Unfortunately 2019 was a rather disappointing year on the Inter-County GAA front with the Déise hurlers failing to qualify out of Munster, following four straight defeats as Championship hurling returned to Walsh Park for the first time since 2003. Waterford did have a positive league campaign reaching the Final, but were well beaten by a superior Limerick outfit on the day.
Paraic Fanning stood down as Waterford manager in August along with his backroom team, and former Tipperary star Liam Cahill was appointed as the new Déise boss.
Pauric Mahony of @ballygunnerHc has been named Captain of the Waterford Senior Hurlers for the 2020 Campaign with Conor Prunty of @AbbeycourtyGAA1 named as Vice Captain. pic.twitter.com/2L0oADrp3S
— Waterford GAA (@WaterfordGAA) December 15, 2019
The Déise footballers missed out on promotion from Division 4 of the National league, with some narrow early round defeats costing them dearly, although Benji Whelan's charges did record impressive wins over Wexford, Antrim and London. Waterford narrowly lost to Clare in the Munster Championship before bowing out at the hands of Westmeath in the opening round of the All-Ireland Qualifiers.
Pride of place has to go to the Waterford Minor and Under-20 football teams who were the only teams to record Championship wins in 2020.
The Minors were unlucky not to qualify for the Phase one final, narrowly missing out on scoring difference following a draw against Limerick and a dramatic win over Clare in their final two round-robin games.
Tom Guiry's charges rallied from six points down to secure a dramatic 2-7 to 1-9 win over Clare in Fraher Field on April 24th thanks to two late goals (including an injury-time penalty) from DJ Melia.
https://soundcloud.com/wlrfmwaterford/tom-guiry-dj-melia-waterford-minor-football
July 2nd in Fraher Field is a day that will live long in the memory as Waterford Under-20 footballers defeated Clare in the Munster Quarter-Final.
Tom Barron was the hero of the hour as Waterford ended a 13-year wait for a Munster championship win at Fraher Field last night.
Darragh Corcoran was the man of the match, the St Saviours forward kicking 1-7 in his first underage football game for the county. Waterford lost 13 games in a row prior to this game.
Congrats to the fantastic @WaterfordGAA u20 footballers! Brilliant game pic.twitter.com/Ztnwl32CMl
— EmerB (@deisedreamer) July 2, 2019
Generally overwhelmed and humbled by the amount of well done and congrats messages after our U-20 Munster Football C'ship victory, the lads emptied themselves and displayed some top quality as well to record a thrilling win, thanks to everyone for the kind words and messages #GAA
— Gavin Whelan (@WhelanGavin) July 3, 2019
Waterford suffered a heavy defeat against eventual All-Ireland champions Cork in the Provincial semi-final in Clonakilty.
Listen back by clicking the below link;
https://www.spreaker.com/user/11231943/part-one-sports-review-of-the-year-2019-
