Luke Waterfall

Nominated for Sky Bet League Two Player of the Month: August.

https://www.efl.com/news/2022/september/sky-bet-league-two-player-of-the-month-august-nominations/

Proof that coaching, desire, culture, self reflection and self belief can turn you around…

Quoted from aldi_01

Proof that coaching, desire, culture, self reflection and self belief can turn you around…

Ive seen Waterfall play a few times and always liked what I saw. Gave a lot of commitment .

been absolutely outstanding for night on 12 months

Quoted from aldi_01

Proof that coaching, desire, culture, self reflection and self belief can turn you around…

This

Would have been no surprise at all if he'd left after relegation
He had a shocking season under Hollowords - but I suspect he just wasn't motivated by what was happening at the club etc and playing in empty stadiums etc

PH must rate him and must have seen something - Hurst and Doig's motivational skills and man management skills can't be over estimated; players want to play for them

Waterfall is a giant at the back and a great leader

Great news. Worth pointing out tho' that the Waterfall/Smith combo works so well. Waterfall is just so good at timing, intercepting high balls by winning towering headers above the oppositions forwards while Smith is a master at picking pockets, always anticipating the pass and getting ahead of the receiving player (see McAtees equaliser vs Solihull), and not bad in the air either.

Tough one for Hursty to perm the best two from his selection of CB's.

Smith is learning a lot from Waterfall - one of the reasons he was allowed to come here by his parent club

Quoted from HatTrickHero

Great news. Worth pointing out tho' that the Waterfall/Smith combo works so well. Waterfall is just so good at timing, intercepting high balls by winning towering headers above the oppositions forwards while Smith is a master at picking pockets, always anticipating the pass and getting ahead of the receiving player (see McAtees equaliser vs Solihull), and not bad in the air either.

Tough one for Hursty to perm the best two from his selection of CB's.

You're right but he was also playing well last season before Smith joined us.

Waterfall isn’t the first Town player to come back a different player after the summer following a disappointing season (Rob Jones anyone), but his transformation from where he was in that disastrous season under Holloway to where he is now is remarkable.

Hurst and the coaching team deserve their share of credit for the turnaround, but ultimately the lion’s share of praise deserves to go to the player himself. It takes real mental strength and resilience to do what he has done.

If he hadn’t, he could very well be playing for Scunny right now, or worse. Hang on, that’s not possible. He could be playing for Scunny.

Waterfall obviously takes the kudos for how he's conducted his business and earned his place in the team. What's also worth noting is that intially, PH had spoken and said he wasn't necessarily in his plans. For me, this shows that if a player works hard in the same way LW has, we have a manager who will reflect on his initial viewpoint and not shut the door on a player.

Obviously in this scenario we're talking about Waterfall but - although he wasn't here at the start of last season to see this - hopefully it might offer JMD the impetus and proof that if he gets his head down, the perceived 'closed door' isn't necessarily so and as long as he works he has just as much opportunity to break back into the side than not.

I'm sure we as fans won't mind who's in the team if we're doing well, but hopefully that approach by the manager will contribute a little way to keeping players motivated when out of the team throughout the season.

However, after digressing from the original point, it has been great to see a player come good from what seemed like a position of not being wanted, I certainly confess to seeing him as not good enough following our relegation and more than happy to eat my words, he's had an amazing 12 months.