Former Waterford hurler Tony Browne admits that it is frustrating to see such a lack of success by the county at under-21 level.

For the first time in six years, Waterford won a match in the Munster under-21 hurling championship when beating Cork in the first round, but that is as far as they went, despite having a star studded team.

Clare and Limerick contested this year's Munster final and Browne who was a selector with the Waterford under-21s wrote in the Waterford News & Star that the Decies were three years behind these teams in terms of development at this level.

"It is my opinion that we are at least three years behind the top teams achieving at this level at present," writes Browne.

"What I mean by that is we are slightly playing catch up. We need to invest and invest fast by way of introducing 19/20 development squads along with investment from the county board into this grade.

"Most of our success at minor was due to the hard work of development squads at 14-16 but we stop that after minor. My belief is that Waterford need to implement a system for players who are not quite ready for the step up to the senior squad yet and introduce a structure to enable players to continually develop at a high level, both physically and skill-fully for when they come up to the age for under-21. We need harmony and balance with the senior transition as I think it will benefit all, players more so than anybody else."

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