Waterford now sitting pretty after smashing nine-year Croke Park jinx
In particular, McGrath recalled the build-up to Waterford’s second game of the 2015 league campaign when Laois, who’d just run Offaly close, visited Dungarvan.
The sense of an invisible axe hovering above McGrath’s head was palpable, for a few hours before throw-in at least, with the manager fearing his pre-season clearout of household names would come back to haunt him.
“The risk is the possible impatience of supporters or clubs,” said McGrath. “There’s also the risk of a cohort of people being negative no matter what you’re doing. It’s a massive risk. I’m only going back on my personal experience of it.
“I remember going to a game against Laois in Dungarvan, after we had drawn against Limerick, and saying to myself, ‘if we lose this game the tide will become so strong on the outside of our group that it will nearly result in you stepping away from it’.”
Waterford, of course, hammered Laois by 18 points that evening and went on to win the league, releasing all that pressure that weighed down on McGrath. His investment in youth paid off and continues to do so with Stephen Bennett, an All-Ireland U21 final hero last September, taking his form to the big stage on Saturday and scoring 2-2 at Croke Park.
Austin Gleeson, the 2016 Hurler of the Year and another member of that U21 side, powered through the evening too while Pauric Mahony was excellent from frees and open play and contributed 0-12.
Waterford’s second win in three games leaves them sitting pretty to challenge for a third successive final place in a few weeks though the pressure McGrath felt in early 2015 is now squarely on Dublin manager Ger Cunningham’s shoulders.
A second loss means they are sitting on two points with just two games to go, against Clare and Kilkenny. They probably need to win both those games because just three teams (Waterford in 2012, Tipperary in 2014 and Galway in 2015) have finished the group with four points and avoided a relegation play-off.
McGrath urged Cunningham to keep the faith and stick with his rebuilding process.
“I would see a very together Dublin team,” said McGrath. “I’ve followed what the likes of Eoghan O’Donnell and Liam Rushe have said about Ger as a coach and I’d know Ger personally as a coach. It’s a man doing his thing because he knows it’s the right thing. It has to be respected.
“You add Mark Schutte, Paul Schutte, Colm Cronin, Darragh O’Connell into that from Cuala, and Con O’Callaghan if they can get him to play, if you add those to that then I think it’ll be a different scenario. I admire his bravery because we’ve been through that path ourselves.”
McGrath was delighted to get a win at Croke Park because it was nine years since a Waterford side had won there. Since beating Tipperary in the 2008 All- Ireland semi-finals the county had lost the subsequent final as well as four semi-finals and they drew with Kilkenny there last year.
McGrath talked to his players about the apparent hoodoo on Friday and reckoned it may have weighed on their mind early in the game as they went 1-7 to 1-2 down after 20 minutes.
They recovered to trail by just 1-10 to 1-8 at half-time and dominated the second-half with inspirational scores from Kevin Moran and Gleeson late in the first-half an apparent turning point.
“We almost talked ourselves into not playing well at the start and we spoke about that at half-time,” said McGrath. “We said, not that our worst nightmare had unfolded, but that we’d talked too much about the (Croke Park issue) as a group and then turned up and were completely flat in the first-half.
I think the boys addressed that themselves at half-time and agreed to push on for 38 or 39 minutes and they did that well.”
McGrath is hopeful that ending the Croke Park jinx will be useful to Waterford later in the year.
“You’re always looking for an angle every week. We feel any psychological steps you can take along the way in terms of a performance can help you later on, in retrospect. Last year, we beat Tipperary for the first time in Thurles for a number of years, and Kilkenny as well.
“We’re setting ourselves little targets as a management. It’s an insight into how we operate but it might seem a bit trivial on the outside.”
Dublin manager Ger Cunningham insisted all is not lost in the race to avoid a relegation play-off despite two defeats. “That will all play itself out over the next three weeks,” said Cunningham.
“All we’re focused on is game to game. We’ve one win, two losses. We’ve got to go to Ennis next weekend and get a win. That’s the challenge. It will be a big challenge but hopefully the lads will rebound quickly.”
P. Mahony (0-12, 10 frees); S. Bennett (2-2); K. Moran, A. Gleeson (0-2 each); M. Shanahan (0-1).
D. Burke (1-7, 7 frees); E. Dillon (0-4); R. O’Dwyer, R. McBride (0-2 each); C. Crummey, N. McMorrow (0-1 each).
I. O’Regan; N. Connors, B. Coughlan, S. Fives; C. Gleeson, T. de Burca, S. Daniels; J. Barron, K. Moran (c); M. Walsh, Shane Bennett, Pauric Mahony; A. Gleeson, Stephen Bennett, P. Curran.
M Shanahan for Curran (49); M Kearney for Barron (50); B O’Halloran for Shane Bennett (61); J Dillon for Stephen Bennett (67); D Lyons for C Gleeson (68).
C. Dooley; J. Madden, E. O’Donnell, S. Barrett; B. Quinn, L. Rushe (c), C. Crummey; N. McMorrow, C. Conway; R. McBride, E. Dillon, E. Conroy; D. Burke, R. O’Dwyer, F. MacGib.
C Boland for Conway (47); C MacGabhann for Madden (55); C Bennett for Conroy (61); C O’Sullivan for Quinn (69); F O Riain Broin for Barrett (72).
J. Ryan (Tipperary).
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