Derek McGrath moves on from Diarmuid Kirwan’s late controversial free decision

Waterford hurling boss Derek McGrath said yesterday that he and his squad had “parked” referee Diarmuid Kirwan’s controversial late call in Sunday’s league final immediately after the game.

Kirwan awarded Clare an injury-time free which Tony Kelly converted to help Clare to victory in Thurles, but McGrath said: “The groundswell of opinion in Waterford on Monday — not in our dressing room — was of Diarmuid (Kirwan), but we parked that immediately ourselves. In the Horse and Jockey, we had our team meeting and we said that.

“The longer that becomes a side issue, any sense of ‘we were robbed’, then it becomes a negative, like the reaction to the drawn game the previous week.

“And all the time Clare are preparing and almost saying to themselves, ‘hey, they’re saying it was a refereeing decision, we’ll show them’. It could become part of their process.

“The manner of the defeat is gone for us as a group, our motivation is that we want to make it to another Munster final. It would be so brilliant for us and would set up our whole year, the prize is so massive.”

The De La Salle clubman said he and the management had tried to keep their players away from the widespread criticism of the drawn game.

“It was very difficult, because the mindset in the group is not to talk about the old-fashioned, ‘this fella said this, this fella said that’. We want to move away from that — ‘did you hear what this expert wrote, or that fella said’. On the way up here I heard Dónal Óg (Cusack) on the radio say there were a lot of elements to the first (drawn) game that were completely unrecognised by critics in terms of how players played. I’d wholeheartedly agree.

“It’s getting the element that will never buy into it, who don’t view it as hurling at all, getting them over the line. We played no differently on Sunday, tactically, yet the game was totally different. But people today were telling me we set up completely differently, the shackles were off, all of that.”

McGrath acknowledged the notion hurling fans want to be entertained.

“There is (that notion), I think. The danger is that changes implemented in Gaelic football in the last few years, that if the games continue to go in a particular fashion, that there’ll be a sense of ‘we need to change this, change that’.

“I played in a league match in 1994 against Offaly, and it was the day you were only allowed to catch the ball once and then hit it. I think there’s a danger of people saying ‘we’ll need to do something here’.

“It’s widely acknowledged that Galway-Tipp was the best game last year, but to me there were lots of tactical things going on in that game that people didn’t see. It’s the breakdown of the play — when the short game or otherwise breaks down, you’ll have people saying ‘will you hit it in?’ I might be in the minority but the drawn game, 22 points each, to me was completely absorbing.”

The “conundrum” of where best to play Austin Gleeson continues, he added.

“He’ll be centre-back for the U21s, won a minor All-Ireland there, was a wing-back for us last year, he’s played wing-forward and full-forward this year. So he’s been in five or six different positions for us.

“It’s a conundrum because you’re balancing your own thought processes, which are that he’s at his best when he’s going forward rather than when he has his back to goal, though he got a point over his shoulder last Sunday.

“He’s better when he’s bombing, and the modern half-forward has to track back, support his own forwards and pick up an opposing forward the odd time. He’s like all of us, he’s learning.

“He was full-forward against Tipperary and Wexford, but it was only out around the middle that he looked most comfortable. That’s when he’s at his best, when he’s not tied, and that suits the randomness of his character.”

McGrath said he hoped supporters “would go and see a Waterford team working for each other, fighting for each other and putting their bodies on the line — it’s old fashioned but that’s what we’d hope,” despite criticism from the likes of Sean Stack and Justin McCarthy about their style of play.

“I think it’s the greatest compliment being referred to as ordinary,” said McGrath of Stack’s comments. “We actually took that as a compliment because it is only when a group of ordinary people or players are together and they put their mind and focus on one game that you can do anything you want.

“ Everybody is entitled to their opinion. It probably followed a widespread kind of sense of negative comments from high profile people. Justin (McCarthy) would have come out last year and was giving out about how we were playing, Eddie O’Connor as well before the Kilkenny game.

“We have had to deal with all those things but that’s where I would take pride in the lads’ mental fortitude. All you need is one or two in the group saying ‘we should be playing this way or that way’ but we don’t have that.”