Neil Ewing: What are the options to save Waterford football?
TOUGH TASK: Waterford manager Ephie Fitzgerald. Pic: Eddie O'Hare
A leaving Cert lunchbreak, a perusal of the local paper, bruised romantic prospects. All part of my first encounter with Waterford football. A 17-year-old pal was very unhappy to see that a slightly older friend was now featuring in local paper sports photos after making his way into the Sligo senior team. This new-found recognition could have disastrous effects on my pal’s resourceful use of a shared ID. For entry to some local night spots.
My second encounter also involved some local night spots. A 2009 league Easter Sunday league game. Fresh off the back of a U21 Connacht final defeat, I hadn’t fully countenanced that a combination of results that day could seal our promotion from Division 4. An early throw-in to facilitate an arduous journey faced by the travelling Waterford team was a tasty affair. Sligo prevailed. The later games threw in. When all the long whistles had been blown, the table showed Sligo were promoted with one game to spare. Back to the night spots, no shared IDs needed.
February 2023. Another early throw-in at Mark Park. Waterford’s players would have left their families and friends early Saturday to head north-west. Many won’t have arrived home again until after 10pm the following night.
Sunday’s defeat leaves Waterford in an unenviable position. Nemo Rangers’ Ephie Fitzgerald is over 14 months in his role as Waterford manager and is still searching for a maiden win. Not familiar territory for a man of his Corkness. Nor for his sidekick, Peter Leahy, former manager of Mayo and Westmeath ladies.
For Waterford footballers, the losing feeling is more familiar than they would like. Their last win was a 2021 league win over Wexford. A 13th successive season in the basement of football is guaranteed. The only hope their Munster Championship campaign offers is the plummeting form of an injury-hit Tipperary. What three teams in the Tailteann Cup would they fancy their chances against in the inaugural round-robin?
Waterford appears to be, at best, drifting in its efforts to make football relevant.
What is the goal of those invested in, or at least charged with, fostering a future for football in Waterford?
Football has undoubtedly played second fiddle to hurling in the county for quite some time. This is not a unique scenario, especially below the GAA’s Galway to Dublin equator line. The worry for many is the growing distance by which it is playing second fiddle. A county with their playing GAA membership should be able to produce a football team capable of competitive seasons in Division 4 more than once in a decade.
Are Waterford GAA leaders involved in or committed to moving football forward? Is investing resources, human and financial, in football rewarding enough to benefit the personal aspirations of administrators at county board level? For many counties that now find themselves submerged in lower divisions, the goal has become ticking the box of running and completing club competitions.
The goal could be to grow vibrant club schedules at all levels. Schedules which grow player participation and interest levels among supporters. Consequently, over time, raising standards. The goal should be to give every seven-year-old in Waterford the same opportunity to be an All-Star footballer as an All-Star hurler.
What is the reality? 2024 will be a 14th season in Division 4. Sunday’s first 15 minutes in Sligo suggested a team that had worked on putting some structure on themselves in the two-week break. The remaining 55 minutes underlined a squad with paper-thin self-belief. Some very capable footballers. Some well-conditioned. Some rusty footballers who needed another few weeks of preseason. All doing their best on the day. All displaying requisite pride and honesty. The fractures in structure, standard, and belief creating gaps. Gaps a less-than-perfect Sligo side crept through with more ease than any Division 4 side should do.
Sunday evening journeys home easily become introspective. Those done on the fuel of a third successive humbling defeat all the more so. The Waterford travelling support appeared smaller than the playing party. Capable players not committing seems a theme. A club championship played around the needs and whims of the hurling championship. No spark or innovation at underage or schools level to hint at hope in the medium term.
The most accurate synopsis of one’s reality comes from those deepest in the weeds. At last December’s County Convention, chairman Sean Michael O’Regan commented that “inter-county football for Waterford is now at a crossroads. Some change and tough calls are certainly required in football circles here in Waterford GAA.”
Indeed. Drowning but are they even waving?
What are the options for Waterford?
Follow their neighbours Kilkenny and absolve themselves of involvement in senior intercounty football. If we are honest this is a scar on an otherwise proud GAA county. Kilkenny’s mistreatment of football is no example for another unit to be allowed follow.
Are Croke Park concerned about the prevailing torpor of football in many counties? We see the graceful swan of Division 1 and 2 on our screens weekly. We are blind to the furious paddling required elsewhere to exist.
If Waterford arrive on Jones Road with an outline of the plight of football in the county, is Croke Park unwilling to help them with knowledge, expertise, and finance? If not, why not?
Liam Griffin is one of the GAA’s most underused brains. Hugely successful on and off the field. Passionate, eloquent, judicious, and informed. His recent motion mandating clubs field hurling teams for U7 to U10 level didn’t move through the minefield of Congress. Don’t let that take from its worthiness. Waterford can steal the spirit of Griffin and apply it to their thriving hurling clubs, and their football clubs.
A loan of personnel from within the family. Derek McGrath transformed the mood around the Waterford hurling team with a different approach to many of his predecessors.
After triggering schools success, he later brought the inter-county side as close to a coveted Liam MacCarthy as they have managed since their 1959 success. Could some of his Lasallian values be applied to the big ball?
Quality education of coaches, an inclusive local GAA community where football and hurling are respected equally. And he is a people person with a communication style that attracts attention. Attention is required.
There’s nothing as frustrating in the GAA than the spell of imitation. “They did this and then they won.”
Yes, but is that successful county starting from the same place as you? Do they have the same number of clubs? Is their recent history similar? Do you have the same human and financial resources available?
Crucially, if it has already been done it is just a minimum to compete and many others will have raised the bar to exceed that level. Matching the structures of current success stories will mean you are at best three to five years behind the forefront, always. Create the solution to address specific and unique opportunities. What is the way forward? People. Waterford have good people involved. Ephie Fitzgerald is capable of getting a team promoted with the right tools. Dermot Ryan kicked five classy points on Sunday that were unmatched across the country.
They need more help. There are passionate and intelligent football people in Waterford. Engage them. They may not all be ready to get on a pitch five times a week with a whistle but there is a valuable role for every Waterford football person to play.
Get every accountant, social media influencer, tea maker, and coach engaged in playing their bespoke role in turning this around.
No mission was ever achieved without a vision. What is the current vision for Waterford football? Get the people in the room. Get the candid feedback of all. Establish the baseline of where Waterford football is.
Then, create the vision for where Waterford football should and could be. A powerful and relatable ‘Why’ that all can get behind and use as a north star on their daily journey back to relevance.
With alignment on a purpose and the right people pursuing it, the tasks required are easily identified (if not necessarily easily completed). Beg, steal, borrow, and innovate to confirm the processes needed to be implemented to fulfil the purpose.
A county needs a flagship team for the youth to aspire to. Raise the profile of Dermot Ryan and some of his contemporaries. Get that football in the hands of every seven-year-old. Keep it there with increasing regularity. A symbiotic growth in conjunction with hurling is possible.
Get those seven-year-olds ready to be competitive on the schools scene. Keep them kicking ball and deepening the playing pool at senior club level. Take the cream of that talent, polish it at minor and U20 squads. And repeat. In five years’ time change will be evident. In10 years’ time change will be tangible.
More kids playing football. Higher quality and quantity of coaching. Increasingly competitive schools and underage efforts. A larger quantity of better-quality players available to more adult club senior teams. A vibrant well-contested club scene. Senior footballers recognised and respected across the county. Engaged youth, supporters, players, and public. Performances will follow. Like many counties, too many, Waterford need to start waving, to be saved from drowning.
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