It'll take a lot more to beat Tipp -- Fitz
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Davy Fitz steps out of a spookily quiet dressing-room, his cheeks damp from the soupy Thurles air.
"My heart isn't great after that," says Waterford's young manager. "But, at least, I know it's working anyway." One point to spare over Wexford. It's not a lotto win, yet a sound lodgement has just been deposited in the summer bank.
Fitzgerald knows what he has and where it's taking him.
"All I'm happy about is that, when the game turned against us two or three times, we didn't give up" says Fitz. "We stayed with it. And, trust me, the tide had turned against us a few times. But the lads never threw in the towel at any stage. They kept believing."
He is mischievous in charting the road ahead now. By any stretch, Waterford's date with Tipperary on August 17 already bears the feel of a marquee fixture. But Fitz fixes us with those chuckling eyes and says: "We all know inside there that we wouldn't keep it pucked out to Tipp for half an hour on that display."
The sweetest lyric for Waterford is Dan Shanahan's reconciliation with the art of scoring goals. Last year, he accumulated eight in a season of confident expression. This time, he's been running on a low battery.
"People have been criticising Dan Shanahan," says Fitz.
"I was criticised for not taking him off last week. But I had that feeling he'd come good. He's working very hard in training, he's very honest. Listen when I was against these lads before, I fought them in battle. I knew what they were made of.
"But, being honest, you don't know anyone until you spend some time with them. These guys have been absolutely exceptional the way they have applied themselves."
Down the corridor, John Meyler waits politely for a technician to sort out a few gremlins before doing a TV interview. The evangelist in him remains defiantly unbroken.
Doom
"The amount of doom and gloom sometimes in Wexford is unreal," says Wexford's boss.
"You go down and it's 'F**k it 'tis going to rain' sort of thing. You know what I mean. 'The sun is not shining.' You've got to change that whole culture.
"The culture in Cork is 'It's always a fine day'. Look I always look at the positives. We went into a five-point lead 10 minutes into the second-half. And that's where you need the Kilkenny composure. To sit down, hold onto the lead. Slug it out, but don't concede.
"That's when you really really know that fellas have played at the highest level. When you've played minor, U-21, Fitzgibbon.
"Guys then know what to do. And I think the last seven or eight years of playing Cork here in big Munster games showed for Waterford today," said Meyler.
- Vincent Hogan
