"There is enough talent in this squad to be capable of getting beyond a quarter final"

The new Waterford Camogie manager is ready to roll up his sleeves and try to push the senior Deise team beyond a point they have not passed before.
Derek Lyons was appointed senior boss shortly after new year, taking up the mantle from Fergal O Brien.
The Dungarvan clubman was previously in charge of the Déise minor and under 21 hurling teams, throwing his hat into the women's code for the first time in his management career, he says taking over during the pandemic has posed some unique challenges and opportunities.
"Albeit I’m new to the scene here, I have the advantage point of seeing and learning what other managers would have done over the last year. I would have spoken to a number of those, whether it be at club level or intercounty people just to get a feel for what would be the best way to prepare."
"With the amount of uncertainty that’s still there – we’re into March now and we still don’t know and we understand why we don’t know because it's all about the figures nationally. When they get to a particular point, I presume the government are going to let us know when we can go back."
"It's difficult, but I suppose the one thing you do know is that the one thing you have control of is the training environment, and it's just about getting a balance that suits."
"It’s just about getting a balance and what extent and what effort you expect of the squad at this time of the year with that uncertainty."

Liberty Insurance All-Ireland Senior Championship Round 2, Walsh Park, Waterford, Co. Waterford 25/10/2020
Waterford vs Limerick
A general view of Walsh Park
©INPHO/Tommy Dickson

With Gaelic Games still on indefinite hold until the covid situation improves, intercounty and club teams are resigned to training individually and within their 5km limit, something that Lyons says requires careful management.
"I suppose the caveat here is that, in fairness to the GAA at headquarters, they have given a copper-fastened guarantee that they’re going to give counties the benefit of a four week period before they go back to competitive games – whether that’s national league or Munster championships in our case or the All-Ireland series."
"That’s something of a comfort – it certainly is to me and I’m sure it is to all other managers that at least we know we have that window, whereby the players are going to get an opportunity to sharpen their skills and hone in on that real fitness that’s required to play at that level."
"What we don’t want is girls going back and then finding themselves getting injured in matches straight away because there wasn’t enough pre-season stuff done."
"It’s a balancing act with no date set in stone, so we have to try and make sure that we're not getting to a point where we have a date where we’re going to peak. We want to be up around 70 or 80 percent come maybe the end of April I suppose realistically."
"We have to build on that basis and work around all of the obstructions and obstacles that are there with covid. The biggest one being the fact that we can’t get together."
Taking over a job with a clear goal in mind is never a bad thing, and after so many years of trying the goal for the Deise seniors is to progress in the Championship beyond the quarter-final stage - something that has hung over them the past three years.

"It's not a point that hasn’t already been asked of me. I’m only in the job a number of weeks now and it’s probably the most recurring question that I’m hearing and I suppose that’s understandable because when you have a situation where a team is reaching a certain level on an annual basis, and we’ve done it now on three consecutive years where we’ve reached a quarter-final."
"In some cases, maybe expectations were different in all those three games and I think they were. Last year was particularly disappointing for the girls."
"What is the goal? The goal for me is about improving. It's about putting in structures from a management point of view, that if we can tweak a few things and change a few things that will make the environment a better environment for them to succeed in. That’s my job as a manager."
"I know the girls, certainly, their goal is to be as successful as they can. They want to win matches, they want to win titles, whether that’s Munster titles, League titles or All-Ireland titles. Nobody togs out for their county without having that aspiration."
"Reality kicks in of course and we have to be realistic about our expectations and our goals that we set."

Lyons, thankfully, has some time to get all his ducks in a row before the white heat of the championship arrives again. He undoubtedly will be spending time trying to figure out what could work best for him and where the team has fallen short before, albeit with the challenge of not getting a look at his players in training until collective sessions can resume.

"We just really want to improve, we want to go out to win every game. I know that’s an old cliché, I know that but I think given the uncertainty of the year and what’s ahead of us, you could go out and suddenly this championship could be stopped again three weeks later."
"Really what we're looking to do in pre-season is to get things ready for us as best we can so that the girls can put their best foot forward."
"It simply is a case of taking it one game at a time, last year proved that. The girls won two games and lost two games. Their performance against Tipperary – they’ll be disappointed with, it was a game that possibly could have been won, but they didn’t win it."
"They know they're not far away from getting beyond a quarter-final, but I’m not going to be stupid enough to say that we deserve to be winning quarter-finals. You must go out and win these games, simple as."
"What I am convinced of is that there is enough talent in this squad to be capable of getting beyond a quarter-final, but you have to go out and do it – simple as."