hurling for the past 20 years from the brilliant, swashbuckling teams of the 2000s to Derek McGrath’s more pragmatic approach.
McGrath was right to shore up the defence when he initially took over as the team had conceded seven goals against Tipperary in a Munster final. But I thought that they should have progressed from the sweeper system by now, that they had the defensive personnel and firepower up front to do that.
The players delivered a fantastic performance against Tipperary last weekend, and one that nobody saw coming with defensive linchpins such as Tadhg de Búrca, Darragh Fives and Barry Coughlan missing. Waterford just went for it on the basis that they had nothing to lose and Tom Devine, DJ Foran and Patrick Curran all shone.
Having expended so much energy for 45 or 50 minutes, it was inevitable that there would be some sort of Tipp comeback, But that can’t disguise the fact if Jason Forde’s ghost goal hadn’t been awarded, Waterford would have won that game.
And it is impossible to overstate just how crucial that scandalous decision could be in Waterford’s entire season. That point may be the difference between Waterford being in a Munster final and missing out on the All-Ireland series all together.
Human error can happen. We all make mistakes. That’s fair enough. But I just can’t understand how the umpire could make that call, beyond any doubt, from where he was standing.
There have been calls this week for club referees to be used as umpires, but that won’t solve the problem. There may be bad calls. It is time for the GAA to bring in a video referee for Championship games. There is too much at stake and players and management are investing too much into it for a season to hinge on a poor decision like that.
Give each management team three challenges like in tennis. If that was in place in the Gaelic Grounds, someone looking at a monitor could have told Alan Kelly within 20 seconds that the wrong call had been made.
That one decision can mark the end of this Waterford team and it could mark the end of Derek McGrath’s reign. And despite all the spirit they showed last week, I think it is going to be very tough for Waterford to lift it again this week against a physically powerful Limerick forward line. It should be a cracking game and the match-up between Mike Casey and Tom Devine will be one to savour.
McGrath has made no secret that this is likely to be his final year and if he bows out in these circumstances, it will be a sad way to finish. Nor just because of the horrendous luck he has with injuries and that poor call last weekend, but also because I believe that there was more in this team if he just expanded their style a little bit more.
If he had placed Tadhg de Búrca at 3 and Austin Gleeson at 6, it could have been a dream team at the centre of defence in the same way that Daithí Burke and Gearóid McInerney are for Galway. That could have seen his Waterford project reach its full potential.
With the exception of Brick Walsh and Kevin Moran, they are still a relatively young team so defeat won’t spell the end for these Waterford players, but it might for their manager.
Tipperary have been a puzzle in this Championship. I don’t know what is up with them. They have so much talent but they still have issues in the same places where we have flagged them up for the past couple of years, mainly in the full-back line.
They just seem to be lacking something at the moment. It is taking them a long time to get up to the pace of games. But I am keeping faith with them. They have too much talent not to. Seamus Callanan was always going to need a few matches to find his rhythm but he will have come on.
The problem for them in Thurles is that Clare are at their strongest – from midfield up – where Tipperary are at their weakest. And the Clare management will have looked at how Cork and Limerick attacked Tipp at their weak points. So, I expect their defence will be in for a torrid time this afternoon.
But the Banner defence is not as aggressive as the Cork and Limerick backs and I can see this developing into the sort of game that will suit Tipp down to the ground, a high-scoring affair where both sets of forwards get plenty of space. Patrick Bonner Maher came on last week and made a big contribution while Jason Forde is one of the best free-takers in the country.
And there is a mood building within the county that the supporters need to get behind this Tipperary team. All of that suggests they might just limp into the All-Ireland series, by finishing third in the table. But the way this summer has gone, and all the stories that have emerged, it wouldn’t be all that surprising if they were to limp out of the Championship this afternoon.