'We have the first-season-syndrome out of the way' | Waterford look to build on last year | South-east derby up first | Gary Hunt and Maeve Williams
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How does Gary Hunt feel about his second season as Waterford's manager?
off the ball rugby then all we'll never know until we play we know on the evidence of play well for your province play well in Europe play well in the URC consistently back it up for a couple four five six matches and then people go give them a go join in the obsession subscribe now at offtheball.com forward slash join Gary Hunt staring down the barrel of your second season now as Waterford women's manager how are you feeling?
Yeah, we're looking forward to it. We've obviously got the first season syndrome out of the way now, and we can look to try and make some progress in year two. So, as I said, we're excited. We've started back now, we're working hard in pre-season, and we're looking forward to the first game of the season, which is a home match this season, and it's the South East derby with Wexford, so we're looking forward to that.
I suppose, coming into this season, do you feel that you have a bit more control over the way in which your squad can play, because you know what worked from last season and what didn't work?
Yes, for the most part we'll still be young, but what we will say to those young players is now they've got a year under their belt of understanding the type of player they'll come up against, the intensity level of the player they'll come up against, so we'll see progress. I'm looking at training in pre-season and I think it's been really good that the intensity levels in comparison to maybe this time 12 months ago is in a different place. We're really hoping that we can carry that. We spoke a lot last year about consistency.
What lessons did Waterford learn from last season's challenges?
So that'll be one of the main aims this season to bring to the table. And if we do that, I think, as I said, we can definitely show a little bit more progress than we did last season. I suppose that continues on.
What I'm gathering is that you're happy with the position the squad is in this year as opposed to where you were last year.
Yes, I think so. It was probably late pre-season last year when we really kind of nailed down the squad and things like that. So there was a lot of unknown, you know, weeks two, three, four in pre-season, whereas now we're in a little bit of a better place for that. And as I said, hoping we'll see the benefits of that, maybe not in the short term, but definitely over the long term. There's a season, as we know, is a marathon and it's not a sprint. You know, we'll look forward to each game as it comes.
How is the team preparing for the opening game against Wexford FC?
And as I said, we'll hopefully surprise people too and make some pace up that table. And hopefully... you know, be in a good place.
Obviously the big news has been the resigning with a lot of key players from last season, but there's been, I suppose, very little commentary on new players coming into the squad. You're obviously working very diligently behind the scenes to try and see who might be available, but for you, how have you found that task?
Yeah look I suppose for location for us it's difficult you know to you know a lot of the players especially once they leave school and things like that go to Dublin to university go to Galway you know and it's difficult to get players maybe to come all the way down the road when they're at full-time work or full-time employment or full-time studies you know that can be difficult for us so it's a challenge in that sense but look as I said we've got some good very good young players in the squad we've got some and good players coming in the door, you know, and we think that we can, you know, make it make a little bit of a better stamp of the league this year and make a better, you know, account of ourselves.
And in turn, hopefully, you know, in a year's time, two years and three years time, we can again be a bigger force year on year. And that's that's the aim. We want to compete in the top half of the table.
What improvements have been made in training compared to last year?
We know it can't happen overnight, but we know if we lay the foundations at this time, it'll help us in the long run.
I know obviously consolidating your place in the league and kind of making sure that your competitive side is a massive aim for yourselves this year but I remember this time last year you were kind of looking a little bit ahead to the All-Ireland Cup and thinking that that could be a place where a good run could go for your own side is that something you'll be targeting again this year?
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
How does Gary Hunt feel about his second season as Waterford's manager?
0:00–1:16
2
What lessons did Waterford learn from last season's challenges?
1:16–1:54
3
How is the team preparing for the opening game against Wexford FC?
1:54–2:59
4
What improvements have been made in training compared to last year?
2:59–4:21
5
How does Maeve Williams feel about the upcoming season?
4:21–5:30
6
What are Waterford's goals for the 2026 season?
5:30–6:14
7
How does the team plan to build on last season's performance?
6:14–7:00
8
What impact does fan support have on the team's performance?
7:00–11:36
Speakers
4 identifiedMore from OTB Football
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