Waterford boss Derek McGrath pays tribute to Maurice Shanahan courage

Waterford manager Derek McGrath has extolled the bravery of Maurice Shanahan in going public with his battle with depression.

McGrath was a fundamental figure in coaxing the Lismore man back to hurling after his challenges last year.

On the weekend he claimed an All-Star last month, the 25-year-old opened up about his journey from locking himself away from the world in 2015 to spearheading the Déise attack this past summer.

“The core principle of any team, outside of talk about tactics, is honesty and he’s certainly been that,” said McGrath. “He’s been very open and that’s the kind of person he is. I’ve always said I won’t fault anyone who’s being entirely honest and I’d like to meet the man who has never made a mistake, who has never had hardship or difficulty. Maurice has confronted and spoken openly about his difficulties.

“I think it has been good for him because he’s a figure people can relate to and that’s the key thing for him. There is a bit of empathy for the type of figure Maurice is. That’s why his openness has been embraced the way it is.”

Shanahan successfully deputised as free-taker in the absence of long-term injury Pauric Mahony. McGrath is loathe to put any timeframe on the 23-year-old’s return to action after he broke his shinbone last May.

“We’re not (putting a return date) because he’s doing his rehab and it will be about more holding him back than anything else. He is doing everything to a tee. He’s a great lad and recovering well and keen to go but we just have to be patient with him. The surgeon is very happy with his progress. That’s all that’s important to us. We’re listening to him, his physio Conor McCarthy and the surgeon. He might see some game time at the end of the league but we’d be slow to commit to that.”

Unlike this past season, McGrath won’t finalise his panel until the end of next month’s pre-season Munster league.

“We’ve much the same panel. We’re not going to make changes to the panel until the end of January. We’re going to use the competition next month as an opportunity to pick our panel whereas last year we had our panel named in October. We have about 10 or 15 lads in from the club scene but nothing really that we didn’t have last year with our extended panel.”

It was mentioned at the recent county board meeting Waterford had to cut the spend on inter-county teams but it had always been McGrath’s intention to cut the size of the panel.

“We had a panel of 36 or 37 and we’ve agreed now to have a panel of 32 plus Pauric who will be doing his rehab with us and Stephen Bennett who has had a couple of hip surgeries. Waterford has a continuous development squad now under the stewardship of Darragh Duggan that will facilitate the members of our extended squad so they can tip away in terms of a programme so therefore when we need 15-a-side for games you can call in fellas. Those fellas who are let go from our panel in January can maintain a programme of work.”