Waterford 4-13 Dublin 0-12:ALTHOUGH THIS result represents a worrying setback for Dublin hurling, it didn't come with the heavy casualty which was initially feared.
Losing by 13 points was disastrous enough, but at least Dublin didn’t lose All Star midfielder Alan McCrabbe for the rest of season as his suspected broken leg transpired to be nothing more serious than bad bruising to the knee.
None of this takes away from the fact Waterford were relatively impressive, particularly given they were down 10 championship players, but the story here is Dublin’s ineptitude. Anthony Daly wasn’t exaggerating when he said they were “stuck to the field” they were so flat, and that it is essentially “back to the drawing board”. Going back there without McCrabbe would have made that task all the more daunting.
The incident that resulted in McCrabbe’s injury appeared innocuous although the whack he took on the leg, just below the right knee, could be heard around Walsh Park.
He clashed with Waterford’s Jamie Nagle, on 56 minutes, as they attempted to keep the ball in play, and went down in obvious agony. Play was stopped for 12 minutes as the medics attended to the injury, before removing McCrabbe by ambulance.
The minimal extent of the damage from the impact was later known after x-rays at Waterford Regional Hospital, and the early diagnosis is that he may only miss a couple of weeks, depending on how he reacts to physio.
“He was the one man out there today, with maybe John McCaffrey, Liam Rushe maybe, who were maybe winning their corners,” said Daly. “But his level of hurling, I mean the rest of the guys don’t have that level of first touch, at speed, that Alan can give us.
“And we were slightly coming back into the game at that stage. We felt if a goal had come we might have been able to push the thing, and fight to the bitter end. But that break killed our momentum altogether.”
Truth is, Dublin had little of the momentum at any stage.
After all the progress of last year, which included beating Waterford in the league, they were made to look very, very ordinary. Conditions were good and the game was played in front of a fairly bumper crowd, but Dublin never rose to it, instead allowing Waterford to do all the showboating with four well-taken goals.
With the likes of Tony Browne, Dan Shanahan, John Mullane and Ken McGrath rested, and Eoin Kelly and Eoin McGrath suspended, it was quite an ordinary Waterford team, although they never suggested it.
Maurice Shanahan, still only 19, is fast-maturing and proved a handful at times, while Kevin Moran and Stephen Molumphy repeatedly tore through the defence – most emphatically when they claimed a goal each in quick succession shortly before the end.
Gary Hurney had set them on their way with his opening goal on seven minutes, with Shane Walsh adding the second shortly after half time. And with Moran claiming five points from play, there was always far more artillery to the Waterford attack.
“I liked the spirit of the lads,” said manager Davy Fitzgerald. “Their fight. You saw that today. That’s what we’re about. We’ll keep trying to improve, because there’s a long way to go. We got the goals, but I think maybe Dublin thought we were missing a lot of players, maybe took their eye off the ball a small bit. But we got the result we wanted, and that’s great.”
Dublin had travelled down the night before, eager to get their Division One campaign off to the best start. David Treacy and Liam Rushe did show a little spark up front at times, but defensively they were way off-kilter, and if 2009 did mark one step forward, the first match of 2010 marks two steps back.
Daly didn’t deny that, but the challenge now is for Dublin to respond – starting with Tipperary, in Parnell Park, next Sunday.
“This is the test of the team, really. They’ll have to show now they want it. They can let it drop down and take another hiding off Tipp. Or they can come out next week and fight the fight.
“So we’ll know more about ourselves next Sunday.
“But we were porous at the back today. All day long. Our touch was way behind as well. We didn’t compete all over the place, and could have lost by more. It was just a shocking day, really.
“It’s back to the drawing board. We’ll sit down and watch the bloody video tomorrow night. It won’t be inspiring.”
Even with McCrabbe back on board it won’t be easy to turns things around – particularly as Daly was a little lost as to why things went so badly wrong. He certainly didn’t blame it on the hard training.
“We only did Tuesday and Friday this week. You’re looking for excuses at times like this, but you have to be honest and say we were just blown out of it, by fellas who wanted to get to the ball more. The amount of rucks that developed, and the Waterford player came away with the ball, was fairly serious. But I suppose it is our first game together.
“We’d nine gone off with the colleges, and another team in the Walsh Cup. But we just didn’t seem to be together, to gel. We picked a team as strong as we could.
“Liam Ryan is a bit of a loss (ankle), and David O’Callaghan too (hamstring), but Waterford were missing a load of guys.”
Losing by 13 points was bad enough, but at least last night’s news on McCrabbe was positive.
WATERFORD:C Hennessy; J Maher, L Lawlor, N Connors; D Prendergast, M Walsh, J Nagle (0-1); J Murray; K Moran (1-5), S Molumphy (1-1), M Shanahan (0-6, three frees, two 65s); S Walsh (1-0), G Hurney (1-0), T Connors. Subs:S Fives for Murray (49 mins), T Ryan for S Walsh (55 mins), M O'Neill (75 mins).
DUBLIN:G Maguire; N Corcoran, T Brady, O Gough; S Hiney, R Fallon, M O'Brien; J McCaffrey, J Boland; P Kelly, L Rushe (0-1), S Durkin (0-1); D Treacy (0-3), K Flynn (0-1), A McCrabbe (0-5, four frees). Subs:M Carton for O'Brien (22 mins), D Curtin for Boland, S Ryan for Kelly, J Kelly for Flynn (all 48 mins), P Ryan (0-1) for McCrabbe (56 mins, inj).
Referee:Diarmuid Kirwan (Cork).
Lucky Break Mccrabbe's Injury Not As Bad As First Feared
Dublin’s All Star midfielder Alan McCrabbe is expected to be back in action within a week or two after fears were allayed last night that he had sustained a suspected broken leg at Walsh Park yesterday.
Play was held up play for some 12 minutes as the medics first attended to McCrabbe on the field, before removing him by ambulance to Waterford Regional Hospital. X-rays later revealed that the damage was nothing worse than bruising to the right knee, with no ligament damage.
Dublin manager Anthony Daly had described the clash, with Waterford’s Jamie Nagle, was accidental. “I thought Alan was trying to shield the ball from going out and the Waterford player was trying to keep it by pulling on it.
“He missed the ball, and the ball did go out. But he made contact with Alan’s leg. I don’t think it was intentional. Diarmuid (Kirwan, the referee) had a good view, and didn’t even give a free. It was just he mistimed the pull.”
