‘I’m very proud of the lads’, declares Peter Queally after defeat
Waterford's Austin Gleeson of Waterford in action against Clare's Ryan Taylor and Cathal Malone.
Despite another provincial away day without points, Peter Queally was keen to emphasise two things - his pride in the players, and the fact that there’s plenty of hurling left to play.
“We’re not going anywhere”, said the Déise boss. “That’s the big thing. It’s the first game of a series of four. Today didn’t go our way but I’m very proud of the lads - the way they reacted to each setback, the way they kept going and kept going. We’re probably one handpass away from getting a draw. That’s how close it was. The message inside was - we’re going nowhere.”
Good performances are one thing, but that translation into results has been something that has constantly eluded the Déise in the round-robin era. Queally says Waterford have never been far away, but they can’t dwell on matters.
“That’s why we are so disappointed here. We put so much into today's game, and we are probably within grasp of getting at least a draw out of it. Unfortunately, we didn't. We just have to dust ourselves off now and come back as hard as ever next week.”
The Ballydurn man was gracious in defeat and feels better decision-making would stand his own side in better stead going forward.
“I suppose on reflection, I have to hand it to Clare. I thought when we put them under the cosh in the last 15 minutes, every time we got a score or a goal and got a bit of momentum, I thought they picked off some magnificent scores. I thought their execution was very good in that period as well. Probably one area that we might have left ourselves down in a bit was our shooting and their execution. We had a few wides, but some of them were the kind of wides where we would’ve expected the score.”
There were still plenty of positives to take from the performance having yielded 4-21, but that also could’ve been a lot more.
“We’d be delighted with the amount of goal opportunities that we created and took. If we’re to be critical, we probably need a little bit more help for Stephen [Bennett] when it comes to the points from play and stuff. We need a little bit more flow in our play and to get a few more shots away. That’s an area that we need to look at.”
When asked about Bennett’s contribution, keen as Queally was to praise his talisman, he also emphasised the need for his teammates to shoulder the scoring burden.
“We can't overstate it. It’s not even the scores; it’s his physical presence, his work-rate. He is an absolute warrior. And again, I'm probably saying this with the last two years, if people knew what he puts his body through and to be able to go out there and put in a performance as he did and work his butt off as he did there today, he is an incredible player.”
Waterford often produce their best when it’s man-on-man, free-flowing hurling. Whatever type of hurling is on the horizon in the weeks ahead, the Waterford manager knows no one can leave Walsh Park with any points.
“As a spectacle, what we saw today in Ennis and what we saw in Tullamore on Saturday night, those are the kind of games that people want to see. It’s the way hurling should be played, really. Next week is important now, after our defeat in our first game. We’ve 13 days after that to our next home game. These two games and three weeks coming up now are going to be very important to us.”
The return of former Hurler of the Year Austin Gleeson was one positive from the day, and Queally is hopeful he can continue to contribute for the next three games.
“He was busy. His striking, his hurling, his wrists are still the same. His vision, his leadership. It was a great contribution from Austin, in fairness.”
Clare boss Brian Lohan was a picture of pride and relief and equal measure following the final whistle in Ennis.
A home win, 2-33 scored, but even still plenty to work on, according to the All-Ireland winning manager.
“We’re just happy to have won the game”, said Lohan. “We've been waiting a long time since last year to get back out on the field. Offensively, we were really strong, putting up 2-33 is a really good return from our forwards. I don’t think we’ve ever scored anything like that.”
Despite getting into sizable leads on occasion, Clare couldn’t quite put Waterford away until the very last puck of the sliotar.
“We were going down the field, hitting wonderscore after wonderscore all from play, then the ball would go down the other side of the field, and it’s a free”, he claimed. “We’re a tough team to stop when we get on a roll, but there are obviously areas we have to work on. Obviously, we are going to get criticised now for how we played defensively, but I'd give a fair amount of credit to Waterford for the forward line that they have. They are a good forward line, and they will do damage.”
Talk of a ‘last dance’ for Clare’s golden generation has been rife in the media in recent weeks, but that’s not something that Lohan will concern himself with.
“All that we can do is win our game today, and that’s what we did. It’s a tough competition; it’s hard to get these wins. We’re delighted with our lads, but we have to move on from here. Sometimes you don’t get what you deserve, but this time we did.”
