It's a disappointing way to bow out of the Championship, that's the view of former Déise star Eoin Kelly after Waterford's twelve point loss to Clare at Cusack Park, Ennis on Sunday afternoon last (3-31 to 2-22) in the final game of the round-robin series.
After a campaign which promised so much, it turned out to be a poor campaign in the Provincial with one win from four matches. It's the first time since the Millennium Year (2000) that the Déise hurlers are out of the Championship.
Speaking on WLR's "On The Ball" programme on Monday evening, Kelly said it was a tame exit; "They went out with a whimper really, it looked like that they didn't even really try or they didn't know what they were meant to do, the week before (against Cork) was the same. They looked a bit tired, I don't know did the training method change or were they over trained or what but they just looked out on their feet for the last two games, for a team that as the former manager said - whoever beats them (Waterford) will climb the steps in Croke Park, it didn't look like that team for the last two weeks".
Does the round-robin system suit Waterford? The stats would tend to say no; "12 games - we won one match and we're over-hyping this team to win an All-Ireland" said the Passage clubman. "They won one match in 12 Championship games in that round-robin system (we drew with Tipp in 2018 and beat the Premier last month in Walsh Park), so I suppose we believed the hype too much you know, I thought they performance this year against Limerick this year was good".
So are Waterford capable of bouncing back in 2023? Eoin Kelly said they are capable of turning things around next season; "In the next week or two they'll sit down, they'll gather themselves, go for a review and see what happens and see where they can improve for next year because that team is good enough to win an All-Ireland. At the minute it don't look that way but if they get everything right and you need everything right to win an All-Ireland they way things are gone with Limerick and these teams, you have to have everything spot on, if there's any few bits or things wrong they whole thing is going to fall down which it's after showing the last two weeks, there was something wrong.
It was a tough one to take after a season which promised so much with Waterford lifting their 4th Allianz League title in April, but unfortunately our poor record in the round-robin Championship continued, it's back to the drawing board and a re-focus for 2023.
You can listen back to our full chat with Eoin Kelly here.
