Davy Fitzgerald hopes a winning start to the Munster Championship will draw supporters back behind his Waterford team.
Fitzgerald's Déise return stalled last year due to a string of defeats and attendances were further dented by their concession of home advantage due to the Walsh Park redevelopment works.
There has yet to be a happy homecoming as crowds remained below 4,000 during their three league defeats this spring and a large Cork contingent is expected at the Keane's Road venue on Sunday.
"I totally understand the frustration but we need the support," said Fitzgerald. "Let us be judged on the Munster Championship and see how we go.
"Last year’s Munster Championship, it was my first year in and you could see the turnouts, they were disappointing. That’s before we pucked a ball.
"It has been like this since early last year. I’m just hoping the way we get them back in is to see that tenacity… You could see it in the league. Even though we were short a lot of players, they played hard. And we’ve a few things we’ve been working hard on.
"If we get a win or two at all, you’ll see a change. But we have to work hard and do our side of things. All we can do is encourage them to come out and be with us. It’s all on 21 April onwards. I’d love if we had 8 to 10,000 at Walsh Park, driving us on."
Fitzgerald, who was speaking for the Munster Championship launch from Portugal on Waterford’s warm-weather training camp, has also had to counter the rumour mill. He believes a win against their Rebel rivals is the best rebuttal.
"I got a text the other day, 'I heard you’re fighting with this lad and that lad’. What can you do, only laugh at it. I can’t do anything else. If people around Waterford want to make up rumours, that’s fine. I’ve accepted that a long time ago.
"If I was beaten 10 or 12 points in my league games and I was getting hammered, I’d have an issue but I don’t have that. The first three games of the league, we were missing nine so-called starters that will be there or thereabouts. The last game or so, we started to get them back but they weren’t match fit.
"We haven’t been far away and we’ve blooded over 30 players in the league. I’m happy with that. Can I stop the rumours? No, I can’t. You know what, let them off.
"If we win on 21 April 21 or 5 May, do you think those rumours will count for much? That’s the way I look at it.
"If we lose, they’ll nail me no matter what the story is. I don’t really mind; I can’t do anything about it."
Waterford used their final game against Kilkenny to experiment. Fitzgerald says they "completely changed" their shape and dropped their ‘plus one’ but was coy over which system he will deploy in championship. Either way, he’s willing to try new ideas.
"What we'll do is, at the end of the championship, we'll have a talk about how good or how bad it was and I don't have a problem with that. You have to be willing to adapt, you have to be willing to learn, you have to be willing to change, the same as players do.
"If things aren't working one way, we have to try another way. We have to find a way to get through it. Once you're together in that, you've a chance of doing it.
"Would it be a fair achievement to get out of Munster and be competing? I'll answer that question for you afterwards, what I think. Everything we have inside, we're trying it."
After their Leeside league defeat, Fitzgerald talked Cork up as being "in the first one or two for the All-Ireland Championship".
"They’re even better since then," he added. "You see what they did to Wexford. It’s going to be a big ask.
"The question is what did we learn about them and what have we learned from last year? How smart we can be?
"We've gone over it. We've talked about it. We're going to try and see can we deal with certain aspects of play they have. And trust me, they will have to deal with certain aspects of play we'll have. They will have to, so they will.
"I'm excited as I've ever been about a game. I want that to come and I want to see what we're about."
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