DAVY FITZGERALD HAS revealed he turned down the role of Wexford senior hurling manager on two occasions before finally accepting it.
Fitzgerald said it took repeated advances from Wexford county board chairman Diarmuid Devereux before he was eventually persuaded to return to inter-county management.
The Sixmilebridge clubman was happy to take a break from the game after five years in charge of his native Clare, which culminated in an All-Ireland quarter-final defeat to Galway last July.
“I was very unsure,” he explained at launch of this year’s Allianz Hurling Leagues in Croke Park.
“I felt that I really needed a breather. I spent a lot of time thinking about it.
“I met the Wexford chairman. And the enthusiasm was unreal. Even though I said no to him twice, he came back to me a third time.
“That enthusiasm, it got into my system. So the break I thought I was going to have, it didn’t happen.”
Fitzgerald, who led Clare to the All-Ireland title in 2013, is entering his 28th consecutive season in the elite level of hurling.
He first broke onto the Clare panel as a young goalkeeper in 1990.
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