Shane McGrath believes that Waterford qualifying from the Munster Hurling Championship this year would rank among Davy Fitzgerald's most significant managerial achievements after an indifferent start to his second season in charge and an apparent lack of faith from supporters.
The Déise's place in Division 1B (aka Division 2) for next year had already been confirmed before they recorded a fourth defeat in five league games on Saturday, going down to Kilkenny in front of a home crowd of less than 3,000.
Speaking after the previous week's loss to Wexford, All-Ireland winning player and manager Fitzgerald was confident things would be different by the time they began the Munster campaign (at home to Cork on 21 April) but McGrath is not convinced.
"They're going to be judged by the Cork game and maybe the whole thing is coming together, but at the moment, it’s going to take one of his greatest managerial feats to get the whole thing together and get performances to get out of the Munster championship," the former Tipperary star told the RTÉ GAA podcast.
"I do believe that the Waterford players, for the majority, are believing in what's going on down there, with the tactics, the way they’re setting up. It’s just the rest of us from the outside don’t seem to get it.
"That’s the way I feel, the way a lot of Waterford hurling people feel about it.
"They've won one or two [three] league games since Davy has been manager. They won their one championship game last year but they were out of the competition by the time they played that game against Tipp, who were very poor that day.
"They have the stadium now, they can play their home games at Walsh Park [again]. It used to be a fortress, it wasn't in the league. The crowd was very small. The Waterford public aren’t buying into it at the moment.
"Maybe they know what they’re doing and it’s all going to come right, it’s just very hard for us to see it.
McGrath won two Fitzgibbon Cup titles under Fitzgerald at what was then known as Limerick Institute of Technology and while he is in no doubt as to the Clare man's ability to motivate a team, he fears that might not be enough with questions remaining over team selection and tactics.
"Some of the goals they've leaked, there hasn't been a defender inside the 45 because they’re all pushing up the field for the puck-out support," said McGrath.
"It’s head-scratching when you see some of their top inside-forwards, the majority of the ball they get on is out around midfield or in their own half-back line.
"Who’s going to be their full-back, centre-back, centre-forward, full-forward? I don’t know, unless Stephen Bennett comes back fully right from injury, he’ll be full-forward. Will their centre-forward be Jack Prendergast, Padraig Fitzgerald, Neil Montgomery, Dessie Hutchinson?
"That’s what they need to find over the next few weeks. What’s our team going to be? Are we going to stick with this system? Do we trust the system?
"They have a lot of big leaders in that dressing-room. Jamie Barron has really stood up since he came back from his injury. Are the likes of them going to say 'I don’t think this system suits us’? It hasn’t suited them till now."
However, McGrath is sure that Fitzgerald "will have them believing that they're all in this together and it’s against everyone else. We all believed what Davy was saying and bought into it.
"He will galvanise the group. He’ll say that the world is against them. From my own experience, we thought every college in Ireland absolutely hated LIT!
"Maybe that will help them get the performance but I can’t see it at the moment. Maybe just the personnel aren’t there right now to try and carry out what he wants to do.
"And if Waterford don't get out of Munster, realistically, there will be changes."
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