Even on foreign soil in Tralee, it would be a surprise if Waterford do not rack up a decent tally on Tuesday evening and put an early win on the board for 2024.
Davy Fitzgerald will not necessarily be focusing on flashes of individual brilliance or feats of score-poaching in his team’s Co-Op Superstores Munster Hurling League opener though.
Rather, after months of soul-searching and attempting to figure out just what makes this group of Déise hurlers tick, he will take most learning from how they respond to the difficult moments.
Those are the bits, according to selector and former Waterford midfielder Peter Queally, that the group has really struggled with.
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It was another Munster championship campaign to forget in 2023 for Waterford who, after four instalments of the provincial group format since 2018, have taken just five points from a possible 32.
They saved a little face with a final-round defeat of Tipperary but it still added up to another rock-bottom finish and an early championship exit.
“We’ve sorted a lot of issues out and hopefully it’ll be a bit better for us this year,” said Queally, who explained exactly how they examined the team’s alarming “lulls” in big games and propensity for collapses.
“Some honest, frank discussions, I think that’s the best way of describing it. If you want to put a professional slant on it, maybe a little bit of group therapy. It was some honest, frank talk and very productive talks that we had, stuff about sorting certain issues out and trying to get to the bottom of it and to make sure we don’t have a repeat.
“We had little areas outside of hurling that we needed to work on and we seem to have sorted a lot of those issues out, which is a good thing.”
There were mitigating factors for Waterford’s underperformance in 2023 too, according to Queally.
They had to play Limerick first up in the championship and, while they put up a good show losing by two points, he said it took a huge amount out of them, physically and mentally. A week later they were well beaten by Cork and lost to Clare in round three by a dozen points.
“We put probably the bones of four or five months into focusing on Limerick,” revealed Queally.
Beating Tipp in round four seemed almost inconsequential after the three straight defeats, but not for Queally and the management.
“It probably kept us in a job for another year!” he smiled. “Look, we had put a lot of work in. We were as perplexed as the players and the supporters were with the performances in the previous two games.
“As I said, we put a lot of work into the Limerick game, we spent a lot of the winter focusing on that and getting everything right tactically for that match. It was close, unfortunately not close enough, and we just found it hard to regroup for seven days later. That performance against Cork just knocked the stuffing out of us.”
Waterford did not have any home games last year either. This year they will begin with two home games, against Cork and Tipperary, and could even have qualification for the All-Ireland series wrapped up before they come across Limerick.
“I’ve just rolled out an excuse for the Cork performance last summer – we can have no excuses this year,” said Queally. “Those two games, those are our two All-Irelands this year, the first and second rounds in Munster.”
Former Waterford captain Stephen Molumphy, handed the armband during Fitzgerald’s first stint as manager and who assisted Fitzgerald as a selector in Wexford, will come up against his native county for the first time. It is anticipated he will send a young side into action, one that contains 14 recruits for 2024 and with an overall average age of 23. Mikey Boyle, Pádraig Boyle, Seán Weir and Eoin Ross are among those who have left the Kerry panel.
Waterford, meanwhile, expect to be without 14 of last year’s panel, including Austin Gleeson, who has stepped back from intercounty activity. The Ballygunner players are not back yet either, while established figures like Tadhg de Búrca and Stephen Bennett are recovering from injuries.
“Pre-season is a slog, there’s no point in saying otherwise,” said Queally. “It’s tough going at this time of the year but it has to be done. It’s a bit different from last year for us being a new management team at that stage. We were trying to change a lot of things so there was a lot of analysis, a lot of similar drills to try to change the pattern of play.
“It seems to be coming a bit more natural this year which is a big help to the lads and a big help to the sessions as well.”
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