Waterford pose difficult test as Moran slams Croke Park
A visibly deflated Mickey Moran has stressed that Leitrim will not be taking Waterford for granted in next Sunday's opening game of the Allianz National Football League Division Four campaign as he also slammed Croke Park for interfering in the rules of gaelic football after last Sunday's loss to FBD League.
Leitrim lost to Waterford in Dungarvan's Fraher Field last March, a result that put promotion beyond Moran's side, but the Derry man went further into the past to deliver a warning against taking the Deise men for granted next Sunday in Ballinamore (2.30 pm throw-in).
"I don't take Waterford for granted," said Mickey, "We almost lost a game when I was in charge of Derry to Waterford and it took a late Johnny McGoldrick point to get us the win. They handed us a lesson in football. Waterford are big men and mobile and we won't be taking them for granted next Sunday."
However, most of Moran's comments last Sunday were reserved for the current interpretation of the game's rules as he said after the six-point defeat to Sligo - "It was very disappointing, so frustrating. If I'm being honest, I think there is too much talk about the rules of Gaelic football and not enough about the people who implement the rules.
"There seems to be a group, led by somebody, pushing all these rules. I think they need to do it for the referees rather than concentrating on the rules. They need to help to get the referees to be confident, get them up to a level of fitness and helping them get up to a high standard.
"This is not blaming referees out there today but we are doing the best we can, we train the lads but then we go out onto the field and we're not sure what is happening. I blame Croke Park and if they can get that sorted out, get the referees up to speed and you might see everybody enjoying the game again."
Preparations for a vital Allianz National League campaign have been hampered badly by the poor weather in recent weeks and Moran is not happy, calling on Croke Park to help provide top class training facilities for counties like Leitrim.
"The FBD League has been a disaster in terms of preparation. The bad weather has curtailed our preparations and it hasn't been advantageous and because we haven't been able to work on a field, players are getting injuries. We were going into today with Daniel Beck, James Glancy of Carrick, Shane canning and Declan Gilhooley all carrying injuries.
"We had six backs to play here and we had to play Colin Regan in defence when we would prefer to have him at wing-forward."
The lack of top class facilities is a contributory factor to Leitrim's injury problems - "You take Tyrone, Galway, Derry, they are training on all-weather surfaces with lights and can play full matches on both pitches.
"We haven't been able to do that. We trained last week in Mullingar and the pitch was so bad that we couldn't do anything. It is holding us back big time and hopefully Croke Park will get waken up and do something about the less prominent counties in terms of prominent counties.
"At the moment, I know where we are training on Tuesday but after that, I don't know. If Annaduff was there, we would know where we are training every single night of the year.”
Looking back on Sunday’s game against Sligo, Mickey said “We started well, did reasonably well early on. Our support play was good, we were hitting James Glancy but then we stopped working.
“We were well in that game but then a few easy frees went against us and that made it a bit difficult. With the poor weather conditions, it has been a bit of mish-mash and nobody knows where we are yet. But I have seen improvement over the FBD League because we haven’t any training time together.”
As for next Sunday, Mickey said “Next Sunday’s game is extremely important, winning every game is important. I am just a bit down after the game but the lads will recover and it will get a bit easier in terms of preparation and facilities.”
There is also a unique twist for Leitrim next Sunday as Waterford will be led by John Owens who lined out for Leitrim in 1991 and won a County title with Allen Gaels that same year.
And Waterford will be coming to Ballinamore intent on win, having shocked a Cavan team in Breffni Park a few years ago who only needed a point to secure promotion.
In Damien Lawlor’s excellent “Working on a Dream – A year on the road with Waterford footballers”, the contrast between Leitrim’s ultra-professional set-up and a more happy go-lucky Waterford approach was evident.
But what was also evident was the fact that Waterford had pace to burn and once their big men began adjusting to a blistering opening from Leitrim, their pace ripped holes time and time again in the Leitrim rear-guard.
Leitrim fought a desperate rearguard action to try and rescue something despite only trailing by two points at the break but it wasn’t to be and it was Waterford who kept their promotion hopes alive going into the last round of games.
Leitrim will need no warning of the pace of Liam O’Lionan nor of the exceptional defensive qualities of the O’Gorman brothers but equally, given the typically difficult weather conditions at this time of the year, Waterford’s physical heft may be a great advantage in a tight game.
Waterford are aunder new management, having replaced the long-serving Svengali like John Kiely with Owens late last year. Owens also managed Tipperary for a time and is highly regarded and would not have taken on the Waterford job on a whim.
Indeed, their recent outing against Kerry in the McGrath Cup Quarter-Final would appear to suggest that Owens is having an impact as it took two goals from Kieran Donaghy to rescue a far from convincing 2-12 to 3-5 win in Fitzgerald Stadium, Killarney.
The sides were level at 1-3 to 0-6 at the break and an upset looked on the cards when Liam O Lionain and Michael Donnelly netted early second half goals for the Munster minnows who led 3-4 to 0-11 with five minutes to go.
But Donaghy’s late double strike denied Waterford a famous win although Leitrim will do well to heed to the goal-threat of the Munster men, something that caused Leitrim no end of trouble last year in Dungarvan.
This will not be the easy victory so many might expect and Leitrim’s fade out in the games against Galway and Sligo give cause for concern, particularly as the midfield section has yet to gel.
With a tough group of road games, Leitrim have to win their games at home,a fact which increases the stakes a great deal for next Sunday.
Leitrim will need a major improvement on their FBD form and this is truly a game that could go right to the wire next Sunday.
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Weather for Carrick-on-Shannon, Ireland
Tuesday 22 May 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 11 C to 20 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: South
