Derek McGrath called for patience with their squad rotation policy during the Munster senior league after Clare dispatched a rookie Waterford selection on Sunday.
Management evaluated 27 players over the last two games, including eighteen novices, to identify fresh talent for the season ahead. They hope to be in a position to pick a panel for the National League following Saturday’s game against Kerry in Killarney.
“We’ve made no secret of the fact that we’re using the Munster league to finalise a panel and to try and unearth a couple of players,” McGrath stated. “People need to be patient with that particular approach. We’re not trying to be dismissive of the competition itself, we are working very hard and trying to balance the amount of game time that lads are being given. UCC played a full game against Oulart the Ballagh and we had six players with UCC. We have five players with WIT who are playing a challenge against UL so we are trying to balance the amount that fellas are doing. We may approach the first round of the league and leave the Fitzgibbon players to their colleges but we’ll see what way that will be greeted.”
At a busy period of the season for college players, Waterford are allowing their contingent to get ready for the start of the Fitzgibbon Cup. “By and large, we are because they are getting top class training and they are committed to their colleges, as they are to Waterford. If you want to take the fifteen that started against Kilkenny that would leave us shorn of probably six or seven starters then. That’s a decision that mightn’t be greeted too well but long term it’s probably good for the lads that we are taking that approach. If we can unearth a couple of nuggets along the way similar to what we did last year through the Munster league we would be happy enough.”
McGrath reckons that they are at a similar stage with their league preparations compared to this time last year. “In terms of allocation of game time to certain players, I think we are on track. We’re similar to last year but because we got comprehensive beatings against Cork and Clare, the outside perception might be that it’s changed up but it’s not. We would hope that by the end of next weekend that we would finalise a panel and an extended panel as well to work in parallel to that particular panel. If you go through the Clare team today, they had more household names playing in the game than we had so that’s their approach. As I said to the boys this morning, if our game against Kilkenny doesn’t go well on February 14 it won’t be because they didn’t get enough game time or otherwise in the Munster league, it will be because Kilkenny are better on the day and sometimes people lose sight of that.”
He also confirmed the departures of Stephen Daniels and Martin O’Neill from the panel for 2016 while Michael Walsh has signed up for a fourteenth season in county colours. “Stephen is teaching in Mount Sion and he is going travelling and going to the Rio Olympics. Martin has emigrated to Canada in the last week or so and we wish him well on his sojourn. Other than that, everyone is committed to the cause. If we have changes to make, we will make them ourselves over the next two weeks. Michael Walsh is back on board as well so we are delighted with that.”