Oct 17,2024
Dessie Hutchinson is confident that the Waterford hurlers will be contenders again next year, despite the departure of Davy Fitzgerald of manager.
The Déise were competitive under the Clare man in 2024, narrowly failing to progress from the Munster round-robin.
It was a surprise therefore, that Fitzgerald decided to walk away in July, especially as his next destination was Antrim, who are improving but have yet to make it out of the Leinster group.
There is continuity in his replacement, however, with former county midfielder and selector for the last two years Peter Queally donning the bainisteoir bib and calling in his old team-mate Dan Shanahan as a selector.
"I suppose he had the two-year term and he was after doing that, so maybe he thought he had brought us as far as he could, and left it for someone else to come in and do it," Hutchinson reflected on Davy's exit.
"You're kind of surprised in one way but in another not too surprised either. I’m not sure what went on.
"All we know now is that we have a manager after coming in that is really going to believe in us and he has Waterford in his heart.
"Peter has played and coached with Waterford, and been successful around the club scene for a long time too. He knows the players already, having been in with the panel for two years.
"So it’s not as if it’s a whole new set-up where a new manager is in trying to get to know new players. That’s definitely going to help that we’re not starting from rock bottom and trying to build it up.
"That gives players a good confidence boost, to know that he will do anything for us to achieve what we want to achieve."
"We have a panel of players that can go on to achieve something. It just hasn't been good enough over the last couple of years"
In Munster, Waterford beat eventual All-Ireland SHC finalists Cork and lost by a single point to champions Clare before conceding a late equaliser to Tipperary and being eliminated by Limerick.
"It is something we're looking forward to after another disappointing year, knowing we aren't too far away after the two main results against Cork and Clare," said the Ballygunner sharpshooter. "We were within a puck of the ball of beating the All-Ireland champions, and we beat other All-Ireland contenders.
"Over the last few years, a lot of teams would have been kind of fearful of Limerick when they kept winning but it [Clare winning] opens the door again for everyone.
"We have a panel of players that can go on to achieve something. It just hasn't been good enough over the last couple of years. I know we played alright last year, but we still didn't get out of the Munster Championship and get to where we wanted to get to. That needs to happen sooner rather than later."
Another former member of Davy's management team who is staying in place is Eoin Kelly, a two-time All-Ireland winner in his Tipperary days. The six-time All-Star is giving fellow forward Hutchinson the benefit of his extensive experience.
"Tipp fans might not want to hear it but we're trying to adopt him as one of our own now!" joked Hutchinson.
"Eoin is brilliant. He is a new enough coach in the inter-county scene and he’s growing with us. He’ll probably put more of his stamp on us this year, which is exciting, especially as a forward. He’s one of the best hurlers ever to play the game and you love taking bits of knowledge off them and trying to implement them into your game.
"He is a huge motivator. He believes in us and that’s the reason he came down to Waterford. He saw the talent that was there.
"He has tried to help me big time in terms of becoming a top inter-county forward. There are loads of little different things. He might take you on his own for 15 minutes and just get used to hitting the ball into the back of the net in different ways. He just fills you with confidence that you can go out and do it in the heat of battle. Excited to work with him again this year."
Ballygunner recently retained their Waterford crown for the 11th consecutive year and the city club have become a provincial juggernaut as well - last year's victory over Clonara secured a Munster three-in-a-row that took them level with Cork's Blackrock at the top of the roll of honour, on five titles.
Despite that, they have only gone all the way to All-Ireland glory once, in 2021-22. Their latest Munster campaign begins away to the Limerick champions (Na Piarsaigh or Doon) on 3 November but memories of last year's semi-final penalty shootout exit - to eventual champions St Thomas' of Galway - are still fresh in Hutchinson's mind.
"I don't think there is a sense of under-achievement within the group because we know our performances have been very good and what we have been doing has been up to a really high level," he said.
"We have been beaten in semi-finals but each time we have been beaten, that team has gone on and won. And we're only losing by a puck of a ball here and there.
"But as a player you want to be winning as much as you can in the short period that you have.
"To be honest I don't think there is any place for the penalty shootout in hurling. The game is too entertaining and fast to bring a game to penalties. For anyone watching that game, it was an unreal spectacle, and there was no reason why the two teams couldn’t have gone out the following weekend and done the exact same thing again.
"Hopefully, that rule might change. Because even if it was the other way round, and Thomas’ had lost on penalties, it wouldn’t have been fair. You saw it in Clare last week as well, a team [Inagh-Kilnamona] going out in a county semi-final on penalties, it doesn’t sit right with a lot of players. I don’t think there’s a player in the country that would say the penalty shootout works, or even a supporter.
"Of course, you have to call it at some stage if draws keep happening but I think there are better ways to do it, overtime like the NFL, or a golden point, things like that. Implementing the real skills of the game."
