Déise hurling boss Davy Fitzgerald is calling on the Waterford public to come out and support the team in bigger numbers next year.
Speaking on WLR's Lár Na Páirce show, the Clare man says that his team will be doing everything in their power to improve on a disappointing 2023. “The big thing for us is we’d be hoping to get more Waterford support out there and I genuinely mean that. I think the Waterford people are really good people. I know they’ve had a lot disappointment but so have a lot of counties. I believe that we can turn this and give it a right go. The less negativity you have around the better. Trust me, when you keep saying a team is poor, that won’t help anything. We need as much positivity as we can. I actually know that a lot of the Waterford public are good. We want you back out and giving us everything. Just be as positive as you can.”
Fitzgerald wants his team to be more consistent in 2024. He admitted that they underperformed against Cork and Clare in this year's Munster championship. "Consistency over the last five or six years has been a big thing with Waterford. I think you can see that yourself with certain displays. I think we might have a better understanding of why that is and hopefully address that in the off season. Consistency is very important. The first time I got to experience it was in the middle of the championship last year. We played two bad halves. You can dress it up whatever way you want, that is fact. We played pretty decent against Limerick, should have got a result. Second half against Cork, I thought we were ok. First half, we were way off. In the second half against Clare, we were way off. Against Tipperary, that fight, that scrapping, even though we were missing a lot, that’s the kind of consistency we want to get into this team. I have to say this, those young lads are very good lads. They work extremely hard.”
Fitzgerald can't wait for his team to run out in the redeveloped Walsh Park next season. Waterford will welcome Cork and Tipperary to the city venue for the 2024 Munster championship. “We had no home games last year. Playing in Walsh Park is massive to us, absolutely massive. You know what, the clubs of Waterford and especially the county board should be so proud of what they’ve done. All I heard for a long time was knocking the county board for this, that and the other thing. I know Sean Michael O’Regan and how hard he works. He’s a really good person. Pat Flynn and all the lads work really hard and they deserve support. We have a savage stadium now. The bit of width makes an awful difference. That’s our home. We’re going to absolutely try our best to be as good as we can and win our games in Walsh Park next year and have the people there with us.”
Listen back to the full interview from Friday's Lár Na Páirce show.
