GAA.ie hurling columnist, Michael Fennelly.
By Michael Fennelly
After five years in charge of the Waterford hurlers, Derek McGrath has decided to call it a day.
His announcement didn’t come as a major surprise, because he had previously hinted that the 2018 campaign would be his last.
Derek started as Waterford manager at the age of 37 which is very young when you look at the age profile of other managers.
And I wouldn’t be surprised to see him back as Bainisteoir in the future due to the passion he with holds for hurling.
He’s a family man and seemed very conscious of his time apart from his wife and two boys.
I have no doubt he will be reflecting over the coming months on his 5-year term and will have learned a lot from both his successes and failures, but especially the latter.
While in charge of the team, Derek wore his heart on his sleeve more than most.
He opened up at different times on his worries, and offered insights in to the camp, and the pressures and commitments that went hand in hand with being Waterford manager.
He felt the need to take a period of parental leave from teaching to better facilitate family life and being an inter-county manager.
That just goes to show how demanding a role being an inter-county manager is today, especially when you’re as committed to the task as Derek was.
Despite the huge effort he put into the job, the only tangible in terms of silverware that Waterford won on his watch was one Allianz Hurling League title back in 2015.
Derek McGrath wore his heart on his sleeve as Waterford hurling team manager.
But despite coming up short in the Championship, I have a feeling that he won’t be forgotten and the players he has worked with over these 5 years will hold him close to their hearts.
Their reaction to his retirement on social media underlined just how strong a bond McGrath forged with them, and showed that friendships rather than medals are perhaps the most valuable things you can earn from a life in Gaelic Games.
If Waterford are to be successful in the near future, I think McGrath’s name will crop up as a being a significant contributor because he did such good work to mould them into one of the best teams in the country.
Our Kilkenny team had some serious battles with Waterford over recent years and always found it difficult to overcome. They realistically should have been in the All Ireland in 2016, but we somehow summoned a late surge and came from nowhere to equalize the game.
The 2016 All-Ireland semi-final replay would have go down as one of the truly great hurling matches, with both teams going absolutely hammer and tongs at one another.
Had Pauric Mahony’s late free been a few inches higher, it would have levelled the game up again at the death.
That same year Waterford produced another classic in an epic League Final replay against Clare, but once again came out on the wrong side of the result as Clare came with a late surge to win it.
Michael Fennelly, left, and Conor Fogarty of Kilkenny compete for the throw-in against Kevin Moran, and Jamie Barron of Waterford during the 2016 All-Ireland SHC semi-final between Kilkenny and Waterford at Croke Park.
During Derek's reign, they tended to fall short by the finest of margins.
Had Conor Gleeson been available for last year’s All-Ireland Final he would have made a massive difference because he’s one of the best man-markers in the game.
Even without him, Waterford might have been crowned All-Ireland Champions had Kevin Moran converted a chance in the second-half that would have put his team two points ahead.
Galway tacked on three points shortly after that miss, and the match really swung on that sudden momentum shift.
Derek has successfully developed a generation of seriously talented young Waterford hurlers who should be around for a long time to come.
Austin Gleeson was the Hurler of the Year in 2016, and if it were up to me the award would have gone to Jamie Barron last year.
Not everyone might have liked the sweeper system that McGrath implemented with Waterford, but even if it wasn’t pretty you’d have to say it was pretty effective.
This is definitely not the end of Derek McGrath. He’ll go back now doing a bit of underage or schools coaching because he loves the game too much to step away from it completely.
I really believe that eventually we’ll see him return to the inter-county arena again.
And when he does, he’ll be a lot wiser from the lessons he learned during his first five years in the job.
