Four teams should qualify from provinces for All-Ireland bid, says new Waterford boss Queally

The Déise have not qualified from the province in the five iterations of the round-robin structure since 2018.

Tue, 13 Aug, 2024 - 16:30

John Fogarty

New Waterford senior hurling manager Peter Queally has argued four instead of three teams should emerge from the provincial championships.

Queally, who was announced as Davy Fitzgerald’s replacement last week having been his selector the past two years, believes only the team that finishes last should be eliminated at that Munster and Leinster stage.

Waterford have not qualified from the province in the five iterations of the round-robin structure since 2018 although they were a point off taking third spot and making the knock-out stages this year.

“Obviously, everyone is excited about the Munster hurling championship,” he told WLR FM’s “Déise Today” programme on Tuesday. “It throws up drama every week and while we all enjoy it and love it and are entertained from a player’s point of view and a manager’s point of view it is very cut-throat.

“The only drawback I have with it is, if you look at the football championship, they all get their go at provinclal. Then you have your groups of four. In them groups of four, three teams go through, only one get knocked out and then the knock-out gets competitive and interesting. There’s plenty of chances there, let’s say.

“The problem I have with Munster at the moment is three teams is all that comes out from five whereas I think if you add a fourth team, if you had four out of five who went through, it’s still competitive but what you have there as well to promote hurling is four (All-Ireland) quarter-finals. It could be a bonanza of hurling on a weekend.

“If they had it this year instead of the two quarter-finals, we could have had extra quarter-finals where Kilkenny were number one in Leinster, we were number four in Munster, (a game) that would probably fill Thurles. You could have Limerick against Galway. Two very attractive games.

“We finished last year and deserved to be gone and Tipp finished last this year and would probably admit they deserved to be gone.”

Recently-retired from An Garda Siochana, Queally says his aim is to “ultimately win an All-Ireland” and has been encouraged by Clare’s Liam MacCarthy Cup success this year.

“We’re all dreamers,” said the former Waterford midfielder. “Whether we’re believers or not, that’s another thing. I do feel that this year’s championship has given a lot of Waterfords and Wexfords and other teams hope and I think it is evening out a bit.

“In Waterford, we have a generation of players that brought us success at underage. They’re at an age now where they have a few years left and I think it’s up to us as a management team to give them the best platform we can to realise their dreams.”

Queally suggested Fitzgerald stepped back from Waterford and took up the Antrim position for a change. “They absolutely adore him up there. He was involved here the last two years where it was a bit of a pressure cooker in the Munster championship this year and there was a lot of pressure on Davy to deliver.

“Maybe this is more attractive now, less pressure. They’re massive underdogs, similar to what he took over in Wexford and to be fair to Davy he did a brilliant job in Wexford.”

As well as Eoin Kelly (Tipperary) and Dan Shanahan as selectors, strength and conditioning coach John Matthews and Shane O’Sullivan as performance coach, Queally confirmed Noel Mackey (coach) and physio Michael O’Sullivan will also be involved as well Ger Harris as team secretary.

To add to Shane O’Sullivan, Queally hopes another unnamed Ballygunner figure will be part of his non-playing group.