23-05-2025
'Cork will look to bury Waterford if attitude isn't right' — Ryan
Former Waterford manager Michael Ryan says the team's attitude has to be right in Cork or 'they will get buried'.
Ryan admits there is not much positivity in Waterford this week as the county look to finally qualify from the group stages of the Munster championship at the sixth time of asking.
However, he points to the several games in the past when they were written off only to come good. For that to happen on Sunday, he is adamant the scoring burden has to be taken off Jamie Barron and Stephen Bennett, who have posted 3-35 of Waterford's 3-66 championship total so far.
'The feeling on the ground is that it will be very hard to beat Cork,' opened Ryan. 'I wouldn't say people are optimistic, they're certainly not. But what I'd be saying is that some of our best performances have always come with no hope.
'I suppose there is pressure on because if you're beaten, you're knocked out. But Waterford in the last few decades have produced what was needed when least expected.
'I'd like to see a few changes on the team because we need to raise things and freshen things up. Bring in a few new fellas and see what happen because in terms of scoring two forwards have been carrying our team all year scoring-wise.
'They're getting 60% of the scores, and we need to get scores from somewhere else. I mean, it'll probably take 30 points to win a Munster championship. Jamie and Stephen are probably good for 16 or 17 points between them, but who's going to get those other 16? Páirc Uí Chaoimh is a really quick pitch too, top of the ground, the ball will be flying around the place.
'On the other side, I don't know where the Cork lads are. They won the league but you go back to the first championship game against Clare, they were very poor in the second half. Maybe they're thrown off when they don't get goals but if Cork are on their game, we're in big trouble.'
The Nire-Fourmilewater man anticipates Cork will look to dictate the game from the off.
'I think Cork will try and come out with all guns blazing, and bury Waterford early on. So, the first 20 minutes is going to be absolutely crucial for us to stay in the game, and maybe be a bit defensive," Ryan insisted.
'Not conceding goals will be key and our defence has been good up to now. We've only giving up one so far in the Munster championship. But have we faced six forwards of the calibre of Cork? Probably not, although Limerick weren't at their best when we played them.
'If you go down to Cork with the wrong attitude, you're going to be buried and everybody must put their shoulder to the wheel, and from somewhere we must find a bit of belief and use the ball really well.
'I don't think our confidence is on the floor. They didn't do an awful lot wrong against Tipperary. But what was disappointing for me in particular was them getting six consecutive points to go level, coming back without playing particularly well and they still lost by nine points and Tipp didn't do anything extraordinary and that is a concern for us.'
Going out of the competition in May for the third year running doesn't bear thinking about for a lot of Waterford people. Ryan wonders if the provincial group structure has revealed a lack of depth in the county's talent pools.
'In the years of Covid when we didn't have the round-robin system, we went all out for games and did well," he added. "That suggests to me we maybe don't have the strongest panel to deal with playing every week or second week. It is what it is now but we have a chance and we have to get on with it.'
Waterford's Munster four games this year have come in two blocks, each spanning six to seven days. Selector Dan Shanahan has bemoaned the pressure the short turnarounds put on players and Ryan agrees.
'My contention is you have to find a way to give two weeks to every game. Start the Munster championship the first week of April, and let it run its course until everybody's had two weeks of a break between games. You're talking about amateur players playing to professional levels and expected to perform professionally and hurling is becoming a much more physically demanding game."
