25-05-2025
'Every football team is still in Championship' - Queally calls for change to hurling structure
WATERFORD BOSS PETER Queally has called for a change to the hurling championship structure after his side suffered another early exit from the Liam MacCarthy competition.
In what is the sixth edition of the round-robin format, Waterford have failed once again to qualify for the All-Ireland stage. The Déise needed a win over Cork to advance, but lost out by six points in Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
Speaking to the media after their defeat, Queally initially said it was 'hard to put a finger' on why Waterford have struggled to figure their way out of the round-robin system before he was asked if the current structure has been a contributing factor.
'100%,' he replied.
'Clare are the reigning All-Ireland Champions. Remember, they were out of this Championship two weeks ago because [of] the results last week. [It's] the start in May. Every football team is still in the Championship.
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'We've been training in all the winter months. Now the ground is hard. We want to be hurling and we're gone out of the Championship. Clare are gone out of the Championship and every other team is nearly still in the Championship.
'I would like to see a change in structure where we're afforded a little bit of a chance to hurl during the summer when everyone wants to hurl and everyone wants to watch hurling, not in December, January and February.'
Elaborating on his desire for change, he continued by offering a suggestion as to what that new format could look like.
'Maybe it's following suit with our football counterparts where you have your provincial championship and then you have your All-Ireland Series. I'm sure if you had a Championship [with] two groups of whatever, and you were across provinces, you can imagine the crowds that would go to a Wexford-Waterford game or a Kilkenny-Waterford game.
'I've had conversations with fellas who have decided to opt out because, 'I can give all this and I might not be able to hurl in the summer.'
'People are deciding not to play because of the amount of effort and training that's asked of them all through the winter months. Then you come up against three awesome hurling teams and you're putting away your hurley in the summer evenings when all you want to do is hurl.'
Reflecting more closely on the match against Cork, Queally questioned some decisions in the first half which went against his side. One such call occurred in the seventh minute when Stephen Bennett was fouled after breaking through on goal. However, referee Johnny Murphy ruled that it was not a goal opportunity and did not award a penalty.
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'We'd have been very disappointed with a lot of the decisions in the first half that didn't go our way,' said Queally. 'Not making excuses about it. We had a strong breeze. We needed to be ahead in that game by five or six points.
'I know the way Johnny refs the game. He likes to let it go, but at the end of the day, in my opinion, a foul is still a foul. Whether you want it to be a man's game or not. There were times when I thought our lads were fouled. We didn't get the frees and we wouldn't be happy with that.'
The first of Cork's two second-half goals arrived just after throw-in as the hosts turned over possession after a block down on Paddy Leavey which resulted in a Brian Hayes finish. Queally admitted that the score was a 'killer blow' but commended his team for how they responded. Waterford were eight points down after conceding the second goal to Patrick Horgan but reduced the gap to three at one stage before the contest petered out.
'That goal straight away had us four points down. It was a very, very strong breeze.
'But I never saw a head drop. They just kept plugging away. They kept working hard. Kept getting the scores. One or two more breaks if they went our way, it could have been a different story.'
