Davy Fitzgerald: 'We'll take a bit of stick back home and we deserve ...

Asked how he might lift his team after a disappointing 0-18 to 0-27 defeat, he replied candidly: “We’re going to have a chat about that now. We’ll take a bit of stick back home and we deserve it, rightly so.

“But we’ll go back, re-assess and we’ll get ready again.”

It was Waterford’s twelfth defeat in 14 Munster games since the round robin structure was introduced to the provincial championships and they now face into a battle against Fitzgerald’s native county, Clare, on Saturday week to effectively keep their season alive.

“We’re four or five months into this,” said the Waterford manager. “There’s some managers out there in their third and fourth years. These guys will come better I’m telling you. You could see last week (in a narrow defeat by Limerick) what they have in them.

“Don’t write them off. They’re very hurt up there.

“I think there was a lot of damage emotionally-wise from last year (when their championship campaign imploded after winning the National League). “We fixed a certain amount of it and we still have a lot of work to do.

“Clare will be on fire after beating Limerick now, they won’t fear anyone so we have it all to do. Are we out of the championship yet? No. I’d love to get another run and see how we get on.

“I honestly think these lads, I’ve worked with them for the last four and a half, five months. They’re good lads, really good.

“But that just was not them today. We can’t crib or cry about the result, we know Cork were way better than us today.”

Cork manager, Pat Ryan, was thrilled with his team’s display but admitted that next Saturday’s visit of Tipperary may reveal a good deal more about his team. “Ourselves and Tipperary are now the only ones with two points from one game, so look it’s going to be very tight.

“I don’t think there will be anyone getting eight points from their four games in this Munster Championship. Five points is what we are looking for, that will make sure we get into the tope three.

“Look, this is only one game. Next Saturday, we know what Tipperary and Liam Cahill are going to bring. They are on a resurgence from last year and it’s going to be a huge task for us. There’s a huge amount of people interested in Cork hurling and you saw that in the crowd today.

“I’d like to think the lads represented the jersey today the way it should be represented.”