DAVY FITZGERALD HAS said Waterford had to block out the external noise to produce their rousing three-point victory over Cork.
The Déise boss brushed off rumours of discontent in the camp last month and was delighted with the response of his players at Walsh Park.
“I kept telling ye that we weren’t too far away,” said Fitzgerald. “To go out when we were missing as many as we were and be right there, I knew we weren’t far away.
“The thing we had to do is just not listen to what was being said outside. As I told you earlier on in the year when you heard rumours about certain players not playing, I said don’t always believe what you hear.
“All we can do is work hard. We’ll enjoy today but we still know that we have work to do. We’re not there. We have work to do but the fighting spirit they showed, I’m really happy with.
“If people want to give out about Davy Fitz or the Waterford thing then let them off. They are entitled to do that.
“It doesn’t feel nice because we are working so hard but we can’t dwell on that.”
Fitzgerald dedicated the victory to Shane Bennett, who missed out due to a freak injury he suffered during training.
“That was for Shane. He has been incredible. The form he was in was frightening. I promise you. Frightening. He would have been starting by a mile today.
“What he went through during the week was really tough. Just a freak accident and it was really tough on him.
“The lads did that for him because he has been so good since he came back from Australia. He has worked so hard on that.”
While he was delighted to hear the chants echo around the revamped stadium, Fitzgerald knows that Waterford have a lot more work to do if they are to escape the Munster round-robin.
“It was nice today to have the Waterford supporters here and cheering ‘Waterford, Waterford’.
“It would be nice if we had days like this all the time. I can’t say we will but all I can tell you is you see how hard we worked and we will continue to do that.
“We’re in with a chance now no matter what. We have a chance of getting out and teams would want to be ready for us now as well.”
Dessie Hutchinson was a surprise choice of free-taker but after missing a routine opener, he nailed nine from nine thereafter.
“Some days you get them right and some days you get them wrong,” said Fitzgerald. “We tried Shane on them and we tried Dessie. Stephen (Bennett) was there as well.
“Dessie is a top-class forward so it makes sense. I know people will say it was his first time taking frees in the Munster Championship but why not? It worked today.”
He also hailed Tadhg de Búrca after completing his first 70 minutes since an Achilles injury 12 months ago.
“He didn’t do bad for a lad that had no game time in a year. Tadhg is a special guy. To do what he did today, to come back from what he did last year, that takes a lot of character.
“He hasn’t played a full game. Even a training game, the most he had played was 55-60 minutes. For him to last outside there today, it was his mental resilience got him through that.”
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