“Waterford had the opportunities but couldn’t take them”
RTE pundit Anthony Daly. Photos: Inpho.
The opportunities came for Waterford in the second-half of the Munster Senior Hurling Championship encounter against Limerick but they couldn’t take them in the eyes of the Sunday Game analyst Anthony Daly.
Commenting on the game, Daly said: “Anytime that Limerick look under pressure, they always seem to deliver. They would’ve liked to have had the business done before today, but look they got the job done.
“They had to come and deliver because they were asked quite a few questions by Waterford. Davy (Fitzgerald) said it wasn’t their best performance, but I thought that they were fairly decent.
“Maybe structurally they weren’t quite there like they were in other games, but the champions came up with the champions’ performance especially in the last quarter of the game.
“Limerick were devastating outscoring Waterford nine points to one down the stretch where the guys off the bench had a massive impact. Guys who we may questioned their form coming in, maybe they didn’t answer every question, but they got the job done.
“The redundant sweeper as I call him for Waterford just wasn’t there. Maybe the wind and that didn’t help them. They would have been happy at half-time and had the wind, but they didn’t show their composure in scoring positions.
“They brought it back to a two-point game in the second-half after the goal, and they had three chances in a row but they missed them. They have the chances, and whether they would have it is majorly doubtful. They had the opportunity though.”
Joe Canning felt that Waterford’s approach wasn’t the way to go. “I think from a Waterford perspective I thought that they were little bit too defensive. They were pucking balls down on Kyle Hayes, which isn’t the way to go especially when Jamie Barron is on him.
“Jamie is a brilliant hurler don’t get me wrong, but when you are up against Kyle, who is about six foot five. It was one after the other and they got two points from it. He scores one and sets up the other.
“They seemed to give the Limerick forwards acres of space and they punished them with some fine scores. I can understand Waterford not conceding goal chances by sitting off. When you sit off Limerick, they created 49 scoring chances and took 30 of them. They had 19 wides.
“Waterford only had 25 shots in the game. They had half the amount of shots as Limerick, but how are you trying to win the game? I understand trying to stay in the game by protecting the goal, but against Limerick, they only love that.”
