Waterford have confirmed that senior hurling manager Derek McGrath will remain at the helm for another season. He will decide upon taking up the final year of his term at the end of next year’s campaign.
On Tuesday morning Waterford GAA released the following short statement; “We would like to confirm that Derek McGrath and his management team have committed to the 2018 season with Waterford.
“This was unanimously ratified at a meeting of the Waterford executive committee on Monday night.”
His management team which includes former players Dan Shanahan and Eoin Murphy will also remain in place.
McGrath has another two seasons remaining in his current term as Waterford boss, and he has committed to taking on one of those seasons rather than this being an extension to that existing agreement.
He would not give any assurances over his future in the aftermath of his team’s All-Ireland final defeat to Galway two months ago. Following that three-point defeat, McGrath told the media;
“I haven’t really put a huge amount of thought into that (staying on). We’ve invested a huge amount of time over the last three or four years, and we’ve just been talking about the now. We said we’d leave the post-match speculation. We are just in the now.
“The nucleus is there for a good team going forward, but there are just no guarantees.”
The 41 year-old first took on the role for the 2014 season, and a year later his young team won the national hurling league. This summer Waterford made only their third senior All-Ireland final appearance since their last triumph in 1959.
