WHEN WATCHING WATERFORD win the Allianz National Hurling League title in May and reach an All-Ireland semi-final in August, a charge levelled against the county by many was that, while the Déise were great defensively, they lacked spark in attack.
It’s not a theory Waterford manager Derek McGrath subscribes to and he has the facts and figures to back his beliefs up.
“I did an interesting thing over the last couple of weeks,” he told Newtalk’s Rewind Podcast with Oisin Langan.
“I think we scored 22.5 points per game in league and championship which is higher than any Waterford team over the past five years so, statistically, our scoring rate doesn’t match up with people who think we’re defensive.”
And, crucially for the De La Salle clubman, that should only improve as his forward line matures over the coming years.
“To me, the key thing was getting some traction and moving it to a new level in terms of attacking play. Another interesting thing for me was that, by the end of the All-Ireland semi-final, five of our six forwards were 20 years of age.
“I think people in Waterford and maybe outside as well would do well to remember that.”
McGrath disagrees with the notion that his side came on leaps and bounds last year but accepts he was happy with what he called their “relative” progress.
“You have to say we made relative progress. We made big changes at the start of the year and, whilst we don’t feel vindication because we had a relatively successful year, we just felt that we’re going in the right direction and the challenge now is to stabilise and progress next year.
I don’t think we were overly surprised. Long term goals were parked at the start of the year and we just gave ourselves short term targets of winning as many games as possible and building confidence.
“Given the age profile of the team we just felt that, if we could win and get some momentum, the confidence that would be gathered would help us and aid us into the summer and that’s what actually materialised.”
The 39-year old was also keen to point out that his players won’t just learn from the Munster final defeat to Tipperary or All-Ireland final four loss to Kilkenny but from every match they played in 2015.
“We’d be wise to learn from every game we play. I think the day we think we’re in the company of Tipperary and Kilkenny is the day we’ll perish.
“Waterford’s whole approach is to be ravenous in our approach to every team.
“It’s not the case that because of a relatively successful year with a league win and All Ireland semi-final that Waterford players or management are suddenly thinking we’re close to Kilkenny.
The reality is that, unless we’re starving for it, we’re 100 miles away from Kilkenny.
“That might sound very pessimistic but that’s the key thing for us. We need to be as highly charged as we were last year and if we were that way we have a chance of competing with most teams on any given day.”
McGrath also spoke movingly about Maurice Shanahan, who this year revealed his battle with depression, and how he could have managed the situation better before the the 25-year old went public.
“Maurice is an extremely brave individual, a very humble young man. In many ways he suffered really in the midst of 2014 and we as a management, just looking back on my own role in it, I remember he was in the depths of despair and I quite selfishly tried to get him to record a motivational video before the first Cork game that year, which he did, and subsequent to that he was in the doldrums again.
“Looking back at my own role in that, I wouldn’t be proud of it even though we worked really hard to get him through it. It became a case where we felt we could solve it ourselves and sometimes you learn you need to pass these things on.”
