RORY O’CONNOR CAN see the value in Davy Fitzgerald’s habit of spending the first-half of Wexford’s games in the stand and the second period on the sideline.
It was an eight-week touchline ban in 2017 that forced the Wexford boss take in their Leinster SHC wins over Laois and Kilkenny from a vantage point high in the stand.
Fitzgerald quickly realised that watching matches from a height allowed him to get a better sense of the game tactically. He spent the opening half of the Leinster final that year in the stand and returned to the sideline after half-time, a move he’s regularly employed in the years since.
Fitzgerald is not alone in appreciating the benefits of the ploy. Stephen Rochford frequently spent Mayo games alongside his stats team in the stands and does the same in his new role as Donegal coach with manager Declan Bonner their presence on the side of the field.
“I’d love to spend the whole lot up there,” Fitzgerald said. “Believe that. I love it. I can see the game. I am telling you 100%, it’s so different being up there than being down.
“I look at so many different aspects. You are trying to see what way the opposition are lining up. Who is tracking back? How far are they tracking back? How many possessions are they getting on?
“You have your stats guys right beside you. You can ask them questions about different things. Down on the sideline you are looking at a sea of players in front of you. It’s just easier being up on top.
“What I come down on the sideline for is, okay, I think it’s important to have a presence on the sideline as well. I am the manager at the end of the day, so the compromise I said I’d come up to is, one up, one down.
“The first-half just gives me a feeling of how the game is actually going. Is it right or wrong? I don’t know. I am a person that likes to try different things all the time to see what can give me and edge and what can I do better.
“I can’t tell you if it’s the right or wrong thing, I can just tell you honestly how I feel it is. And I feel if you watch a game from higher you have a better chance of seeing stuff. That’s my opinion.”
Fitzgerald was recently hit with 12-week ban from for verbally abusing referee Cathal McAllister during their league quarter-final loss to Galway, but it was subsequently reduced to four weeks on appeal.
It means the Model boss is free to take the sideline for their Leinster SHC opener against Dublin on 19 May, although he’ll most likely still opt to spend the first 35 minutes in the Parnell Park stand.
“It’s massive for us,” said O’Connor.
“At the moment he’s been up in the box or up in the stand for the first-half, seeing how the game is going then coming down the second-half and lifts us, makes the right calls to drive us over the line.”
The 20-year-old reckons Wexford have hugely benefited from the tactical adjustments Fitzgerald is able to make when he arrives down from the stand at the interval.
“I was up in the premium level in Croke Park on Sunday. You could see what Limerick were doing with their puck-outs. You could see what Waterford were trying to do. You just see everything that was going on.
“But you see what’s going on, what they’re trying to do. How they’re changing from short ball to long ball, what they’re doing with their puck-outs. How they’re drawing men and hand-passing it off.
“It’s a calmer spot up there, you don’t make rash decisions, emotional on the sideline. I think he’s managing it very well, and got us over the line in a few of the league games.
“He’s great to have on the sideline because he’s going to fight your corner to the death.
“As long as we stay focused and not get distracted, it’s a bonus for us.”
O’Connor doesn’t agree with the assessment that Wexford must win silverware this season for Fitzgerald to remain in charge.
“No there’s such a bond there between the players and himself. He’s more than a manager to us.
“He’s someone you can just pick up the phone to and tell him you’re under pressure with college or lads tell him they’re under pressure with work. That’s what he spends most of his time doing, which is looking after us to make sure we’re alright.
“Then he understands when we come down to training we’re ready to train hard. He’s brought us to a place where Wexford hurling hasn’t been for a few years.”
The news of Joe Canning’s groin injury that has ruled him out for the provincial campaign will level the playing field in Leinster according to O’Connor.
“I suppose it does. With frees anyway, anything inside the maybe the 70 is over the bar. It definitely does, he’s at the peak of his career I suppose carrying Galway.
“He’s a class hurler, I would have looked up to him when I was younger. Unfortunately, he’s out injured now so it’s not going to just give hope to Wexford, you have Kilkenny and Dublin licking their lips so it’s whoever wants it the most now.
“It’s going to be interesting, I’d say there’s not going to be much between the teams in Leinster just like in Munster.”
Subscribe to our new podcast, The42 Rugby Weekly, here:
