Big Dan: Ken will lift morale
On Tuesday, the team had a training session which saw the return of veterans John Mullane and Eoin Kelly. Afterwards there was a disagreement over the allocation of gear, with some players suggesting they’d have to wear club shorts and socks tomorrow in Pearse Stadium for the clash with Galway unless all squad members got the requisite clothing.
On Wednesday, manager Michael Ryan met officials from the County Board to discuss the situation.
On Thursday selector Nicky Cashin stepped down, with one report claiming he had “issues” with the board, though the team manager told this newspaper that Cashin had “personal reasons” for pulling out.
Yesterday Waterford legend Ken McGrath, who retired last year, was confirmed as his replacement. The Executive of the County Board met last night while a full County Board meeting is scheduled for Monday night to appoint a replacement senior selector.
The round of meetings put former Waterford star Dan Shanahan in mind of 2008, when he and his Déise teammates put a disastrous early season behind them to figure in the All-Ireland final — having jettisoned manager Justin McCarthy along the way.
“You’d be reminded of that time alright,” said Shanahan yesterday. “Player meetings, particularly when the team management aren’t involved, always lead to rumours.
“But there’s one small difference, I suppose, in that Nicky chose to step down very quickly. They say it was down to personal reasons and he’s a loss, Nicky’s a very good hurling coach, but what a man to come in to replace him.”
Shanahan soldiered with Ken McGrath, Cashin’s replacement as a selector, for 15 years with Waterford.
“Ken is Mr Waterford as far as I’m concerned,” said Shanahan.
“He did it all for Waterford and he was a hero and rightly so. He mightn’t have a lot of coaching experience but I can tell you that when Ken spoke in the dressing-room to fire lads up before playing for Waterford they all listened to him. He was outstanding in that regard. He’s a friend of mine, so people might think I’m biased, but I think he’s a very good appointment. He’ll certainly improve things in terms of morale.”
Shanahan pointed to the general apathy in Waterford as a result of rumblings in the hurling camp.
“I’m friendly with the players and we’d chat away about things. But you wouldn’t need a friend on the panel to know things haven’t been going well. That’s been obvious from the performances. Michael Ryan’s under a bit of pressure. He’s had a lot of players out injured, players unavailable — that doesn’t help, and they’ve lost games as a result. People aren’t optimistic in Waterford about the team’s chances, and that’s because they’ve lost those games. Obviously if Cork had lost their first three games under Jimmy Barry-Murphy you’d have people in Cork saying, ‘ah, he shouldn’t have come back at all’. And it would be the same in Clare, the same in Limerick.
“One thing is feeding another in Waterford at the moment — they didn’t have a full panel to pick from so they lost games, they lost games so people aren’t happy with the team, people aren’t happy with the team so there’s pressure on the manager.”
Kickstarting their season in Galway tomorrow is a tall order, according to Shanahan.
“It is not a place we ever had much success when I was playing. Even on a good day it can be windy and the breeze is tricky enough to judge.
“You also have the Anthony Cunningham factor. Garrycastle nearly won the All-Ireland club football final last weekend so you’d understand if he wasn’t fully focused on Galway and Cork in the league the following day, but they won, and won by driving on hard in the second-half when it might have been gone from them. With Joe (Canning) out, the other forwards have obviously focused on doing the business themselves without relying on him, and it’s worked out well for them so far. If you looked at Galway-Waterford as a punter you’d have to put it down as a home banker.”
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