‘There’s no more pitstops; lose and you’re out’ – Déíse boss Mick Boland
Waterford manager Michael Boland ahead of the game against Cork played at Pairc Ui Rinn on Sunday last. Photos: INPHO/Stephen Heaney
As a sea of red filled Páirc Uí Rinn on Sunday, the girls in white and blue formed a huddle in front of the shed. Waterford only have a week to recover and prepare for an All-Ireland quarter-final at Croke Park.
“We need to drive on; we need to go after this,” remarked Déise manager Mick Boland. “There’s no more pit stops; lose, and you’re out. From here on in, you’ve got to go after everything that’s in front of you. We’ve played three very competitive matches against Tipperary, Galway and Cork. The top three teams in the country, probably. You could tell the fatigue in the bodies today going into the second half.”
Fatigue and bad finishing proved costly in his view. “The effort from the girls was impeccable for the first 40 minutes or so, but after that we slowed off. In the first half, the goal was a big changer. We were in the game. We got a couple of opportunities in the first half; we dropped five balls into the goalie’s hands and five balls wide. Ten opportunities against the breeze. You can’t do that against Cork. We’ll have to go back to the drawing board now and get ready. It’s knockout from here on in.”
Five second-half points with the wind were a disappointing return. “We didn’t get enough shots off. We were trying to play ball inside instead of putting the ball over from 45 metres. We should have took the strike on. It might have went wide but you take the opportunity and get your strikes off. If you get ten strikes off, you might get eight, you might get six. But we didn’t get the strikes off, that was our problem.”
Boland must plan without the suspended Niamh Rockett this weekend after her red card for injury time. He missed the challenge on Laura Hayes. “I didn’t see it. I asked the referee, and he told me it was a high elbow into the head. I don’t know what the ban is. One match or two matches? I don’t know. A straight red is a match anyway for definite. We’ll have a look at it, and hopefully it’s not as bad on camera.”
Captain Lorraine Bray got 30 minutes into the legs as she returned from a hamstring injury. Is there a full 60 minutes in her? “That I don’t know until I talk to Dean Roche, the strength and conditioning coach. There was only 30 in her today. We’ll probably need to have her on the field. The dynamic she brings to us, off the shoulder, we missed that today. When we worked the ball through the lines in the first half and cut them open, we just didn’t take the opportunities.”
The non-calls from referee Donnacha O'Callaghan frustrated both sides on Sunday. Clear fouls were ignored. “There’s times you’re getting wrapped with a hurley. It’s a blatant free and it’s not been given. Camogie is gone like that. I don’t mind the hardness in the game. I could have picked six or seven incidents where we had a girl going through and a hurley straight across the stomach. I can’t complain, and I can’t give out. If I open my mouth, the ball is brought right up to the 20. It is very hard to interact with the referee now. I did ask him at the start of the second half why a free was given against us just before half time when Laura Hayes got a yellow card for pulling and dragging.”
