Another shocking season for the Deise county and former Waterford All-Star defender Ken McGrath was very strong in his opinions online. The Mount Sion club man was on WLR FM this week and doubled down on his opinion and hit back on some of the online trolls.
MORE HERE: 🚨Some great & awkward footage released of Keane & Vieira off screen on Sunday 😬
Quoted by balls.ie
“I saw one or two things about ‘The 90s – 2000s Waterford players need to step up’,” McGrath told WLR FM’s Deise Today.
“I went to step up two years ago with Andy Moloney and Dan Shanahan for the Waterford U20 job.
“I have two older kids and two younger kids, and the younger lads are getting to an age where I feel I can give something back to the county without talking out the side of my mouth about this player and that player.
“We were deemed by the county board to not be good enough. A lot of people can say stuff, ‘These lads aren’t putting [the effort in]’. We wanted to try and put the effort in. I wanted to get back in with Waterford but we were deemed not good enough. At times, there’s a bigger picture of what’s going on.
“Of course it would [hurt you]. You’re putting your neck on the line and saying you want to give something back. I gave 17 years playing, and I was a selector for one year in 2012. I gave the early part of my life to Waterford.
“I was working with Andy and Dan, good friends of mine. Andy won an All-Ireland club with Ballyhale. Dan did great with Derek McGrath as a selector.”
“I was only thinking about what I said on Saturday and would I stand over what I said on Saturday, and 100 per cent I would.
“Over the last three or four games, our hurling has been very, very poor. The mistakes we are making, the first touch, the fumbling, even the options we are going. That’s all coaching, Damien.
“You are looking at a team where, last year we were the second best team in the country. And this year we are at Joe McDonagh standard. And that’s the reality of it.
“You can gloss over it whatever way you want and people would say you are being harsh. But when you are county player, you have to deal with criticism.”
McGrath called Davy Fitzgerald’s tactics “baffling”. Asked if he believes there should be a change in management for next season, McGrath responded: “If that was a Waterford man standing on the life, would he last a year? He didn’t last four years ago when there was a Waterford man (Páraic Fanning) standing there, and the round robin didn’t work out. Would [a Waterford man] last this year? In my opinion, he wouldn’t.”