FITZGERALD CALLS ON HOME FANS TO PLAY PART

DAVY FITZGERALD has called for a packed and raucous Walsh Park as Championship hurling returns to Waterford this Sunday.

Having been deprived of home games in last year’s Munster Championship as the ground was upgraded, with further works still in the offing, it will host Waterford’s first two games this year, crunch ties against Cork this Sunday and Tipperary on May 4, which will likely define their campaign.

This weekend’s opener is particularly pivotal, with Cork boss Pat Ryan saying that it’s all that has occupied his mind ahead of the initial fourgame campaign.

“I’m glad Pat said that his whole world revolves around it because that makes two of us,” said Fitzgerald.

“So does ours. Don’t have any doubt that.

“We’re in our home patch as well, we’ve got to take pride in where we’re playing and what we’re doing. We’ve talked about that.

“I’m glad Cork are that way but you can be sure of it Waterford are going to be that way too.

Lessons

“We have to learn lessons from when we played them in the League and when we played them in the Championship. We’ve gone over it, we’ve talked about it.

“We’re going to try and see can we deal with certain aspects of play they have.

“And trust me, they will have to deal with certain aspects of play we’ll have.

“There’s certain areas we’ve identified that have caused us problems in two games and we’ve got to see can we nail them. That’s we’re going to try and do.

“This game is everything. Pat Ryan is right. This game is everything and it’s on. Let’s bring it. Let’s bring it for both teams and see where we go.”

The Waterford team has lacked support in recent seasons and attendances at League games this year were disappointing though the Deise boss has called on locals to come in strong numbers to

Walsh Park, which currently has a capacity of around 12,000.

“Last year’s Munster Championship, it was my first year in and you could see the turn-outs, they were disappointing. That’s before we pucked a ball.

“It has been like this since early last year.

I’m just hoping, the way we get them back in is to see that tenacity – you could see it in the League. Even though we were short a lot of players, they played hard. And we’ve a few things we’ve been working hard on.

“I think if we get a win or two at all you’ll see a change. But we have to work hard and do our side of things. All we can do is encourage them to come out and be with us.

“It’s all on April 21 onwards.

“I’d love if we had 8,000 to 10,000 at Walsh Park, driving us on.”

Meanwhile, Fitzgerald laughed off rumours that the Waterford camp is unsettled.

“I got a text the other day: ‘I heard you’re fighting with this lad and that lad’. What can you do, only laugh at it. I

‘We’ve got to take pride in where we’re playing’