AFTER AN off-season spent head-scratching and soul-searching, Peter Queally believes signs of pre-season progress are already evident in Waterford.

Whereas last year, their training drills were repetitive by design to embed a change in tactics, the Déise selector is noticing a greater flow as things are “coming a bit more natural”.

While there are hints of on-field improvements, Ballydurn clubman Queally says “group therapy” was necessary to resolve their off-field issues.

“There was a bit of soul-searching during the Championship, a bit of soul-searching after it. We’ve sorted a lot of issues out and hopefully, it’ll be a bit better for us this year,” he says ahead of their Co-Op Superstores Munster Hurling League opener against Kerry at Austin Stack Park (tonight, 7.30pm).

“Some honest, frank discussions. I think that’s the best way of describing it. If you want to put a professional slant on it, maybe a little bit of group therapy.

“They were very productive talks that we had about sorting certain issues out and trying to get to the bottom of it and make sure we don’t have a repeat.

“We had little areas outside of hurling that we needed to work on and we seem to have sorted a lot of them issues out, which is a good thing.”

Defender Mark Fitzgerald has spoken about the players taking more “ownership” of raising their standards.

It’s a point that Queally expands to explain some of their “collapses” during games in last year’s Munster Championship.

“We were as well-prepared as any team was. We went into the games full of hope.

“The soul-searching that we did was based around when things go wrong… We’ve let lulls affect us for the rest of the game, we haven’t sorted it out. We need more on-field leadership and resolve and making sure that these things don’t happen again.

“We’ve had a lot of work to do in the last three or four months to make sure there’s no repeat of those collapses in games.

“We’re obviously going to have lulls, we’re going to have trough periods in games, but you just can’t allow that to affect the overall performance and the result.”

The reasons behind their Munster Championship malfunction have been excavated in the post-season investigation.

One aspect the management team has reflected on was the emphasis placed on their opener against champions Limerick. That narrow defeat carried a hefty charge into their subsequent no-shows against Cork and Clare.

“We put a lot of work in. We were as perplexed as the players and the supporters were with the performances in those two games,” says Queally.

“We put a lot into the Limerick game, we spent a lot of the winter focusing on that and getting everything right tactically for that match.

“It was close, unfortunately not close enough, and we just found it hard to regroup for seven days later. That performance against Cork knocked the snuffing out of us.

“In hindsight, we look back on it and we put probably the bones of four or five months into focusing on Limerick.

“There would have been a few weeks thrown in there where we knew we’d better do a bit on Cork. But basically, after that, we had seven days to get right, not just mentally but physically as well, because you’re physically sore after playing Limerick.

“The whole season for any Munster team is all about getting out of Munster. While Cork will look back and see a lot of positive performances, ultimately they’re in the same boat as us. They didn’t get out.

“We didn’t perform well in two games, which added to the overall disappointment of the year.”

The morale boost of their dead-rubber victory over Tipperary gave the camp something to take from the summer.

Queally chuckles when asked about its importance: “It was because it probably kept us in a job for another year, it ticked that box anyway.”

He describes Davy Fitzgerald as a better manager with each passing year. He’s “constantly evolving” with experience and the same goes for Queally. 

He mentions the urgency of drawing the most out of a generational bunch of hurlers too, with their minor and U21 All-Ireland winners of the past decade closing in on 30.

“It’s a bit different from last year for us being a new management team. We were trying to change a lot of things so there was a lot of analysis. There were a lot of similar drills to try and change the pattern of play.

“It seems to be coming a bit more natural this year which is a big help to the lads and a big help to the sessions as well.”

Some aspects won’t be repeated in 2024. Rather than weekly road trips, which saw a slump in travelling numbers, Waterford have a redeveloped Walsh Park to energise their supporters. Rather than ceding home advantage, they can train to maximise their familiarity with the new and expanded pitch. 

The fixture list also appears kinder. They begin at home to Cork, then Tipperary. They have a fortnight’s break between those opening bouts and again before their Clare clash. The trip to Limerick is spared until last.

“We can have no excuses this year. Our first game is Cork at home. We have 14 days then to get ready for our second game against Tipperary. So we can have no excuses,” repeats Queally.

“Them two games, those are our two All-Irelands this year. The first and second rounds in Munster.”