The Waterford hurlers officially bowed out of the Championship at the weekend, despite a reassuring win against Tipperary in Semple Stadium.
The team put in what was comfortably their best performance to take away Tipp's chances of playing in the provincial final, and while Waterford join Cork in staying behind in Munster while Limerick, Clare and Tipp advance, there were positive signs that can be built on going in to 2024.
The manager Davy Fitzgerald spoke to the media after the game, and he was less than pleased with how his team were spoken about in the build up.
Fitzgerald Reaction
"It annoys me so much that you get cut the way we got cut after two bad matches. We played well against Limerick, should have won it, first half against Cork we were poor, second half we matched them and had three goal chances and didn't take them.
Against Clare we were matching them and had 12 wides to their four at half-time, we'd a poor second-half and it affected us.
Out of the whole championship, we'd two halves that were poor and we got punished badly but to listen to some of the crap that I'd to listen to the last few weeks is absolutely disgraceful and annoying so it is.
I'm proud for the guys because those boys have trained so hard, they have worked so hard and it's so annoying to see them be treated the way they are being treated.
I think they showed today what they are about and fair play to them. Maybe last year they went to Ennis and there was nothing to play for but every time we have put on that Waterford jersey I want them to play with that pride and that passion that they did there and they're well able to do it. I really want to thank the genuine people that backed us, they mean the world and they can see a glimpse of what we can do and the only chance we have is to get people behind us.
There's enough of hardship in life without knocking, we need to stop that and get behind each other. I think that's important. It's been a tough month, and there's no one been harder on us than ourselves but to my team and to backroom, I love them to bits and they've given me everything."
Anything in particular that annoyed you over the last two weeks?
"I'm not going there. Ye all know, ye all know. I don't need to tell ye that, ye know. I'm not going talking about it any more. We're killing ourselves, we're not going out to play bad. We're actually trying really hard. Is there a few things we have to put right? There is one or two things outside of hurling that we need to put right. We started that today. It's a game of hurling; there's more things to life. I'm in the job five months, you'd swear I was there five years. There's other managers there three or four years and have won zero and are not getting half the hassle. What is that about?
I'm so happy for the team. We trained hard. We're so disappointed. If we beat Limerick in the first round, what you think would have happened today? Tipp are out of the championship, we're probably through. That's how it goes. It's that close so it is."
Billy Nolan's performance?
"I was told before the game that I must have been mad playing him there. A few people made comments to certain people around our set-up and said 'what are ye doing, is Davy trying to pull a rabbit out of a hat.' I am in my barney. Billy plays centre-back for Roanmore, he plays in that role for WIT. Logically, it made sense to do that and the move worked today. Look at the players we were missing today.
My god, if people tell me that team are bottlers or that Waterford are bottlers. Waterford are not bottlers, a hundred and ten percent, and I think we proved that today. Tipp might have been a bit flatter today after last week, I don't know, but we were probably ten to twelve points better than they were today."
Why did Conor Prunty, Jamie Barron and Austin Gleeson miss the game?
"Conor Prunty had an operation last Monday after the Clare game. He had a bad injury so he had an operation last Monday. Jamie Barron tore a quad on Tuesday and Austin tore one as well on Tuesday. It's one of those years where we're getting no break injury-wise. You had the three of them, you had Tadhg out with his achilles, Shane McNulty still out with a broken foot and Mikey Kiely is still suffering since the Cork game. But you know what? We still had a bunch that fought on their backs for their county and they love their county."
