MICHAEL RYAN CUTS a frustrated figure right now.
Seeing a side that for years he dreamed of managing being beaten comprehensively for a third game in a row will do that. That Cork, Kilkenny and Tipperary all won pulling up must be the most infuriating aspect.
Dublin may also be on zero points but unlike Waterford, they have recovered from a poor opening-day loss to Galway with performances that merited points against the Rebels and Kilkenny — single-point defeats on both occasions.
Waterford look odds-on for relegation right now, and well they know it. “[Of] course I’m worried about the defeat and worried about losing three games,” Ryan said after the defeat. “It’s a very competitive Division 1 and there’s no easy games.
“But the manner in which we started out was the biggest worry: we didn’t look sharp, we didn’t look fit and we didn’t look focused. That’s something that has to be looked at. We’re going to Galway next week and that’s going to be a very difficult game so certainly we have to buck up fast.”
Ryan will have pored over the game since Sunday and noticed that his side took over 10 minutes to get their first score from play though Maurice Shanahan.
Waterford’s first goal came on 28 minutes but as with most of their scores, it was not at the end product of a flowing move. It came from a sideline cut that Stephen Molumphy flicked down to himself to tap home. The other goal came from the penalty spot.
In saying that, Shane Walsh had a one-on-one that he blasted at goalkeeper Darren Gleeson’s body too but invariably Waterford’s forwards were living off long diagonal balls. Tipp were knitting play nicely and it was a pleasure to watch Noel McGrath and Brendan Maher dictate play, whereas the Decies didn’t seem to have any discernable pattern.
Numbers game
Their starting forwards contributed just 0-5 from play on Sunday; Tipp’s accrued 0-17. Away to Cork in round one, again the starting forwards chipped in with a mere 0-5 from play; Conor Lehane got 0-7 on his own as Cork’s attack rattled off 3-13. In between those games, there was an open-play return of 1-8 to Kilkenny’s 2-11 at Walsh Park.
It all suggests that teams are creating masses of space against Na Déise, but not affording them the same favour. If you don’t create space, it’s much harder to create chances. Tipp had 43.
Of course statistics don’t tell the full story but they are indicative. Conceding 0-31 to Tipp looks desperate but it is a continuation of a trend — they have shipped 0-28 on average over their three games in NHL 1A this season. Dublin’s points differential after three losses in -9 while Waterford’s is -27, which equates to three nine-point beatings. Each as comprehensive as the next.
It wasn’t exclusively bad news for the Decies because no matter how they came, there actually were goal chances. On another day, Shane Walsh’s 0-1 might have been 2-1 while Shanahan, who from the bench was arguably his side’s man of the match in last year’s Munster final mauling against the same team, was lively at corner-forward. Brendan Maher might have overshadowed Kevin Moran but he too showed flashes of quality.
Only last week, Michael ‘Brick’ Walsh pointed out that 12 or 13 college players had returned to the panel while Noel Connors and John Mullane are to come back. Connors hopes to be back for the championship after undergoing minor surgery on a bulged disc in his back, whereas Mullane could start against Galway. Well they need him, his scores, and his leadership up front.
Answers
To help him sleep, Ryan need only look at the night-and-day difference of Tipperary now versus Tipperary at the end of February when Declan Ryan’s men were played off the park in Kilkenny. There is time to improve, and games in which to improve.
That’s not to suggest that Waterford will win silverware this season but we have seen before how quickly they can raise their game. Just look at 2011 when they were annihilated by Tipperary before recovering to hammer Galway and push the Cats close.
So it’s not all doom and gloom just yet for Ryan, but it’s far from what he’d been dreaming of since he was appointed late last year.