Waterford footballers may have fallen short on the scoreboard, but their manager was full of pride after their Munster Championship clash with Tipperary.

Tipperary ran out 0-15 to 1-7 winners in Fraher Field, with Seán O’Connor proving the difference, hitting six second-half points to send the Premier County into a semi-final meeting with Cork.

‘We Had Eight Training’ – Waterford Boss Shares Stark Reality For Weaker Counties

But the main talking point afterwards came from Waterford boss Ephie Fitzgerald, who laid bare the scale of the challenge facing football in the county.

I came in pretty late, but we had eight training at Christmas. Eight!

We were to play MTU in a challenge match and we had to cancel because we just couldn’t get numbers. We’ve come a long way from that.

I made 168 phone calls to guys to try and get fellas involved.

Waterford actually led at half-time thanks to a Michael O’Brien goal, but Tipperary’s greater depth and scoring power told in the second half.

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Despite the result extending Waterford’s losing run to 13 games, Fitzgerald was keen to focus on the bigger picture.

Waterford is seen as a hurling county and everybody tends to want to be a Waterford hurler. I can’t do anything about that.

But there are players out there who would make a huge difference to our panel if they commit to us. That’s something I’ll be working on going forward, hopefully.

Fitzgerald admitted results are unlikely to change significantly until that depth improves, particularly in terms of building a bench capable of competing physically at this level.

Still, there were positives to take from the performance.

Waterford matched Tipperary in many areas and showed clear signs of progress, something Fitzgerald said gave him “pride and joy” despite the defeat, especially considering the effort involved, including 160-mile round trips to training for the Cork native.

For Tipperary, it’s on to a Munster semi-final clash with Cork.

For Waterford, attention now turns to the Tailteann Cup, but if Fitzgerald’s comments are anything to go by, there is a much bigger rebuild ongoing behind the scenes.

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