Waterford legend receives huge backlash over ‘excuses’ for county failure

Do they have a point?

This campaign marks the seventh consecutive year of not making it past the round-robin phase of the provincial group format.

The three-time All Star firstly pointed to the schedule Waterford have had in the last seven years trying to qualify out of Munster. Waterford notably have never had a home game at Walsh Park in their final fixture.

Shanahan said: "The bigger fish always get the break. We don't get any breaks. We haven't had any luck with them decisions. As long as this competition has been going on, we've never had a home game last.

"We've always been away in our last game, which is hard to believe, if you go through the years that we've been playing.

"But you have to win your home games. We drew one and lost one."

The selector then pointed to decisions suffered in the final ten minutes of their defeat to Limerick: "I thought Michael Kiely was fouled for the first goal.

"Aidan O’Connor definitely dropped his hurley for the second goal. Last week with a decision as well, and the week before with another couple of decisions.

"That's no excuse. That's not pointing the finger, but we don't seem to get the rub of the green."

Fans on social media have criticised the Lismore native for finding "excuses" to explain Waterford's lacklustre Munster record.

"Waterford need to stop whinging. They simply haven't shown enough to have legitimate excuses. A terrible record in Munster over the last decade," said one user on X.

Another user added: "So they've often been out of contention after 3 games despite having two of them at home in their tight ground that should suit them? Got it. More excuses."

A final user noted the lack of advantage gained by home teams during the round-robin phase: "If he bothered to do any research there's no advantage to being at home in the round robin. Limerick are the only ones with a big percentage and they've been the best team in the country consistently."