Davy Fitzgerald comes out firing after Waterford victory

Waterford manager Davy Fitzgerald issued a passionate defence of his team after claiming victory over Cork in the Munster Hurling Championship this afternoon as he said the importance of the result cannot be understated.

The Déise came into the game after a poor league campaign and a fruitless provincial season last year, which ended in elimination in the round-robin series.

With the victory over the Rebels already on the board, Fitzgerald's side have a realistic chance of progression this season.

In the run-up to the game many had questioned if Waterford would have enough quality to begin their campaign in this manner in such a pivotal fixture.

Last month RTÉ GAA analyst Shane McGrath claimed that Waterford qualifying for this year's All-Ireland series would rank among Davy Fitzgerald's most significant managerial achievements.

He said: "Maybe they know what they’re doing and it’s all going to come right, it’s just very hard for us to see it."

However they did find the right formula today as Dessie Hutchinson, Stephen Bennett and Jamie Barron came to the fore in a three-point success.

Speaking to RTÉ Sport, Fitzgerald said: "You have no idea how important this was, this was more than you realise, this was massive. And you know what, it's two wins in a row in Munster. Would you believe that? We beat Tipperary last year and Cork today.

"People are saying we haven't done great. We've two in a row done, which isn't bad for us in two Munster Championship games, and we've got to try and build on that and keep going.

"If I'm being totally honest, I think we totally deserved that win today, that's being honest. We know how good Cork are and we had a lot of time to prepare and get ready for it and we did that today.

"There was a lot of