FOLLOWING HIS MINOR miracle of delivering a Munster hurling title to Waterford in 2002, it felt like Justin McCarthy could walk on water.
Peter Queally felt otherwise. A first provincial title for the Déise since 1963 still left the hardened veteran midfielder with lingering doubts.
2003 came and went, finishing with a defeat in the qualifiers against Wexford and signalling the end of McCarthy’s two-year arrangement with the county board.
Queally, along with full-back Brian Greene, said they wouldn’t hurl for Waterford again if McCarthy was in charge. Others such as Brian Flannery and Tony Browne had mooted the idea of retirement.
The county board asked McCarthy to stay on, and he agreed. Some players came back, some were exiled by choice.
Queally in his playing days. INPHO
INPHO
Just one month later, Queally was named as the new physical trainer and selector with the Waterford footballers under manager Billy Harty.
Football was the habit he never quite wanted to shift. As a garda based in Youghal, he had played some hurling in Cork with Sarsfields and football with Glanmire, but the Queally name was synonymous with his club back home – hurling with Ballydurn and football with sister club Newtown – and the Cork experiment lasted just two years.
From 1989, he was a dual county player for eight seasons, eventually and reluctantly committing solely to hurling in 1997. Even in 1999, he came back and played in the junior football championship, winning a Munster title and following that with an All-Ireland won at the expense of Meath.
That win was far from cheap. Waterford had never won an All-Ireland football championship at any grade in over 100 years. Queally was in midfield and superb throughout the contest.
Even after taking the role as selector and trainer, his competitive urges overtook him, and he played in the 2004 football league.
By 2008, the hurling landscape had changed dramatically. Waterford lost their Munster championship opener to Clare, the panel fell out with McCarthy, and he was ousted. In his place came Davy Fitzgerald.
A phone call to Queally after their capitulation to Clare came eight days later from the county board chairman. They had a new manager agreed. No, he couldn’t reveal his name, but he needed two selectors.
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By this stage, Queally was still playing club; he had a two-year stint managing the county minor hurlers; and he was over Ballygunner where he had brought them to a county final only to be beaten by Ballyduff Upper. Back then, Ballygunner weren’t quite the dominant force of now. They had reached the county final every year since 1999, but Mount Sion had their number five of those occasions.
Queally consulted with those closest to him, and asked Ballygunner for their blessing. He got the all-clear and went back into a dressing room he left five years previously. There was something about the defeat to Clare that left him deeply uneasy.
“They were so soundly beaten, I felt this was different,” he told The Irish Independent at the time.
“It was a new low or whatever. The manner of the defeat. I felt it wasn’t good. It was going back to the mid-1990s, to ’95 when Tipp beat us down in Páirc Uí Chaoimh by 21 points.”
Fitzgerald’s first spell was eventful and often spectacular. The players got all they wanted of the tough, hard physical training that they felt McCarthy skimped on, being a slave to the technical aspects of the game and devoted to the idea of a good first touch conquering all.
After two years, Queally left. His coaching career was jam-packed thereafter. While also county U21 manager, he was managing Passage, and they found themselves in the 2013 county final against Ballygunner, seven points down with seven minutes left. Passage still won.
As winning manager for Passage. Ken Sutton / INPHO
Ken Sutton / INPHO / INPHO
He later took charge of Abbeyside and Roanmore, bringing both to the county final, but by then, the Gunners had established themselves and weren’t having any fairytale stories at their expense.
It was, and it wasn’t, a surprise that Queally ended up going back in with Davy Fitzgerald in late 2022. By then, retirement from the guards was coming. He knew that he wanted to manage his county, but he didn’t want to shortchange anyone with his energy levels or time commitment.
When Fitzgerald left, Queally told very few about his plans. He got the job after having to stand in front of people and tell white lies that he had no interest. Tipperary legend Eoin Kelly had joined the Fitzgerald Waterford backroom team and stayed on for last summer, but in September, stepped away.
Now, Waterford have that rarest of things: a management set-up that is exclusively from within the county confines. In any elite set-up, be in Kerry or Armagh footballers, Cork hurlers and even Brian Cody’s Kilkenny, there’s usually a blow-in around the place taking care of conditioning, coaching or sports psychology.
“His big thing is he wears his heart on his sleeve,” says WLR matchday commentator, Kieran O’Connor, whose brother Michael was on the Waterford team that won Liam MacCarthy in 1959. “He is blue and white, Waterford through and through.”
Dan Shanahan’s involvement runs deep, and as selector, he brings experience from his time both as a player and in Derek McGrath’s backroom team.
Donal O’Rourke, a native of Cappaquin, has been coaxed back across the county boundary after his years spent in Cork managing the camógs and in Pat Ryan’s backroom team. In the wake of Kelly’s departure, his return has been a good fit.
Shane O’Sullivan fills the performance coach role. He has even brought in his young son Richie to help out with the kit. What a way to spend some time with your father.
It would be wrong to say that Waterford were ever squeamish about outside managers. Even go back as far Joe McGrath, the native of Down who managed Cork county teams and Blackrock to great heights of achievement. Waterford turned to him in 1990, but the relationship broke down in no time at all after he insisted on two hurleys for each panel member and the board flatly refused.
A couple of years later, they were being beaten by Kerry in the Munster Championship.
A series of figures came in and changed things, starting with Gerald McCarthy. Then Justin McCarthy delivered silverware, as did Davy Fitzgerald. Two natives in Michael Ryan and Derek McGrath would follow, and through then to outside men again in Liam Cahill and Davy once more.
“I don’t think it was an issue,” O’Connor reasons. “Nobody made a big deal out of it or anything. But now the fact that we are all Waterford everyone’s delighted about it, you know that kind of way?”
The Waterford management team. James Lawlor / INPHO
James Lawlor / INPHO / INPHO
“There was nobody crying that Liam Cahill was coming from Tipperary.
“To be honest there was very mixed feeling about Davy coming back. In hindsight, it probably was a very bad call.
“But it wasn’t an issue. What Gerald and Justin did, the general feeling is that Gerald brought a professionalism to it that got us belief, that put belief back into us. And then Justin finished it off.”
All of that is just a feeling though.
For any Waterford manager, there is an insane pressure to just escape the Munster round-robin, to ensure that their season is not already over before summer has broken out.
Queally’s first attempt took off well with an eight-point win over Clare. Defeats to Limerick, Tipperary and Cork left them with the wooden spoon.
In the first league game of the year, they were unfortunate enough to be the first up for a Ben O’Connor hatchetting. One week later, they showed up the Limerick vulnerabilities, and in round three, they just had too much for Offaly.
Kilkenny in Nowlan Park is an excellent gut check for both this Sunday.
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Derek Lyng’s men found things too close for comfort in a four-point winning margin against Offaly on the opening weekend, and then were well-beaten by Limerick.
Waterford’s health check is mixed. Conor Prunty has a quad issue. Patrick Fitzgerald is nursing a tender hamstring. Others expected to come back from Ballygunner include Dessie Hutchinson, Paddy Leavey, Ian Kenny, Peter Hogan and Kevin Mahony.
Corner-back Aaron O’Neill has been called up and already played against Offaly. Callum Lyons and Jack Fagan are both back from Australia. Sean Walsh is back after his red card against Cork.
Stephen Bennett is nursing those much-discussed hips of his back into another year. His brother Kieran is also around, as is Tadhg De Búrca.
Last month, Austin Gleeson pulled out of the squad, frustrated with injuries, in a career ravaged by them. The word around Waterford however is that he is working with a personal trainer and putting in a big effort to reach the fitness levels required and take it from there.
A solid league campaign is required to carry some form over into Munster. That may be obvious, but it is nonetheless essential for Queally in what looks like a battle within their own minds.
Around the time when Queally and others said he wouldn’t hurl again under Justin McCarthy, the Corkman said, “The players mentioned have made enormous contributions and that must be acknowledged. When they become managers themselves they will understand how things work because they’ll be in similar situations.”
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Peter Queally and Waterford crave a head of steam to bring into the Munster bearpit
FOLLOWING HIS MINOR miracle of delivering a Munster hurling title to Waterford in 2002, it felt like Justin McCarthy could walk on water.
Peter Queally felt otherwise. A first provincial title for the Déise since 1963 still left the hardened veteran midfielder with lingering doubts.
2003 came and went, finishing with a defeat in the qualifiers against Wexford and signalling the end of McCarthy’s two-year arrangement with the county board.
Queally, along with full-back Brian Greene, said they wouldn’t hurl for Waterford again if McCarthy was in charge. Others such as Brian Flannery and Tony Browne had mooted the idea of retirement.
The county board asked McCarthy to stay on, and he agreed. Some players came back, some were exiled by choice.
Just one month later, Queally was named as the new physical trainer and selector with the Waterford footballers under manager Billy Harty.
Football was the habit he never quite wanted to shift. As a garda based in Youghal, he had played some hurling in Cork with Sarsfields and football with Glanmire, but the Queally name was synonymous with his club back home – hurling with Ballydurn and football with sister club Newtown – and the Cork experiment lasted just two years.
From 1989, he was a dual county player for eight seasons, eventually and reluctantly committing solely to hurling in 1997. Even in 1999, he came back and played in the junior football championship, winning a Munster title and following that with an All-Ireland won at the expense of Meath.
That win was far from cheap. Waterford had never won an All-Ireland football championship at any grade in over 100 years. Queally was in midfield and superb throughout the contest.
Even after taking the role as selector and trainer, his competitive urges overtook him, and he played in the 2004 football league.
By 2008, the hurling landscape had changed dramatically. Waterford lost their Munster championship opener to Clare, the panel fell out with McCarthy, and he was ousted. In his place came Davy Fitzgerald.
By this stage, Queally was still playing club; he had a two-year stint managing the county minor hurlers; and he was over Ballygunner where he had brought them to a county final only to be beaten by Ballyduff Upper. Back then, Ballygunner weren’t quite the dominant force of now. They had reached the county final every year since 1999, but Mount Sion had their number five of those occasions.
Queally consulted with those closest to him, and asked Ballygunner for their blessing. He got the all-clear and went back into a dressing room he left five years previously. There was something about the defeat to Clare that left him deeply uneasy.
“They were so soundly beaten, I felt this was different,” he told The Irish Independent at the time.
“It was a new low or whatever. The manner of the defeat. I felt it wasn’t good. It was going back to the mid-1990s, to ’95 when Tipp beat us down in Páirc Uí Chaoimh by 21 points.”
Fitzgerald’s first spell was eventful and often spectacular. The players got all they wanted of the tough, hard physical training that they felt McCarthy skimped on, being a slave to the technical aspects of the game and devoted to the idea of a good first touch conquering all.
After two years, Queally left. His coaching career was jam-packed thereafter. While also county U21 manager, he was managing Passage, and they found themselves in the 2013 county final against Ballygunner, seven points down with seven minutes left. Passage still won.
He later took charge of Abbeyside and Roanmore, bringing both to the county final, but by then, the Gunners had established themselves and weren’t having any fairytale stories at their expense.
It was, and it wasn’t, a surprise that Queally ended up going back in with Davy Fitzgerald in late 2022. By then, retirement from the guards was coming. He knew that he wanted to manage his county, but he didn’t want to shortchange anyone with his energy levels or time commitment.
When Fitzgerald left, Queally told very few about his plans. He got the job after having to stand in front of people and tell white lies that he had no interest. Tipperary legend Eoin Kelly had joined the Fitzgerald Waterford backroom team and stayed on for last summer, but in September, stepped away.
Now, Waterford have that rarest of things: a management set-up that is exclusively from within the county confines. In any elite set-up, be in Kerry or Armagh footballers, Cork hurlers and even Brian Cody’s Kilkenny, there’s usually a blow-in around the place taking care of conditioning, coaching or sports psychology.
“His big thing is he wears his heart on his sleeve,” says WLR matchday commentator, Kieran O’Connor, whose brother Michael was on the Waterford team that won Liam MacCarthy in 1959. “He is blue and white, Waterford through and through.”
Dan Shanahan’s involvement runs deep, and as selector, he brings experience from his time both as a player and in Derek McGrath’s backroom team.
Donal O’Rourke, a native of Cappaquin, has been coaxed back across the county boundary after his years spent in Cork managing the camógs and in Pat Ryan’s backroom team. In the wake of Kelly’s departure, his return has been a good fit.
Shane O’Sullivan fills the performance coach role. He has even brought in his young son Richie to help out with the kit. What a way to spend some time with your father.
It would be wrong to say that Waterford were ever squeamish about outside managers. Even go back as far Joe McGrath, the native of Down who managed Cork county teams and Blackrock to great heights of achievement. Waterford turned to him in 1990, but the relationship broke down in no time at all after he insisted on two hurleys for each panel member and the board flatly refused.
A couple of years later, they were being beaten by Kerry in the Munster Championship.
A series of figures came in and changed things, starting with Gerald McCarthy. Then Justin McCarthy delivered silverware, as did Davy Fitzgerald. Two natives in Michael Ryan and Derek McGrath would follow, and through then to outside men again in Liam Cahill and Davy once more.
“I don’t think it was an issue,” O’Connor reasons. “Nobody made a big deal out of it or anything. But now the fact that we are all Waterford everyone’s delighted about it, you know that kind of way?”
“There was nobody crying that Liam Cahill was coming from Tipperary.
“To be honest there was very mixed feeling about Davy coming back. In hindsight, it probably was a very bad call.
“But it wasn’t an issue. What Gerald and Justin did, the general feeling is that Gerald brought a professionalism to it that got us belief, that put belief back into us. And then Justin finished it off.”
All of that is just a feeling though.
For any Waterford manager, there is an insane pressure to just escape the Munster round-robin, to ensure that their season is not already over before summer has broken out.
Queally’s first attempt took off well with an eight-point win over Clare. Defeats to Limerick, Tipperary and Cork left them with the wooden spoon.
In the first league game of the year, they were unfortunate enough to be the first up for a Ben O’Connor hatchetting. One week later, they showed up the Limerick vulnerabilities, and in round three, they just had too much for Offaly.
Kilkenny in Nowlan Park is an excellent gut check for both this Sunday.
Derek Lyng’s men found things too close for comfort in a four-point winning margin against Offaly on the opening weekend, and then were well-beaten by Limerick.
Waterford’s health check is mixed. Conor Prunty has a quad issue. Patrick Fitzgerald is nursing a tender hamstring. Others expected to come back from Ballygunner include Dessie Hutchinson, Paddy Leavey, Ian Kenny, Peter Hogan and Kevin Mahony.
Corner-back Aaron O’Neill has been called up and already played against Offaly. Callum Lyons and Jack Fagan are both back from Australia. Sean Walsh is back after his red card against Cork.
Stephen Bennett is nursing those much-discussed hips of his back into another year. His brother Kieran is also around, as is Tadhg De Búrca.
Last month, Austin Gleeson pulled out of the squad, frustrated with injuries, in a career ravaged by them. The word around Waterford however is that he is working with a personal trainer and putting in a big effort to reach the fitness levels required and take it from there.
A solid league campaign is required to carry some form over into Munster. That may be obvious, but it is nonetheless essential for Queally in what looks like a battle within their own minds.
Around the time when Queally and others said he wouldn’t hurl again under Justin McCarthy, the Corkman said, “The players mentioned have made enormous contributions and that must be acknowledged. When they become managers themselves they will understand how things work because they’ll be in similar situations.”
And here we are.
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2005 All-Ireland Hurling Championship bishop of waterford Déise legends GAA Hurling PURE DEISE