Daly Departed

Main photo - Fans wanting something to cheer (Noah Bradfield)

 

There’s really only one way for a manager to gain the affection of fans and that’s by winning games. Stylish football, passion from the sidelines or a likeable personality will get you so far, but wins are the only currency that really counts. Jon Daly had thirteen attempts and delivered zero wins. Football can be a ruthless business at times, but the cost of relegation and the ever-growing financial gap between the two divisions of the League of Ireland means patience is an increasingly rare commodity. Supporters’ stocks ran dry weeks ago and the ownership almost inevitably followed suit today.

It was clear that the club wanted a young, fresh, hungry manager last winter, but one with experience of the League of Ireland too. John Russell was the number one target and was, reportedly, close to making the switch from Sligo to Waterford. Ciaran Kilduff was linked, but stayed with Dundalk. Daly, turning 43 in January, should have fit the bill as a cup-winning boss of St Patrick’s Athletic, who also battled at the bottom of the table with Dundalk and coached under John Caulfield at Galway. He seemed to have a very definite blueprint in mind with particular players he wanted to sign and others he wanted to release. Having the whole squad commit to returning early to preseason training augured well. The early signs were that, even if the Waterford of 2026 would be less exciting or even dour, they would be hard to beat and play to a plan. 

It didn’t work out like that. Daly - though young - had quite an old school approach. The football was joyless and too many players looked uneasy even before the losing streak began to take its toll. The ideas appeared old and opposition teams enjoyed exploiting the gaping weaknesses of Waterford’s rigid structure. With most of preseason conducted behind closed doors, it was difficult to get a realistic sense of the Blues’ potential for the year ahead, but the midfield did seem to be worryingly exposed with two up front and Noonan and Carty as wide players in almost a four-two-four formation. Those fears were reinforced when two months of preparation was ripped to shreds in a shambolic first forty-five minutes of the season with Shelbourne running rings around Waterford’s midfield and taking advantage of the freedom of Kilbarry in the acres of space abandoned by a confused home side. To the manager’s credit, that was the first of several occasions where he addressed a calamitous situation, made changes and undid earlier damage. Unfortunately, it was just never enough to win any game.

 

Jon Daly leaves after six months, thirteen games and no wins.

The home clash with Sligo Rovers turned out to be his biggest opportunity to put three points on the board in just the third match of the season. The visitors were a bit of a mess at the time and most definitely there for the taking. The failure to get that first win and get the fans behind his tenure can’t be solely put down to Pádraig Amond’s missed penalty, but, either way, fans went home very unhappy that night and that mood was to continue through to the month of May. The first half against Bohemians at the RSC was stupefying with Dawson Devoy and Adam McDonnell strolling unaccompanied in front of the Foosball table-like line of static Waterford midfielders while Ross Tierney wandered lonely as a cloud in the gap behind them. Dundalk was deplorable, Galway a disaster and few could believe no change was made after the capitulation in Sligo no matter how many times fans refreshed their social media feeds. Daly’s post-match hypothesis that “if we’d have got the result tonight, we’d have been a point behind Sligo” didn’t do anything to reassure a fanbase who wanted to hear anything other than an ‘if my aunt’ parallel timeline. 

Instead, both team and fans alike ploughed through the mire of last week’s theft of a point from a Galway team who really should have put the game to bed by half time. Last night in Tallaght went as expected only for some brave defending preventing Rovers from running away with it and, for that, the players themselves deserve enormous credit. The problem was it was a game the Blues were never going to win and we are long past the time for moral victories. I have never been a fan of post-match interviews because they tend more towards justifying a manager’s choices than an honest assessment of a game. What Daly may see as brutal truths, however, came across, more and more, as pointing the finger of blame at individual players and the mood in the camp seemed to be getting, understandably, worse by the week.

No club wants a reputation for sacking managers two and three times a season and, the more that happens, the less attractive the position will be for many serious managers. Despite the yearly rumours of owners (not just the present incumbents) running out of money or pulling out of the club, I’m more inclined to believe the reason for delaying the inevitable was that they want to buck the trend and give a manager the chance to build something long-term. Will Watt, club secretary of Fleetwood Town, said at the season launch at Bank Lane in February that “We knew this managerial appointment was really crucial.” Parachuting Matt Lawlor in to save Waterford’s season TWICE last year just about worked, but it’s obviously not sustainable. The revolving door of managers also means high turnover of players and any new gaffer having to make do with some of his predecessor’s leftovers. Everyone would like a manager with a plan who would take on a project to develop the club and stay for several years. It just has to be the right one.

 

Conan Noonan celebrating one of the goals that kept Waterford in the top flight (Cian Kelly)

That might partly explain the timing of today’s decision. There’s no shame in losing 1-0 away to the champions and league leaders - Waterford even rallied in the dying minutes and could have sneaked an equaliser against the odds. It is more to do with the previous seven defeats and the inability to win any of Jon’s thirteen matches in charge. So why today? There was rare unanimity among fans for several weeks that a change was needed, but there was no sign of it from the powers that be. My feeling is that it was a business decision tipped by having three home games coming up over the next two weeks against Dundalk (4th of May), Derry City (15th) and Drogheda United (18th). The loss of revenue from a near-empty RSC would have been extremely costly. Fans needed something to keep hope alive and help them stick with the team. 

The other intriguing, but less likely, factor could be the end of Fleetwood Town’s season today. It does seem highly improbable that Matt Lawlor, now installed as permanent Head Coach of their first team, could make yet another return. He certainly couldn’t have an official role, so unless he was to come in an ‘advisory capacity’ to work with the current coaching staff for a few weeks, it doesn’t seem possible. It’d be a long shot, but he has led the cavalry charge successfully twice before and doesn’t seem the type to want to get away from football for a break before planning begins for Fleetwood’s ‘26/’27 season. Of course, the best showmen always leave you wanting more, so there would be the risk of tainting Lawlor’s legacy from last year if it didn’t work out as well. 

Whoever takes the reins next, they face a difficult, but not impossible, task. Waterford still have twenty-three games to play. That’s more than enough time to reel teams in and push up the table to safety. We have seen both Lawlor and Marc Bircham in recent years taking teams that looked dead and buried, instil belief, put smiles on faces and make an immediate impact. There is more than enough quality in the current squad to be able to get eleven good players together, playing their best with passion and conviction. There are leaders, there is talent, and there are players who believe in the Blues. The rest of the season starts now.