WEXFORD WILL NOT fight Davy Fitzgerald’s eight-week ban arising out of the incident in last Sunday week’s league semi-final against Tipperary.
Fitzgerald was handed the sanction for encroaching onto the pitch at Nowlan Park and getting involved in an altercation with Tipperary players.
But the Clare All-Ireland winning player and manager has opted not to appeal the decision ‘in the broader interests of the game and of the senior hurling team’.
A statement released by Wexford GAA did describe the penalty as ‘harsh’ and the county board expressed their support for the Sixmilebridge native.
The decision means Fitzgerald will not be on the sideline for Wexford’s championship opener in the Leinster quarter-final and a potential provincial semi-final against Kilkenny.
The full statement reads:
“Wexford GAA County Board confirms that senior hurling manager, Davy Fitzgerald, will not seek a hearing regarding the 8-week penalty handed down to him by the CCCC following the Allianz National Hurling League Semi-final on Sunday 17 April in Nowlan Park.
“The County Board, and all Wexford GAA supporters, are fully supportive of Davy Fitzgerald as our senior hurling manager.
“Wexford people fully understand that Davy brings 100% commitment and a real passion to his coaching and it is this which makes him such an outstanding manager.
“We are very proud of the tremendous work he and his backroom team have put into the senior hurling squad. That work is already bearing fruit with promotion to Division 1A achieved and a real spring in the step of all GAA followers in the county.
“It is considered that the penalty imposed for Davy’s pitch encroachment is harsh and that arguments could be made for a lessening of the penalty. Indeed, it is not unknown for other similar penalties to have been nullified after appeals and legal processes.
“However, this decision has been reached after detailed discussion with Davy and is being taken in the broader interests of the game and of the senior hurling team.
“In accepting the penalty, the focus of attention can now turn elsewhere and the GAA family in Wexford can return to strengthening our games and our teams.”
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