Changes work a treat for Davy

IT was one of those days for Davy Fitz. The ones where you find yourself immersed in dung but still come out smelling of roses.

Everything he did worked.

Dan Shanahan came off the bench and had a major impact, his nuisance value on the edge of the square creating a goal for Shane Walsh, another sub.

Dan’s brother Maurice also did well when introduced and John Mullane shot the winning point from the half forward line after being moved out the field from the inside line.

A proud Fitzgerald gasped: “We made changes today that worked.

“There’ll be other days that we’ll be hearing from the sideline, ‘Will you take this lad off and do this thing and do that thing’, and some days it’ll work and some days it won’t.

“I’m not a genius.

“All I can do is try my best for the team. I’m proud of the lads, the way they fought today.

“I’m absolutely proud out.”

It was a quite remarkable comeback from Waterford. Six points down with less than 15 minutes remaining, they fought back to win by one.

Fitzgerald admitted: “Either one of the two teams could have won it. You have no idea how important that is to us.

“We’ve received a lot of stick over the last year, both as a management and as a team and I think we answered that today.

“We fought hard, never gave up the ghost. Things went against us and we kept coming back.”

And Dan was the man again, catching two balls clean over Eugene McEntee’s head, winning a late free and laying off a neat pass for Walsh’s goal.

Fitzgerald smiled: “I’m just delighted Dan came on and got a goal and a point.

“It’s not been easy for him sitting on the sideline, but he came on and turned the match in the end.

“It has to be hard for Dan. He was ‘player of the year’ two years ago, but I can’t say enough about Dan and his training and his effort.

“It’s incredible. It isn’t a thing that I like to leave him off.”

Fitzgerald may not win any popularity contests with some of his decisions, but you can’t fault his honesty.

He said: “I have to do my job for Waterford. There are no agendas with anyone, I can put my hand on my heart and say that.

“The best 15 will go out and fight and die for Waterford. That’s what I asked for today.

“We were behind numerous times and the easiest thing to do would have been to throw in the towel.

“I think that’s a fantastic advertisement for hurling, the way the lads can keep coming back, stay with it and that’s what hurling is about and that’s why we’re all enjoying it.”

Coming just a fortnight after losing the Munster final to Tipperary, this victory meant an awful lot to the Déise.

And Fitzgerald insisted that had the rub of the green gone his side’s way against Tipp, it could have been a much different story.

He said: “We made two mistakes, two errors that gave away two goals.

“We missed two goals inside 10 yards that we should have put away; we missed five points inside 30 yards we should be scoring.

“That’s a fact. People said it was totally one-sided, that game wasn’t totally one-sided.”

Questioning inevitably turned to the elephant in the room – all conquering Kilkenny at Croke Park on August 9.

Fitzgerald grinned: “You have to give me a break. I don’t really want to talk about the semi-final now, I want to talk about today.

“We’re after playing a helter-skelter of a game outside there, now you’re asking me about Kilkenny. Do you want me on the floor altogether?

“I can tell you, I found the last number of years hard. I find certain things with fellas with personal agendas hard, but you’ve got to rise above it and when you get days like that, it’s worthwhile.”