Derek McGrath sees renewed vigour in his former Waterford charges, who he believes will pose a much greater threat this year.
Bar reaching a League final last year, in which they were well beaten by Limerick, the team’s fortunes have largely plummeted since McGrath steered them to the 2017 All-Ireland final, where they were edged out by Galway.
They couldn’t win a game in the following year’s Championship, after which he stepped down. They fared even worse last year, with Paraic Fanning eventually being replaced by Liam Cahill, who has made a decent start.
They play Limerick at the LIT Gaelic Grounds tonight and are assured of a place in the knockout stages of the Allianz League, but a win would send them straight through to the semi-final.
“What a lot of people lose track of is a lot of those guys, even Austin (Gleeson), Stephen Bennett, Patrick Currans, they were exposed to it very young and people think they are on the road a long time,” said McGrath.
“In ‘14 they were all part of it and winning the League in ‘15, they are young lads still and sometimes the natural tendencies, and this isn’t making excuses, is to have a dip before you refocus and go again.
“And what also has happened is that the expectation levels. After ’17, for us it was an All-Ireland or nothing and maybe that can permeate its way into the thinking of the group.
“Maybe a more realistic cut-off line can be, ‘Listen let’s be as competitive as we can be’ and I think Waterford are really dangerous when the expectations are lowered on the outside.
“There’s freshness, yeah. Conor Prunty would have played during our era only for injury and you have Neil Montgomery, Jack Fagan and that brings a newness and it is interesting to watch it develop. Watching the body language from everyone involved there is a real buy-in.
“Kevin [Moran] looks renewed, it’s like they are saying to themselves, ‘Look we’ll draw a line in the sand and we’ll have one cut at it and concentrate on performances’ and they seem to be following good processes.
“They are raving about the training of Mikey Bevans, the word on the ground is that the training is really intense and really good.”
Even for McGrath himself, he says he’s more chilled out as a spectator than he was in his first season out of the job last year.
“Yeah, I watched the Waterford-Cork game on telly and I went to the Waterford-Tipp game on Sunday.
“I find it way easier to watch the matches, maybe the year out I’m starting to get a lot more mellow in terms of watching and supporting them and getting involved in it and enjoying the day out whereas I didn’t really enjoy the days out last year.
“Maybe it was because you are in the bubble for so long and when you are out of it you feel like you should be in it but now you are just comfortable out of it, you know?”
Not for too long, mind. He’s currently involved with the Laois minors and has a role with Faythe Harriers in Wexford too though he wants to manage at the highest level again.
“The Laois thing is less pressurised and I'm enjoying it, I'm really enjoying it because it's an age group that I'm used to from school, from 20 years coaching in school. I haven't done the Harty team since '09 so that's why I'm enjoying that.
“I have the two nights I go up there a week but I'd love to have another cut at it yeah, 100%.
“My young lad is in second year, I'd like to just maybe get him through Junior Cert into transition year maybe.
“That's a family plan as opposed to a sporting plan. If something came up in the meantime, you'd consider it, you'd look at it but yeah I don't see myself being out of it for the next 10 years, if you like.
“I certainly see myself being involved over the next few years in some capacity.”
PREDICTION
Another victory for Limerick would see them finish the regulation phase of the competition with full points, something they haven’t achieved in top flight hurling since 1998.
Incidentally, that run was ended by Waterford in semi-final of that year’s competition though the recent history between these teams has been much more favourable to Limerick, who beat them well in last year’s League final and in Championship meetings either side of that.
There’s not much at stake this evening with both already assured of places in the knockout stages, but Limerick have the greater spread of quality to ensure they have a fortnight off until the semi-final.
VERDICT: Limerick
