Pauric Mahony ‘taking up mantle of leader’ with Waterford

Derek McGrath marvelled at how Pauric Mahony is settling into a leadership role with the team.

The number 11 produced a man of the match exhibition on Saturday night, giving him a total of 1-25 with only two rounds of the league completed.

The Waterford manager worked with the Ballygunner forward at De La Salle College, where he claimed both the Harty and Croke Cups.

“I will repeat what I have always said about him since he was 12 years of age,” McGrath said, “he is such a hard-working young lad and he has a great family behind him.

“He is vice-captain of the team and it’s his team now. He is 22 years of age and now is his time. He is taking on the mantle now. You are seeing a leader stand up and it’s great to see that before your eyes.”

In the first half, Laois put special plans in place to curtail the influence of Mahony, who made his Waterford debut in 2011.

“For the first 15 minutes, Laois really concentrated on him,” McGrath said.

“Matthew Whelan stuck with him very closely and we were finding it hard to free Pauric up from the centre. We are basically encouraging him to go where he wants from the centre.

“We just slipped him to the wing where there seemed to be more space in the left half-forward area.

“He found the space and good players find space. That is what he is and he has a big week ahead of him with the Fitzgibbon.”

Mahony, along with four other panel members, will don the Waterford IT jersey against Dublin IT in midweek as they bid to make the Fitzgibbon weekend, hosted by LIT.

McGrath will offer them the space to concentrate fully on that task as they face the possibility of three college fixtures in the space of a week.

“As well as the physical aspect,” he said, “the psychological impact of coming from a group taking it absolutely serious, like we were tonight, and then having to go in with the WIT and IT Carlow, with Colin Dunford and the lads, and be like a brotherhood with that set-up.

“I think it’s time for guys with WIT and IT Carlow to enjoy the match Tuesday, enjoy the Fitzgibbon weekend no matter how it goes and regroup with Waterford the following week. The camaraderie, the spirit and the bond of a college team is huge, I was lucky enough to be involved with three winning UCC teams.

“We just need to be clever ourselves, leave them go and leave them enjoy it. We are just hoping that they win and they get there. The more that we can be involved at that level of hurling, the better it is for everyone.”