Davy Fitzgerald determined to solve Waterford's Munster conundrum

Davy Fitzgerald never really thought he was out.

And, after a brief intermission, hurling's box-office bainisteoir has been pulled right back in.

The former Clare and Wexford manager has resumed his inter-county management career at the place it all began back in 2008, with Waterford.

The 2020 All-Ireland finalists were expected to be serious contenders this year after claiming the Allianz Hurling League title but failed to fire in the Munster SHC, beating only Tipperary and wrapping for the summer by the end of May. Why?

"Everybody recognises that and everybody has their ideas," Fitzgerald tells RTÉ Sport. "Some people say they trained too hard coming into it or maybe they went too hard in the league. I'm not exactly sure yet. I’m in the middle of trying to meet the players, talk to the players, just to get their feedback and see what did go wrong.

"I’ll need to examine exactly what they did last year. Because their league final performance was very good. They were really competitive and they looked like a team that were coming. But yet their shirt buttons weren’t seen in Munster.

"I think I'm going to have to look into everything. These guys have won U21 on the way up. They’ve won more at underage, they’ve won the National League. It isn’t like they haven’t won, so why they haven’t competed in Munster over the last few years, I’m not sure. Winning two out of 15, they won’t be happy about.

"We have to try to get very competitive in Munster. With what they’ve achieved at underage I’d be confident that we will. But I have to figure out why in the last two, or three, or four years they haven’t been competitive."

Fitzgerald, who led Wexford to their first Leinster SHC crown in 15 years in 2019, doesn't shy away from defining what a