ON the evening of the 2005 All Ireland quarter-final, after Waterford had lost to Cork, a bunch of supporters from the west of the county were on the Luas as it pulled into the Red Cow car park. All of them stood up and got out bar one who, assuming the terminus had not yet been reached, stayed where he was. "Come on," another member of the group barked at yer man. "End of the line."

As a metaphor for where Waterford stood at that point in time, with two Munster titles in four seasons under Justin McCarthy but no All Ireland final, it was irresistible. It was also incorrect. Far from having hit the buffers, Waterford had merely encountered a siding from which they would extract themselves the following season. The best, indeed, yet to come; a coruscating provincial triumph in 2007, a National League crown, an appearance at Croke Park in September at last and – arguably more significantly still – a place in four consecutive All Ireland semi-finals. The Déise have been many things during the latter half of the decade. Chief among them, they've been relevant.

Fine words butter no blaas, of course, and it's safe to assume that the Waterford supporters will have drawn more comfort than their players did from the missive from an Offalyman on Tuesday's Irish Independent letters page that hailed them as "the most enjoyable team to watch over the last 10 years". Ultimately, the only currency that counts is the one that's shaped like a celtic cross.

Not for the first time, one is left to reflect that Waterford's only real crime was to get their timing wrong. The Waterford of the noughties would have won an All Ireland in the '90s, perhaps two in the '80s. But when they were more organised than they'd been a couple of seasons earlier they had the misfortune to run into Cork, who were more organised still, and when they were a year past their peak they had the misfortune to be run over by Kilkenny. The timing as well as the time was out of joint.

Yet a macro view serves to furnish some context. The 1990s was the ultimate bull market in hurling; all stocks rose at some stage or other. But how many of them, aside from those three blue-chip companies of long standing who are largely impervious to fluctuations, have retained their value over the course of the past decade? Not Wexford, who won an All Ireland without leaving a footprint. Not Clare, not Limerick, not Galway. Definitely, and sadly, not Offaly. In contrast, Waterford have returned a dividend to their investors year after year.

They've no excuse for not continuing to do so. More work is being channelled into underage hurling in Waterford than ever before – and more good work, as evidenced by the county under-14s reaching four successive Tony Forristal finals and the presence of the minors in this afternoon's All Ireland semi-final. Messrs Hartley, Frampton et al, the men who helped start it all in 1998, did not shuffle off intestate.

In the short term, Davy Fitz can walk away with a clear conscience, the stain – if not quite the memory – of last September wiped clean and his debt to the county honoured. He'll be a wiser man for the experience, not least in terms of the lessons he's learned about the joys of man-management.

He could also take on board a lesson, however unpalatable, about the need for manager-management. Nobody doubts Fitzgerald's passion and sincerity. But too often he veers into self-parody, as he did last Sunday with his post-match babble about vendettas, enemies, referees, the machinations of the military-industrial complex, etc. Truth is, far from sticking in the boot after the All Ireland final, the media were almost painfully polite and sympathetic to Waterford. Reading his comments in the papers on Monday, would players and prospective players be more likely or less likely to warm to Davy? It is a question he might spend time contemplating in his idler moments.

Should Fitzgerald decide to walk, the county board, when casting around for the next manager, would do well to consider the appointment of a facilitator as his replacement. Not a Justin, not a Davy. A chairman rather than a chief executive, a man who will not become, or want to become, the story.

Whoever is at the helm in 2010 should also possess the persuasiveness to encourage Tony Browne to at least consider giving it another year, the determination to coach a new full-back into the position, the wisdom to decide whether the stability 'Brick' Walsh has provided at centre-back outweighs the loss of his power at midfield and the plain cop-on to leave Eoin Kelly at wing-forward. After all, tomorrow is another year.

Last Sunday marked the end of a decade for Waterford hurling. It didn't mark the end of modern Waterford hurling.