Noel Connors revels in hard graft for young Waterford team

The last thing Noel Connors ever expected to hear was Waterford’s style of hurling being compared to a Donegal’s style of football.

A slight exaggeration maybe, but the comparison is not entirely unjustified.

In coming through Division 1B of the Allianz Hurling League, as well as a quarter-final, Waterford have been undeniably defensive, conceding just 3-80 in six games – easily the lowest of any county.

It’s only now, as Waterford prepare to face Tipperary in Sunday’s semi-final at Nowlan Park, that the Donegal comparison is put to Connors, and the 2010 All Star defender doesn’t exactly take it as a compliment.

Earlier interview

“ I certainly wasn’t aware of it,” he says, “and was just told, in an earlier interview, it was the Donegal way of playing hurling. I was kind of laughing to myself. It’s the first time I really came across it.

“I know we’ve a few players coming back the field. But it’s not that we go out with the intention of being extremely defensive. We go out with the want to get on the ball and really work hard.

“So if that takes a corner forward at times coming out to half back and trying to get a block or if it takes a half forward going into the half back line and winning a ball, that’s what you have to do to win. Eoin Larkin is a prime example of an individual that’s doing it for years. It’s the want to really get on the ball and the desire to help out the lads.”

Waterford’s style is serving them well: they held Galway to 0-12 in the league quarter-final, and Connors credits manager Derek McGrath for turning fortunes around after Waterford found themselves relegated to Division 1B in 2014.

“Derek’s first year was just as challenging for him as it was for us,” he says, “but he learned quite a lot over those 12 months. We did too, in that we were probably quite young and naive at the time, lacking a small bit of experience to an extent. But over the winter lads knuckled down. Everybody wants to be successful, and when everyone is singing off the same hymn sheet it makes things a lot easier.

“There’s always some criticism when things change. But you have to do what you have to do to win, and if your work rate is not there, you’re not going to compete. That’s one thing Derek has instilled in us – if you can get in hooks and blocks and if you can tackle extremely hard, that’s going to be half the battle.”

Responsibility For Connors – currently in the midst of a PhD at the Waterford Institute of Technology, examining club leadership qualities within the GAA – this season has also brought responsibility in that he’s now seen as one of the elder players within Waterford.

“I suppose it’s like the economy. It’s a cycle that you have to go through. You have to go through a learning process. It’s like an organisation. You have to start from somewhere and work your way up.

“The amount of people that were after retiring, even in the last four to five years, the likes of Tony [Browne], Ken McGrath, Eoin Kelly, [John] Mullane. All of a sudden there was a new generation born. ”