McGrath: We got the perfect response from our top players
They got it.
“Kevin (Moran) and Michael (Walsh) were outstanding and we put it to them on Thursday night that we needed that,” said McGrath.
“Tadhg De Burca played the free role well, he’s a composed young man, ideal for that, and we put our concentration on Dwane Palmer as their sweeper because he’s been their sweeper in every match.
“He hit the ball 17 times out of his hand, uncontested, against Galway, so we put Colin Dunford out on him. It worked to a degree, but, obviously then the corner-back hits a bit more ball. We’re happy to get through it but we’re acutely aware we need to improve the other sides.”
It was the end of a big week in Waterford, and McGrath was conscious of that – and happy his men were able to close out their contest when Laois came asking questions: “We had the minor game, we had Ken’s game, we were training . . . we felt Ken’s game might have indirectly been draining for the lads. I was here myself and trying to focus on our own game. When Laois came back we were able to clip on a few points, we haven’t been doing that. The first round of the league we were seven or eight points up, the same against Cork . . . we’ve trained very hard since the Cork defeat so I’m glad for the group to have the win.”
McGrath conceded it had been difficult to raise the players after the replay loss to Cork, but pointed to other positives, such as the return of Darragh Fives from injury, as lifting the group.
“It was hard, we have a group of elder statesmen and then we have younger players – we had six U21s playing – so you have to balance that. It’s great for Darragh to get back, he’s one of the best hurlers in the country when he’s right. I’m delighted for Conor McCarthy and Michael Grant, our medical guys, for all the work they’ve done — the injury might have come from a bit of naivete from us, getting him to play against Wexford before Christmas, because he’s been out since but you saw what he’s capable of.”
For Laois manager Seamus ‘Cheddar’ Plunkett there was the disappointment of losing, and the pain of uncharacteristic errors.
“We made mistakes we haven’t made in about ten games and at this level you get punished for that. There was a period in the game when Waterford got a run on us – we’d played broadly similar opposition in our last six or seven games and we’d been fairly tight in the way we’d played. This is one of these games . . . . we’ve been together a year and a quarter and I’ve said that along the way, before we get really competitive, there are going to be bumps along the road, and this is one of them. I think we need to learn from it.”
Plunkett sounded a positive note of defiance despite the defeat. “Any game we play we’re going out to win it,” he added. “We never think in terms of teams being down or anything. Teams are so well prepared now there’s no such thing as a backlash, you treat every game like it’s your All-Ireland. That’s how we approach it and I’m sure Waterford approached it the same. We made mistakes and we were punished, and that’s the difference in playing at this level compared to the lower divisions — you will get punished.”
