All Ireland title the only cure as McCarthy goes

Sorry to see Justin McCarthy resign from the Waterford job last night.
It's clear that his removal is another sign of the player power so forcefully shown by the Cork hurlers and footballers who went out on strike earlier in the year when Teddy Holland went for his gums without even a ball being thrown in.
McCarthy said that he had lost the support of several of his players and to be fair Waterford only look a shadow of the team which won Munster and the National League last year.
Waterford have enjoyed their first successes of the modern era under McCarthy who built on the solid foundations laid down by fellow Cork man Gerald McCarthy at the end of the '90s, and won Munster on three occasions.
However, it will always be a matter of debate as to whether or not Waterford were actually good enough to go on and win an All Ireland under him or whether the players were always going to fall short anyway no matter who was in charge.
The one thing for sure is that Waterford are an ageing side and for the spine of the team there are not many big days out at Croke Park left in them.
Sunday's performance was the worst by a Waterford side in the championship for the last ten years. They have been beaten before but they surrendered on Sunday and the towel was thrown in 20 minutes from the end.
This latest player revolt will inject a bit of bite into the season as a lot of people now have something to prove.
They should look no further than the great Offaly side of 1998 for inspiration.
They too were ageing warriors with a lot of miles on the clock and after a poor start to their Leinster season they parted with manager Babs Keating who was resented by many of the senior players.
Michael Bond took over in mid season and the rest as they say is history.
The Faithful men won a three-game marathon against Clare, which included the famous early whistle game and sit-in on Croke Park by the Offaly fans, and they beat a Kilkenny side in the All-Ireland final which had wiped them out in Leinster.
That will be a hard act for the Decies to follow but that is the only thing which can justify the treatment of McCarthy.

McCarthy must be cursing his luck

The life of county manager must be nerve wracking whenever your players are in action for their clubs in a championship weekend.
I'm sure they sit in dread of the type of phonecall which tells them that one of their star players have been hurt over the weekend playing havoc with well-laid plans for the season which may have begun as far back as October last year.
Take Justin McCarthy as an example this season. A year ago he was enjoying a great season with the Waterford hurling side.
The National League title was under their belts and preparing to launch a strongly fancied bid for the All-Ireland title.
Waterford lit up the Munster championship with another great win but eventually floundered tired and mentally drained in the All-Ireland semi final against a fit and hungry Limerick.
This year Waterford have been slow out of the blocks, many felt McCarthy has been nursing his ageing warriors for the last big battle.
Instead slowly but surely the bottom is falling out of the Waterford challenge. Eoin Murphy, Eoin Kelly and Paul Flynn are all expected to miss the opening Munster championship game with Clare on June 1.
Now the goal scoring star of last season Dan Shanahan, who hadn't really got into his stride in this year's league, has ligament damage to his knee and looks set to miss the first game too.
Dan was playing in a senior hurling championship game for his club Lismore in a victory over Mount Sion. He will be out for three weeks although the injury was feared to be much worse initially but it will make it difficult for him to start against Clare.
The only good news for McCarthy is that Tony Browne got the all clear after being sent off in a club game.
However, I noticed that Browne only came in to the game as a sub and it was his second sending off in six months.
Just wonder is he beginning to suffer from grumply old man syndrome as your pace goes you get a little more aggressive in the absence of being able to stay with them.
Tony Browne's a wonderful hurler but he has struggled against blistering pace in the last year or two.
I can't see the Decies get out of the starting blocks against Clare in the absence of their casualties and McCarthy must be hoping that some of his missing players might just make it to the starting line.