THE FALLOUT FROM Davy Fitzgerald’s on-field broadside in Nowlan Park continues.
The Wexford boss has accepted the eight-week ban handed down by the Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) for his transgressions during Tipperary’s league semi-final win.
He’s also offered assistance to Premier boss Michael Ryan in overturning Jason Forde’s proposed two-game.
Much of the discussion now surrounds how much contact Fitzgerald will have with the Wexford players between now and June 11, when his suspension is lifted.
Fitzgerald is technically banned from all GAA activity, meaning that, strictly speaking, he’s not allowed to attend any training sessions between now and a likely Leinster SHC semi-final against Kilkenny on June 10.
Of course, the reality is it’s going to be very difficult for the GAA to ensure everything goes by the book.
Fitzgerald is no shrinking violet and he’ll surely do everything in his power to ensure he’s a big part of Wexford’s build-up to the Leinster opener against a round robin qualifier.
Model forward Lee Chin remained coy and didn’t give anything away as regards Fitzgerald’s plans for the coming weeks.
“I think technically no, he’s not allowed be part of training,” said Chin.
“I think that’s what’s in the rulebook, that he’s not supposed to be involved with us. So we haven’t really been in contact since we’ve been back in with the club championship back in Wexford.
“We just have to accept what’s going on and we all know that Davy has accepted it and we are going to support him through whatever decision he has made. I know he’s not going to make a stand, the county board have released a statement and it just is what it is.
“We’ll just have to deal with whatever is there, Davy’s backroom team is very good and they’ll pick up the pieces from here.”
Fitzgerald claimed he’d hoped to give his side a boost when he entered the fray, but Chin admits he had become well used to seeing the Clare man in the middle of things on the training field.
“Something’s funny about game days when certain things happen you just don’t pay much attention to, you’re tuned in and so focused.
“I noticed he was there but it never really struck a chord with me, maybe it’s because I’m used to it in training that he’s in the middle of the field the whole time, maybe that’s what it is.
“You’re so tuned into the game that you don’t really take in what else that’s kind of crazy that’s going on around you.”
Wexford exceeded all expectations this spring by securing promotion to Division 1A of the league, while also beating Kilkenny in Nowlan Park to reach the semi-final.
Chin dismissed suggestions that there’s a danger they’ve already hit a glass ceiling heading into the summer.
“From what I can see I don’t think we trained any harder this January than we did any other January. I think what we done was pretty much standard enough.
“We worked fairly hard. We probably pushed ourselves a little bit more in terms of training. But we didn’t do anything worlds apart from what we would have in previous years. I still think we have a lot left to offer.
“At the moment we’re playing with a lot of confidence and obviously to beat Kilkenny in a league quarter-final gave us a lot of confidence as well.
“But we know Kilkenny will be a different animal if we do make it to Wexford Park with them in them, they’ll be a different animal in the championship.”
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