Peter Queally: To put the two home games six days apart is probably harsh on Waterford

Waterford’s manager Peter Queally during the match with Limerick. Pic: ©INPHO/James Crombie.

The six-day turnaround was no excuse in defeat for Peter Queally but he sure wished his Waterford team had an extra week to prepare for Limerick.

Coming off a fine victory over All-Ireland winners Clare in Round 1, reprogramming for another set of champions, even if it was again in Walsh Park, was always going to be difficult.

“We try and build ourselves up and get it into our heads that six days is nothing,” remarked Queally.

“We did very little physically, but mentally and emotionally it can be hard to get down and get back up again in such a short space of time.

“We've been building for probably seven months for the Clare game and six days then to get ready for Limerick. And it's Limerick, remember. They're six-in-a-row Munster champions and they showed why today.

"They're a big, strong, physical hurling team and it showed that they're probably, again, the team to beat this year.

“I'm not going to crib about it now. It's something maybe to look at in the future. We love our home games here in Walsh Park and to actually play the two of them only six days apart.

"If our second game was an away venue and we had another couple of weeks maybe to get ready for our next home game, to put the two home games six days apart is probably harsh on us. It makes it a little bit uneven in that.

“I'm sure there's some way around it where you can play away game, home game, away game, home game. Nothing we can do about it now. We're still in the championship.

“We have two weeks now to get ready to go to Thurles. It's a ground that we like playing in. Historically, we've loved playing there. We're going to play a very eager, hungry, Tipperary team, so that's a challenge now that we have two weeks to get ready for and that we'll relish.”

Queally always felt his team were trying to play catch-up with Limerick.

“I thought we were chasing for a long time, long periods. I think they had the upper hand early on, got a good start on us and we seemed to be chasing the game a lot. I thought we stuck to the task well.

“I thought we got a good start to the second half, which was crucial. But like true champions, Limerick at a crucial stage when we seemed to have a crowd behind us and a bit of momentum, they picked off a few scores and kept us at arm's length.

“We were tit for tat then for the last 15-20 minutes, but it was hard to close the gap. I thought we had a couple of half-goal chances. Maybe if one of them had gone in, we might have got a bit of momentum. 

"But unfortunately, they didn't.”