DAVY FITZGERALD SPENT a good deal of time over the winter mulling over Wexford’s All-Ireland quarter-final exit last July.
His second year in charge of the Model County ended with a seven-point loss to his native Clare, but it was their “very flat” display that most concerned him.
It’s been a recurring theme that Fitzgerald’s sides tend to peak earlier in the year before hitting a slump when the heat dials up in the championship.
Noting Wexford were lacking their usual intensity against Clare last summer, Fitzgerald is hoping to time their run better this time around.
“I think they’ve proven it themselves, they’ve proven it,” he said at the launch of the 20th annual KN Group All-Ireland GAA Golf Challenge.
“When they’re on their game, when they’re mentally up for it and physically at it, they’ll live with anyone.
“If we can bring them things to the table we’ll live with anyone but when we don’t – I thought the All-Ireland quarter-final last year against Clare, no disrespect to Clare, but we were very flat. Physically we didn’t put in the challenges that we should have put in.
“It was black and white. We got within three points of Clare with seven or eight minutes to go but if you just look at us, look at our challenges, look at the way we use the ball, our running, even our GPS was way back on what it normally would be.
“I kind of knew when we played Westmeath (in the preliminary quarter-final), I knew the week before that the lads wanted to do it but it wasn’t happening. I knew it like. We struggled against Westmeath.
“I think we won by nine and missed a few chances but we weren’t the same as I know we could have been. The four weeks in-a-row in the championship last year, I thought the Dublin game we played well enough, Offaly game we were on fire the same night.
“We were flat against Galway and we absolutely killed ourselves to get a performance against Kilkenny and I felt we were very unlucky that day. That Kilkenny performance probably hurt us a lot going forward.
“If you look at us playing say, even Kilkenny (on Sunday), Tipp the last day or Kilkenny in the championship last year, physically we were right there and if you remember the Clare game, we weren’t.
“That’s why I looked at things, tried to look at things a bit differently to last year, start back a bit later, try and time the run. I didn’t start hurling until the first of January this year. I’ve left things a bit later on purpose to see will that make a difference.”
Wexford face Galway in the Allianz Hurling League Division 1 quarter-final on Saturday, with the teams also set to meet in round 3 of the Leinster SHC on 26 May.
Fitzgerald is looking forward to being reacquainted with Galway boss Micheal Donoghue on the sideline ahead of their summer showdown.
Knowing Donoghue as I know him, he is a very competitive manager. This guy is a ruthless guy and I’ve a feeling from now on you’re going to see that ruthlessness that the team are going to portray.
“They’ll be very disappointed at losing to a last-minute goal the last day. I’ve a feeling we’re going to feel the brunt of it early on the next day. We’ve got to meet them challenges and I’m looking forward to them.
“But I think Galway are going to be right there, I really do. They’ve four or five players to come back to what I looked on their team the last week that will make a difference.
“It’s a massive challenge for us. I was looking at it saying, ‘Beating Kilkenny, we might get some bit of a breather here.’ And I think we got a really tough quarter-final, but it’s good. It’s going to be a good one for us to go down there into Salthill and have a battle.”
Fitzgerald believes Donoghue’s demeanour on the sideline alters when the Tribe take on Wexford.
“Donoghue always seems to get up for me, I don’t know what the story is,” he smiled.
Every time he plays me he’s like a lunatic. I was watching him on the sideline the last day and he wasn’t so bad when I was watching the tape back. So no doubt he will. He’s always managed to get right up for it.
“Maybe I haven’t been up for it enough when I’ve played him. Maybe I need to have a look at that, you know,” Fitzgerald laughed.
“So we’ll have to have a real think about that one. I think he’s done a great job with them. They’re a very hard-working team. They travel back a lot in numbers, they work very hard.
“So it’ll be interesting because in the Walsh Cup they were very intense with us. They came down to do a job that day and they did it. They took us out by seven or eight points I think and they hadn’t many of their first 15 playing. We know we’re going to be in a battle on Sunday.”
Despite their impressive league form which saw them finish only behind Limerick in the Division 1A table, Wexford are rated by the bookies at eighth place in the betting to lift the Liam MacCarthy
Fitzgerald admits he enjoys the thrill of managing an underdog team.
“I prefer to. I love seeing teams that are not meant to do stuff, do stuff. I get a buzz out of that. If you look at my CV club-wise or even county-wise, I’ve a nice bit of stuff won but a lot of it would be with teams that haven’t done it.
“That’s what I get the buzz out of because if you take Clare in the mid-90s, I was lucky to have played with a great bunch of guys. We came out of no place and that’s some feeling.”
The recent victory over Tipperary meant Fitzgerald has now presided over wins against all of hurling’s top flight sides. He reckons beating the big guns regularly is an important step for the evolution of this Wexford side.
“You have to win the big ones, be beating top six or seven teams you have to be winning them games,” he says.
I was making it out in the car coming up this morning. I was thinking about it how many times have we beaten Galway in the last few years, how many times have we beaten Tipp, Limerick, Kilkenny and I actually worked it out coming up in the car and we have done it.
“We have beaten so that should say to the boys ok you can compete with those lads. When you are winning stuff or not the fact that you can compete means you have a chance because there are teams out there that don’t have a chance.
“That would kill me be it in hurling or football when you are competing you don’t have a chance to win you have to get into that top-tier bracket and be able to compete first.”
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