DAVY FITZGERALD peeped out the door from the Waterford dressingroom. Usually after Munster finals the corridors and tunnel in Semple Stadium are loud and busy. But the old stadium emptied quickly after this thrilling draw and the Waterford manager might have been checking to ensure the caretaker wasn’t about to lock up. In six days’ time, teams and fans of both counties will be back here.

“We have to learn our lessons,” Fitzgerald said in summing up this latest exercise in Waterford high drama. “Four points up in the second half and we looked to be in control and we lost our shape. We lost our way and it cost us. I felt we were in control with 45 minutes gone and they came back and did what they are good at doing and we will have to take a look at it.

“But I have to be happy in the manner we finished the game. And if you look at Waterford over the last year, every single game these boys won’t give in. There is character in this team. And we know there is a big test next weekend but I will tell you, whatever they throw at us we will come back fighting. They are a great Cork team and fair play to them but there is no Munster champions yet.”

The blazing manner of Waterford’s comeback meant their’s was always going to be the happier dressingroom. It was a strange match for Cork: it almost yielded their first Munster title since 2006 and yet they had trooped off at half-time struggling to make any real impact on Waterford. Denis Walsh could rue the last score of the match but acknowledged his team had played second fiddle for long periods.

“A disaster,” he said of Cork’s first half. “But the players knew that. We had to pick it up and we did pick it up. If anyone can tell me what it (Waterford’s late free) was for I can make a comment on it but as of now I can’t. We were patchy.

“Waterford dominated us for 65 per cent of the time and we needed to pick up a gear in the second half. We went from one point to four points down and we needed to rally. If we didn’t, we were gone. Nothing less than being in fifth gear will do.”

He could not say why Cork were slow to get into the match. “It is hard put my finger on that. Waterford’s intensity, maybe. They had the intensity we didn’t match until the second half. We were in third gear and you can’t hope to win those type of games. It looked like we weren’t going to get into our stride and that was the worrying thing. Even in the second half we were four points down and we looked in dire trouble.”

Then the match turned on its head. Thinking back to Cork’s two-goal burst, Fitzgerald winced as he acknowledged his number three had departed just minutes before. “I did not want to take Liam Lawlor off. The only reason we took him off was that he got a yellow and he was cautioned and we knew if we played Cork with 15 to 14 what the story would be.

“That was a call we made at the time and I still think it was the right call. There was a lot of niggling on both sides and we were well due the free at the end. But they all pan out and it was great to see young Tony Browne following up. I one hundred per cent believe we would have been hard done to lose. I respect Cork, they are a great team and may the best horse jump the ditch.

“I think we went five points down and you tell me how many teams would have fought back from that . . . These boys won’t give in too easy and I think it will be tough again the next day.”