Liam Cahill insists he hasn't changed his management approach after some "lazy analysis" of the final months of his Waterford tenure.
Now in the Tipperary hot seat, Cahill replicated his strategy of targeting a strong league campaign in the same manner that delivered spring silverware to the Déise last year.
This time around, losing their semi-final to Limerick last month has given Cahill two extra weeks to sharpen Tipp’s tactics for championship.
But either way, he doesn’t see any evidence that Waterford’s fade-out was linked to their league exertions or that Tipp should suffer the same fate.
"For me, I am not changing a whole lot," said Cahill ahead of Tipp’s Munster opener away to Clare on Sunday.
"Myself and Mikey Bevans have continued to do what we believe in. We will continue to stick to what we believe will work.
"Not trying to give a soft answer but the end of the Munster Championship will prove whether we got it badly wrong last year or not.
"That was a really good league final last year in Thurles in front of a big crowd. I suppose you have to hold your form through the Munster Championship, that’s the reality of it.
"Championship is where you are judged and people’s memories are short too. That Waterford team were ultra-competitive for the last three years and a lot of it was lazy analysis.
"People didn’t really scale back and look at what these guys had achieved but the whole thing came unstuck in two or three weeks, that is all.
"Some of the analysis was unfair on what the players had achieved and where they had come from over the previous three years."
Waterford are currently outsiders to progress from Munster but they are armed with the muscle memory of a run to the 2020 All-Ireland final under Cahill.
"That Waterford were the second-best team in the country was being openly discussed up to last year.
"Waterford will be a really dangerous opposition coming up in the Munster Championship, I know it first hand, they have superb players and quality like that just doesn’t go away."
After such a disappointing ending, the new assignment with his home county has re-energised Cahill.
Tipperary were bottom of the pile last year but have made early progress by mixing in players who played under the same management at underage level.
They have been gunning for goals, with 14 in six league contests, and their manager is convinced green flags are a necessity amid the long-range point-scoring contests that have come to dominate the inter-county game.
"It is mainly down to what type of a player you have but the old saying goes, goals win matches, and we’d like to think that we would be creating enough chances to be able to tag on two goals a match onto 25 or 26 points which gets you up to the 30-plus mark to win games."
Tipp’s first two fixtures are on the road, which puts them at something of a disadvantage with a fast start so beneficial in the four-game round-robin.
It’s something they can flip to their advantage, however, if they can bring something back from trips to Clare and Cork ahead of the final two games at Semple Stadium.
"This championship can throw up anything so form can go out the window if you are not at the races in your first game.
"We have a really tough assignment in Ennis and if we don’t get something out of Ennis, that will have a big bearing on what happens later on.
"Clare pride themselves on performing and winning in Ennis. The supporters row in behind that too and make it a tough environment for the opposition.
"We’ll discuss that and will be aware of that.
"Some of these guys will have played there at underage up along in tough assignments as well so we are well aware of what Clare will bring and we have to be 100% right to get anything out of this game."
Watch Waterford v Limerick in the Munster Hurling Championship on Sunday from 1.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, follow a live blog on the RTÉ News app or RTÉ.ie/Sport or listen to live commentary on Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
