Queally hopes Gunners’ ideas can give Déise a silver bullet
In those trophy-deprived parts of Waterford that don’t identify as Ballygunner, they speak about the county’s pre-eminent hurling force with clenched jaws. Begrudging admiration, yes. But heavy on the begrudging. They’ve heard it all before. Can’t go on forever. Raising the standards in the county. A good thing for Waterford hurling, yadda yadda yadda. A decade of this and no obvious end in sight.
We’re not a million years away from the natural formation of a statistic about the only active players in the Waterford SHC with county medals all wearing black and red hoops.
“One of the things I probably didn’t say too much about in the last three or four weeks, [was that] I was very keen on tapping in on the Ballygunner psyche,” says freshly-minted Waterford manager Peter Queally.
“I did sit down with a lot of Ballygunner people, and it’s only from talking to them that I realise why they are as good as they are. When you see the level of professionalism, the level of buy-in that they have.”
Queally is a convert. This, he readily acknowledges. He was not born into this Ballygunner fancying. His esteem is rare, a triumph for nurture over nature.
He coached Ballygunner to a county final in 2007 before going in with Davy Fitzgerald as a selector with Waterford for the first time.
But of more relevance to his recent personal outlook on the club is the finals he lost to them with Roanmore (2021), Abbeyside (2018) and Passage in 2016.
Collectively, those three finals were lost by 49 points. Queally’s experience is not exceptional or even rare. Anyone in Waterford cheering for Ballygunner this weekend is either a club member or they’ve developed Stockholm syndrome.
“I have been on the receiving end,” Queally confirms. “I do know what it’s like to be in a losing dressing room on a county final day against them.
“But I wouldn’t have appreciated that prior to getting involved with Davy the last couple of years and seeing the lads and their mindset when they come back.
“It’s easy to see why they’re so successful. I suppose my point being then, when you see that level – it is inter-county level they’re operating at. It is elite level.
“If anyone wants to dethrone Ballygunner, they have to match that. And if teams do start to match that, that’s only going to help Waterford. I admire them for what they have done.”
This was the second time Queally went for the Waterford job. The key difference being that unlike the last, he decided he would do so incognito. His interest was strictly on a need-toknow basis.
“I had to have plenty of family chats in relation to it,” he explains. “And the one thing I was big on this time was keeping it very much to myself and my family.
“They were the only ones I confided in. I’m a big person on honesty and stuff like that – but unfortunately, I had to tell a lot of lies to [other] people. There were family members asking, ‘are you going for the Waterford job?’. ‘No, no. No interest’.”
The other pre-requisite was his backroom team. Eoin Kelly, Dan Shanahan, Shane O’Sullivan and John Matthews.
Without those commitments, he insists, he wouldn’t have gone for it. No point taking on a hot seat with no arse in your trousers.
O’Sullivan will play in Sunday’s Waterford SHC final against Abbeyside-Ballinacourty in Dungarvan. He was sent off in the county quarter-final a couple of weeks ago against De La Salle. He has been a central part to Ballygunner’s rise and their subsequent redrawing of the Waterford SHC as their own personal fiefdom.
Queally’s rationale here is self-evident. Within Waterford, hurling is a force that competes at the highest level attainable consistently. They are habitual winners.
Ignoring that, or even failing to tap into it as a knowledge source, would be a clear dereliction of duty for a Waterford hurling manager.
“It’s definitely the reason I brought in Shane,” Queally admits. “I would have known Shane previously. I was with Ballygunner in ’07 and ’08, Shane was in his pomp there. Brilliant player. I had him when I was in with Davy in ’08 and ’09, so I know the level of professionalism
Shane has. I know also how successful he has been in his business over the last few years.
“I would have tapped into Shane just through conversation and stuff, so he was definitely one fella I wanted on that ticket before I committed.” Queally, recently retired from An Garda Síochána, also admits it would be impossible to devote enough time to the Waterford role if he was still in full-time employment.
“I couldn’t get over how much time goes into it,” he says. “Going in with Davy was a massive eye-opener to see that. I’d put it this way, if I was still in full-time employment, I wouldn’t have went for it.
“I was in a very lucky position that I had retired from the guards. I knew I had the time to put into it.
Advantage
“The way things went, everything worked out well in that regard. I think that’s a big advantage, having been there and seeing what’s involved and getting to know the players.
“The analysis side of it,” he goes on. “Having done clubs and been involved in the club scene for the previous 15 or 20 years, you watch a match and you do your clips, but the level of analysis now and what you’re looking out for now . . .
“[It’s] about creating space, tactics and formations. The level of analysis would mean watching a game two or three times to spot, ‘He’s not meant to be there. He’s in the wrong place. He’s crowding it out’. Then showing it back to him.
“Then the other side would be the number of one-to-ones,” Queally adds. “You’re trying to get to know a player better. In a group scenario, you’re not really getting to know the players. You have to meet them one-to-one.
“If you have a squad of 35 or 40 players, trying to get to know them and what goes on in their lives, you have to sit down and talk to them. If you’re dealing with that number of players, you have to really get to know him.”
Busy, busy. But if the first part of any job is discerning precisely what’s involved, Queally can move quickly to the second part.