WHEN DESSIE HUCHINSON talks about the impact of manager Peter Queally, about styles of play and the faith put into the players, you can’t help but feel he’s making the occasional reference to, well, let’s not be coy about this, but Davy Fitzgerald.
“He’s brought a lot over the last couple of years as well. He’s built a lot of confidence in us as players,” says Hutchinson at the Munster hurling launch.
“He’s a passionate Waterford man and he’s bringing that out in us now and what it means to be playing for Waterford, which obviously is a massive thing. If you go away from that you’re in a little bit of bother.
“He knows what it’s like to play, he knows what it’s like to coach and now he knows what it’s like to manage Waterford and that’s a massive thing so he’s brought a lot of professionalism. He’s put a great back room team in place. Everyone is contributing fully. Every bit of help that we need, it’s there on hand for us.”
As for the changed style of play, Hutchinson understandably is the man to ask. His own personal mould of hurler is the lethal inside-line forward hunting for goals.
Under Fitzgerald, he was re-imagined as a worker bee wing-forward, a midfielder and even as a deep-lying sweeper.
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And while everyone has an opinion on sports teams, you had to cast the net far and wide to find someone defending this abrupt change of philosophy.
28 years of age now and appointed as captain for the season, the Ballygunner man appears to be relishing his hurling again.
“I suppose the one thing we want to do is put scores on the board and play attacking hurling and play to what we know we can,” he said.
“Waterford teams in the past have put up big scores and that’s what we want to do. We want to play exciting hurling and get the best out of ourselves and with the squad of players that we have we can definitely do that.”
Which feeds into the question of the management giving the players more license. It’s a move that paid off handsomely as the league went on. It began with a surprise defeat away to home to Carlow, but took off soon after, most notably with the 7-34 scored against Westmeath.
“Look, it’s just the whole management team building confidence in players that yes, we train at the level we train at but then a lot of the hurling we play is off instinct,” Hutchinson says.
“We’re all good hurlers and sometimes you have to make that decision on the pitch of what you think is best. I suppose mistakes are acceptable once they’re not constant and all the time the same thing but if you make a mistake trying something for the betterment of the team, nobody’s going to say a word to you and I suppose that gives players freedom to play to their ability and we have a lot of good, skilful hurlers in the squad and it’s great for lads to be able to go out and show it all the time.”
All that said, they are the last team to get their Munster hurling championship out of the blocks this weekend when they host Clare in Walsh Park.
Given their horrendous record of not getting out of Munster every time there has been a round-robin played, you’d have to wonder just how much pressure this group are putting themselves under to finish in the top three?
After defeat to Clare last year. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
“I suppose it’s not pressure but I suppose we have the belief within our squad that we can do it, more so than pressure,” explains Hutchinson.
“But again, without looking back too much, you think of last year’s games and we weren’t far away and we’re definitely doing a lot more now than we were this time last year in terms of the way we’re going to play and stuff that we feel is going to give us a massive opportunity to go ahead and make sure that we’re in that top three.
“I suppose one thing the management did, they built a lot of belief in us in terms of we’re as good as anyone else in the country. That’s really important and we’re full of confidence and we’ll give it a right lash.”
Last year was the real sickener, having to watch on for the rest of the year knowing that they were within a disputed Mark Rodgers ‘65’ of knocking Cork back to fourth place in Munster. Needless to say, the viewing wasn’t pleasant.
“Yeah, look, it was. It was very tough,” Hutchinson recalls.
“The All-Ireland final in particular, you’re thinking we were after beating Cork and there was a puck of a ball between ourselves and Clare. On another day that goes our way and who knows.
“But I suppose it just goes to show that when you’re in the driving seat in games in Munster you have to stay at it and you have to make sure you get that result because all these games will come down to a puck of a ball and you just have to be on it for 75, nearly 80 minutes now. Making sure you’re carrying out your whole game plan and keep going from there.”
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Clare first this Sunday, then another fixture at home against Limerick six days later. It’s just under a week but it is a period that will come to define Waterford hurling in 2025.
“You just have to focus on the game and make sure you’re getting a performance in there that’s going to be enough to win the game because the home wins are so important in Munster, especially for us now with two-in-a-row six days apart.”
He adds, “It’s a massive thing for us. You just have to prepare and get everything right between now and then and you’d be hoping with the work you have done that it should be enough to have the bodies prepared and work on what’s to come then.”
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'We want to play exciting hurling' - Dessie Hutchinson embracing the changes
WHEN DESSIE HUCHINSON talks about the impact of manager Peter Queally, about styles of play and the faith put into the players, you can’t help but feel he’s making the occasional reference to, well, let’s not be coy about this, but Davy Fitzgerald.
“He’s brought a lot over the last couple of years as well. He’s built a lot of confidence in us as players,” says Hutchinson at the Munster hurling launch.
“He’s a passionate Waterford man and he’s bringing that out in us now and what it means to be playing for Waterford, which obviously is a massive thing. If you go away from that you’re in a little bit of bother.
“He knows what it’s like to play, he knows what it’s like to coach and now he knows what it’s like to manage Waterford and that’s a massive thing so he’s brought a lot of professionalism. He’s put a great back room team in place. Everyone is contributing fully. Every bit of help that we need, it’s there on hand for us.”
As for the changed style of play, Hutchinson understandably is the man to ask. His own personal mould of hurler is the lethal inside-line forward hunting for goals.
Under Fitzgerald, he was re-imagined as a worker bee wing-forward, a midfielder and even as a deep-lying sweeper.
And while everyone has an opinion on sports teams, you had to cast the net far and wide to find someone defending this abrupt change of philosophy.
28 years of age now and appointed as captain for the season, the Ballygunner man appears to be relishing his hurling again.
“I suppose the one thing we want to do is put scores on the board and play attacking hurling and play to what we know we can,” he said.
“Waterford teams in the past have put up big scores and that’s what we want to do. We want to play exciting hurling and get the best out of ourselves and with the squad of players that we have we can definitely do that.”
Which feeds into the question of the management giving the players more license. It’s a move that paid off handsomely as the league went on. It began with a surprise defeat away to home to Carlow, but took off soon after, most notably with the 7-34 scored against Westmeath.
“We’re all good hurlers and sometimes you have to make that decision on the pitch of what you think is best. I suppose mistakes are acceptable once they’re not constant and all the time the same thing but if you make a mistake trying something for the betterment of the team, nobody’s going to say a word to you and I suppose that gives players freedom to play to their ability and we have a lot of good, skilful hurlers in the squad and it’s great for lads to be able to go out and show it all the time.”
All that said, they are the last team to get their Munster hurling championship out of the blocks this weekend when they host Clare in Walsh Park.
Given their horrendous record of not getting out of Munster every time there has been a round-robin played, you’d have to wonder just how much pressure this group are putting themselves under to finish in the top three?
“I suppose it’s not pressure but I suppose we have the belief within our squad that we can do it, more so than pressure,” explains Hutchinson.
“But again, without looking back too much, you think of last year’s games and we weren’t far away and we’re definitely doing a lot more now than we were this time last year in terms of the way we’re going to play and stuff that we feel is going to give us a massive opportunity to go ahead and make sure that we’re in that top three.
“I suppose one thing the management did, they built a lot of belief in us in terms of we’re as good as anyone else in the country. That’s really important and we’re full of confidence and we’ll give it a right lash.”
Last year was the real sickener, having to watch on for the rest of the year knowing that they were within a disputed Mark Rodgers ‘65’ of knocking Cork back to fourth place in Munster. Needless to say, the viewing wasn’t pleasant.
“Yeah, look, it was. It was very tough,” Hutchinson recalls.
“The All-Ireland final in particular, you’re thinking we were after beating Cork and there was a puck of a ball between ourselves and Clare. On another day that goes our way and who knows.
“But I suppose it just goes to show that when you’re in the driving seat in games in Munster you have to stay at it and you have to make sure you get that result because all these games will come down to a puck of a ball and you just have to be on it for 75, nearly 80 minutes now. Making sure you’re carrying out your whole game plan and keep going from there.”
Clare first this Sunday, then another fixture at home against Limerick six days later. It’s just under a week but it is a period that will come to define Waterford hurling in 2025.
“You just have to focus on the game and make sure you’re getting a performance in there that’s going to be enough to win the game because the home wins are so important in Munster, especially for us now with two-in-a-row six days apart.”
He adds, “It’s a massive thing for us. You just have to prepare and get everything right between now and then and you’d be hoping with the work you have done that it should be enough to have the bodies prepared and work on what’s to come then.”
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big week Dessie Hutchinson Munster hurling Skipper Waterford