Now I know its only January and early days but great to see the progress of Waterford so far under Tom. I have the privilege of playing for Tom when he was player / manager at our club for Football. No matter your ability at football Tom always had belief in you and his words of encouragement before ,during and after a game were second to none. We were at the time an Intermediate football team in North Tipperary. We more or less won the North Championship every year bar perhaps the odd one in 3 but we always made the county knockout round and took out some of the big names in the IFC along the way. Lost some county finals never won one!!! Tom also tested our ability against some Senior teams from Limerick and Cork football strongholds , Ballylanders , Monaleen , Duhallow were to name but a few. We got hammered on most occasions but we always learned something from it.Tom was never afraid to punch above his weight and pit us against the big boys. He did manage Tipp footballers previously & in 2002 and were only a kick of a ball away from beating his native Cork in a Munster Final which went to a replay. So his off to a good start with Waterford and looks like already he has the dressing room on his side. They have some silverware in the cabinet which is a big boost and looking like they can put it up to most Div 4 teams this year. Waterford club football has been pretty strong in recent years with 2 or 3 clubs getting to Munster finals but just coming up short. I see an exciting year ahead for Waterford football and would be nice for them to make it to the last 16 or so in the championship.