Liam Cahill expressed relief after his Tipperary side reeled in Waterford at Walsh Park to earn a victory in what he admitted wasn't often a happy hunting ground.
The hard-fought 2-24 to 1-23 win has relegated the Déise to Division 1B of the Allianz Hurling League, while Tipp will be thrilled with their second-half efforts having trailed by eight points at the interval.
"Always a difficult task in Walsh Park every time we come down. Historically, it's been a really poor hunting ground for us," Tipperary manager Cahill told RTÉ Sport.
"Today had a real cutting edge to it, both teams really going after retaining their Division 1A status for 2027.
"But (it was) a huge workout for both sides and great preparation leading into the next couple of weeks and the first round of the Munster championship."
Cahill credited Waterford for pushing his side hard across the 70 minutes at a windy Walsh Park.
"I thought Waterford were really good. They exposed us, picked off some beautiful scores from long range with Shane Bennett in particular hurting us on that side of the field and Waterford had huge energy all through that half," said the All-Ireland winning boss.
"We seemed to be losing a lot of ruck ball and slowing our tracking of players and they created a lot of difficulty.
"They could have been even further ahead had we not been fortunate enough maybe to dispossess the short puck-out for the goal that John McGrath got.
"But all in all, really happy at half time then the way the players came together. We went after a few areas that needed to be done, looked at, and thankfully we kicked on and got the result."
The result will now allow Tipp to focus minds and double down on priming their key men for the build-up to championship, starting with next Saturday's league fixture against Kilkenny at Semple Stadium.
"It was great to get game-time into a few of the more established players initially coming back from little niggles," he said.
"That was a big plus. A couple of debutants as well today. Notably, young Stefan Tobin did really well.
"We're at a stage now where we start going after real stability in our personnel. So the game in six days' time in Thurles will be a case of putting more work into the bank and try to get a real structure to our team and to our 26 panel as we lead into the championship."
