The Waterford hurlers were away from home in Munster in 2018.

The Waterford hurlers were away from home in Munster in 2018.

IT MAY BE in another province but Nowlan Park is a solution in the eyes of Waterford’s Noel Connors to the county’s venue dilemma in the hurling championship.

The 2017 All-Ireland finalists saw their aspirations this year hit by the fact they could not use Walsh Park for their Munster round-robin home ties.

They had to forfeit home advantage, instead taking on Tipperary in the Gaelic Grounds and Cork in Semple Stadium.

Coupled with away games against Clare and Limerick, it made for a punishing schedule for the Waterford squad and with manager Derek McGrath having departed, Connors feels it is a key issue for the players and their new boss to tackle ahead of the 2019 season.

The defender points out that Kilkenny venue would be accessible to the Deise supporters, while he also feels Semple Stadium could be a possible base for them as the Waterford county board seek to push ahead with plans to re-develop Walsh Park.

“It’s something that we need to have a chat with ourselves, as a team and also with the new management coming in, to try and look at some avenue that we can take.

“Whether that’s refocus the mind and try and play our home matches in Thurles, or to go back to the drawing board to try and see if we can play our home matches in Nowlan Park, which might be a bit different.

“Nowlan Park is the closest facility to us. It’s probably 40 minutes away from Waterford City. But then again we’ve played in Thurles on numerous occasions, so that wouldn’t be a bad venue either.

“There’s probably more to be negotiated on our behalf to try to get a kind of a second home venue for us.”

Source: Oisin Keniry/INPHO

The series of games this summer represented a major challenge for Waterford’s players and fans.

“Logistically over the three weeks, when we were playing in Clare, Limerick and Limerick, it was a lot on the body,” admitted Connors.

“Psychologically it’s hard enough to try get up for three big games in a row, but then also to travel for an extended period week in, week out.

“When you’re struggling, it’s the crowd that gives you a bit of an inspirational moment. If you get a good score and kick on, and do something. That’s just natural enough, that’s just sport.

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“Everybody talks about the crowd being your 16th player on the field. You couldn’t expect families to travel up and down for three weeks in a row. Particularly such a distance, it’s incredibly demanding.”

The three-time All-Star winning corner-back was keen not to put the venue scenario forward as the main reason behind Waterford’s season grinding to a halt in mid-June.

Source: Oisin Keniry/INPHO

“It wasn’t something we thought about too much to be honest, but retrospectively, you could say yeah it had an impact. There’s been so many people talking about stats, about 30% winning away from home.

“I think they’re hard facts, but we knew very early on that it was going to be the case, that we weren’t going to be playing in Walsh Park, so I think it’s important now to try and refocus.

“But look I don’t think at the end of the day, that it was the be all and end all. It had some kind of an impact but it was that we weren’t good enough on the days.”

Waterford’s season was marred by the controversy that erupted in their draw against Tipperary in June, when the Premier were awarded a goal despite the sliothar not having crossed the line.

Despite that incident, Connors is not sure that video technology should be introduced in the GAA.

“I suppose at the time, you’re a small bit animated and everything else. One umpire told us to play away, and the other put up the green flag.

“t that time, in the heat of the battle when Tipp were coming back in waves, we were frustrated then. But at the end of the day, you have to realise that these are amateur people doing it for the right reason.

“You don’t want to become like VAR which ends up breaking down the momentum of the game. That kind of stuff. I don’t think that’s going to be the case. You can even see the last number of weeks how a number of calls for Hawk-Eye slowed down the game. You start to get frustrated.

“I think if you bring in something like that, when it takes a long period of time to make a decision, I think it actually takes away from the speed and the attraction of playing sports.”

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