Derek McGrath: Better blend of emotion and logic to see Waterford through

Waterford’s Calum Lyons and Clare's  Aaron Shanagher comepte in last year's All-Ireland SHC quarter-final at Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Picture: Inpho/Morgan Treacy

“It actually takes two opposing forces to bring it to life. It takes both emotion and logic to reach your maximum potential, to really give everything you have to go beyond your limits.”

Jocko Willink: Discipline Equals Freedom Field Manual

Getting the balance right between emotion and logic or instruction will be central to the thought processes of players and management ahead of the championship start this weekend.

It seems that we all, at some point in our lives, face a quandary around balance.

Having lost our beloved Dad on January 2nd last, the balance between remembering, grieving and trying to move on is a delicate process. Like many fathers, he longed for the coming weekend when the “real stuff” would begin.

Most team environments now have a set of guiding principles and values that are never to be compromised regardless of outcome. These may include honesty, respect, integrity, relentlessness, fun, discipline and grit.

Specifics are built around those. “Discipline equals freedom,” may sound contradictory, even counter-intuitive. How can a player feel free on a pitch?

Going for it. Removing the shackles. Expressing yourself. It all comes from having the work done.

Damian Hughes, in his book How to think like Sir Alex Ferguson, talks of practice as “the place to stretch, to make mistakes, the time to reach and repeat, over and over until you’ve built the reliable skill.” 

Crucially, it's also the place for emotion, “a place to experience and embrace the arduous frustration that’s part of the building process.” 

Liam Cahill and Michael Bevans represent the perfect concoction of madness and guile, emotion and logic, for Waterford. Watching the body language and work ethic of the players, the complete buy-in and trust is obvious.

A team working as one, hunting down the opposition, a team unburdened by 60-odd years of hurt, driven by their own expectations and ambitions. Individuality counts for nothing with this group of Waterford hurlers.

There is a strong argument to be made that this is a team reaching its peak, if not quite at it.

No Tadhg de Búrca, no Pauric Mahony, possibly no Jamie Barron or Conor Prunty. But crucially no complaints or excuses either.

The emergence of Jack Fagan, Calum Lyons and Dessie Hutchinson, allied to the experience of Kevin Moran and Shane Fives, the Bennetts, Darragh Lyons, Peter Hogan, Austin Gleeson and Jamie make us a genuine contender for the year ahead.

People often forget that although this is Austin's eighth season, he is still only 26. As usual, his positioning on Sunday will cause conjecture, much of it needless and lazy debate.

Austin does not ‘suffer’ from the lack of a set position. His best position will be the one Liam picks him in for the occasion and circumstances.

If this is bombing on from 5 as he did when winning the league in 2015, or a relocation to 11 (where he would play anywhere bar 11), then so be it. Fluidity and flexibility are the key components here.

Of the various Waterford post-season interviews, nearly all referenced the need to “win a trophy”. Cahill admitted his tenure will be a failure if that doesn’t happen. Liam is doing a brilliant job and rightly has lofty ambitions but it will be anything but failure even if that trophy doesn’t come. The most telling interview given was by Calum Lyons, who spoke of the shift in mindset of the group ahead of 2020, and a focus on who they are and what they represent.

The main question occupying Liam’s mind now will be Tony Kelly.

Last year, Tony was carrying a debilitating injury, but Calum picked him from the start, scored a point in the first half and dominated thereafter.

A couple of things have changed since. Calum has accelerated to the point where he is one of Waterford’s main attacking weapons. Having hit the net against Cork in championship last year he has 15 points from play in his four league games. A hybrid of Declan Meehan and Jack McCaffrey with hurling, Calum may now be plan B or C for Tony.

The front-foot power Calum gives Waterford would be compromised if Kelly does as he did against Limerick last year and trots into the right corner-forward berth. What will have to be weighed up is Kelly's possible positioning anywhere from 8 to 15 and the subsequent fluidity needed to suit relocations.

A deep-dive analysis of last year's meeting shows Tadhg de Búrca spending much of his time isolated as a wing-back because Lyons had followed Kelly to 11.

Waterford have other suitable candidates for the Kelly job, notably Conor Gleeson, Kieran Bennett and Kevin Moran. Conor and Kieran have played in practically every line of the field and have the flexibility to adapt to various postings. Whatever the plan, no man on a hurling field operates alone anymore and the collective pressure from the hunters will be key.

The ‘handover technique’ used by us in the 2016 league final replay would need absolute clarity to work. Our approach was to hand over Kelly to our third midfielder once he reached a certain point. Hurling is so fluid, these messages can get lost and clearly did as Philip Mahony bore public scrutiny for seemingly being scorched by Kelly for 1-5.

Waterford know what gameplan suits them best. At its core is relentless drive (emotion) and strategic planning (logic).

Iarlaith Daly will sit on the edge of the D, encouraged to distribute and use his game intelligence, bombing forward occasionally and providing crucial adaptability. Think of the Limerick league game where he played at 4. If Kelly goes to 11 and is tagged by Bennett or Gleeson, Iarlaith has the ability to adapt to any set of circumstances.

In front of that possible half-back line of Gleeson, Daly and Lyons will effectively be a wall, a cordon of six midfielders with any combination of Dessie, Shane or Stephen inside.

At their best, Waterford’s unpredictability makes them the proactive force. On opposition puckouts, we will cover the six spots before rushing back to the land of unconventionality thereafter. The key to this counter-attacking system is the personnel in the middle third. Expect to see Jamie (if fit), Jake, Darragh Lyons, Kevin Moran, the extremely underrated Jack Prendergast, and perhaps Peter Hogan.

Stephen Bennett will wander out occasionally and his ability to score from distance allied to his running game provides a real dilemma for Clare.

The instruction will be simple from maor uisce Bevans on the far side. "Take ‘em on, run, go." The wall will allow Calum and Austin that freedom to go. It’s a clever and savage system that suits these Waterford players.

The outlet ball to Dessie and Shane is also an option and these two are closest in the country to Aaron Gillane in terms of winning the ball when outnumbered.

Watch Ballygunner over the last four years and you’ll have seen Dessie double- and triple-marked. But his movement and craft are so good that he invariably wins the race.

What Hutchinson also brings is brilliant presence and organisational skills to the forward line. For any coach focusing on the reset at puckout time, watch his directive technique having scored that top-spinned goal against Tipperary.

Immediately, it’s eyes wide open, hurley up, pointing left and right, on the balls of his feet. Crucially, he has at least eight looks over his left and right shoulders to see where Tipp half-backs are trying to find pockets of space.

The most likely scenario on Sunday is that Clare perform but Waterford win.

The Banner’s positive conclusion to the league, the returns of Ian and Colm Galvin, allied to green shoots of reconciliation emerging behind the scenes has created an air of optimism.

Perversely the rumblings around Clare GAA this spring may have aided Brian Lohan on a number of levels. Inherently proud players like Kelly, McInerney, Cleary and Malone can lead a ‘band of brothers’ approach, insulating themselves from the outside and armed to produce a performance full of the emotion that anger and indignation can inflame.

From the outside, it's hard not to admire the loyalty and support towards Lohan from players he previously played with. It is obvious they would like nothing more than for him to be successful. No commentary seems to be forthcoming on the need for Clare and Brian to ensure that the tactical alignment is as innovative as his predecessors.

We know Clare will have the emotion, now we have to see detailed, logical planning. I am sure that an in-depth analysis of last year’s visit to Páirc Uí Chaoimh will have revealed the prairie of space in front of Rory Hayes and Conor Cleary which made their jobs nigh-on impossible.

Under Davy Fitzgerald — and indeed Donal Moloney and Gerry O’Connor — Clare played a fluid, flexible counter-attacking game. In recent league games, I have noticed a distinct return to this style. Davy Reidy, Ian Galvin, Aidan McCarthy and obviously Kelly have the athleticism and guile to implement it.

The positioning of Conlon as a “sitting 6” rather than a chasing 6 can allow Diarmuid Ryan, Clare’s version of Calum Lyons, attack from deep. The impressive Aidan McCarthy provides the flexibility needed to counter the Waterford numbers. And there’s an outlet ball to the reinvigorated Aron Shanagher.

There’s substance to Clare optimism. Yet it may be optimism undermined by lingering doubt. The language of “we won’t be too bad when we have them all”. Have they the belief necessary to cause a shock?

Waterford’s belief in what they are doing is total. And their alignment to the thinking of the chess grandmaster Gary Kasparov, who concluded that “one does not succeed by sticking to convention”, provides an advantage.

It should see us through to next week.