‘Maybe it will be next year or the year after’ – Davy Fitzgerald teases inter-county return after leaving Waterford

He stressed that he wasn’t “out of love with the game”, but circumstances were now different and he was keen to spend more time with his wife Sharon and two-year-old son Dáithí Óg, as well as his adult son Colm.

“It’s been in my head all the time,” he told RTÉ. “Waterford isn’t right beside you, it’s a nice journey, leaving early in the day. I have Dáithí Óg in my life now which is a lot different.

“I have a summer, now that I have made my decision, that I don’t have to think about hurling right now. That might change, but right now I have a bit of time at home to spend more time with Colm and herself (Sharon). It’s different.”

Ultimately, his second coming with Waterford failed to deliver the dividend that he or the county craved. Na Déise failed to emerge from the Munster SHC round-robin group for the second season running, but they performed far better in this year’s campaign and would have advanced but for the concession of last-gasp scores when drawing with Tipperary and then losing by a point to Fitzgerald’s native Clare.

The long-serving manager, who turns 53 next month, confirmed his departure in a statement last night, reflecting on how “just the tiniest margins” presented Waterford from progressing in this year’s All-Ireland race.

Fitzgerald followed up with an interview on Morning Ireland today. Asked by Marty Morrissey if this might signal the end of his career in inter-county management, he replied: “Ach, like, I think I’m youngish enough. It seems like I’ve been around a while – I suppose I managed very young.

“Never say never,” he continued. “If the right thing comes at some stage, yeah, maybe it will be next year or the year after. You don’t know, you never know what will happen.

“Am I saying I’m out of love with the game? Definitely not. I’m not out of love. But I suppose circumstances, as I said to you earlier, are just a bit different right now.

“It’s nice to have a summer; I don’t get too many summers where I don’t have to think about hurling. Might that change? It might, I don’t know.

“It’s just, right now, I felt Waterford need an answer … and at this very second, it just seems the right thing to do. Was it an easy decision? Definitely not.

“But you know what? Sometimes you’re in a job and you have a bad experience – and I don’t. I’m happy that Waterford are on the right track, and the people were very good to me down there.”

Fitzgerald has been a senior county manager every year bar one since first taking of Waterford, mid-season, in 2008. In his one ‘gap year’, he served as coach to the Cork camogie team that reached the 2022 All-Ireland final. He had finished up with Wexford the previous year, and was then strongly linked with Galway before Henry Shefflin filled that vacancy in the autumn of 2021.

Reflecting on his second spell with Waterford, he said: “Where we got them from two years ago, I think we have come on a tonne. We were very unlucky that we didn’t go forward in the championship. I think we played some great stuff and the lads were incredible and gave me everything.

“The lads showed unbelievable resilience. You’d have heard different things: ‘Ah, they’re a tough bunch to work with, and will they stand up to pressure?’ They did all of the above.

“They’re actually a really good bunch; they stood up to the pressure. I thought we were very unlucky in that game (against Tipperary), very unlucky in the Clare game … a decision at the end of the Clare game, I don’t think they actually knew what it was.

“We were unlucky but, at the same time, they’re the breaks you get in hurling and you’ve just got to accept that and move on.”