Waterford county hurling team
Waterford county hurling team
Main page

Waterford county hurling team

logo
Community Hub0 subscribers
What are your thoughts?
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Waterford county hurling team

The Waterford county hurling team represents Waterford in hurling and is governed by Waterford GAA, the county board of the Gaelic Athletic Association. The team competes in the three major annual inter-county competitions; the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship, the Munster Senior Hurling Championship and the National Hurling League.

Waterford's home grounds are Walsh Park, Waterford, and Fraher Field, Dungarvan. The team's manager is Peter Queally.

The team last won the Munster Senior Championship in 2010, the All-Ireland Senior Championship in 1959 and the National League in 2022.

The team is nicknamed the Déise men.

The Waterford County Board was established in 1886 in Kilmacthomas and played in the Munster Championship for the first time in 1888, losing to Cork on a score of 2–8 to 0-0. The next fourteen years would consist of walkovers, first round defeats and not entering the competition at all. Waterford would finally win a championship match for the first time in 1903, defeating Kerry by 5–6 to 2–9. In their first Munster final, which did not take place until 1904, Waterford would lose to Cork. The following years led to another series of opening Munster championship match defeats and the occasional walkover, and Waterford would not win another senior championship match until 1925 when Clare were defeated, only for Tipperary to beat them in only their second Munster final. Despite its present reputation as a hurling stronghold, football was initially the preferred Gaelic sport in Waterford: the county was one of only nine to compete in the inaugural All-Ireland football championship in 1887.

At this stage, Waterford was still the only county in Munster not to have won the provincial or All-Ireland hurling title, but there were signs of improvement. The minor hurlers reached the first ever Munster final in 1928, losing to Cork. They would make up for this defeat the following year against Tipperary and would defeat Meath in the All-Ireland final. The junior hurlers secured the county's first ever adult silverware in 1931, winning both the Munster and All-Ireland titles. They would repeat this feat in 1934.

At senior level, the county was edging ever closer to Munster success, with the 1931 team drawing with Cork in the final only to lose the replay by 15 points. A fifth Munster final appearance ended when the match against Limerick was abandoned due to crowd encroachment late on with Limerick leading by 11 points. The title was awarded to Limerick, who would defeat Waterford again in the 1934 decider.

The junior hurlers won the county's third Munster and All-Ireland double at that level in 1936, and the senior hurlers, after those near misses at the start of the decade, were ready to secure the Munster title. An 11-point win over Cork in the 1938 Munster semi-final saw Waterford into their seventh Munster final, where they defeated Clare by 3–5 to 2–5. They reached the county's first ever All-Ireland final after an easy win over Galway, where they went down to Dublin in Croke Park by 2-5 (11) to 1-6 (9). The following year, Waterford played in their first National Hurling League final, losing to Dublin by 1-8 (11) to 1-4 (7).

See all
User Avatar
No comments yet.