FORMER WEXFORD MANAGER Liam Griffin believes the county must capitalise on the momentum they’ve built up under Davy Fitzgerald.
The Model County fell to Galway in the Leinster SHC final yesterday, but have already defeated Kilkenny twice this year and sealed promotion back to the top flight of the league.
Griffin, who led Wexford to their last All-Ireland success in 1996, says the county must work hard to ensure their latest surge isn’t another false dawn.
“Lets be honest, hurling is box office in Wexford,” he told the RTÉ GAA Podcast. “This is the game people cry out for. Over 30,000 tickets were sold in Wexford (for the Leinster final). There’s only 70,000 in the county and a lot of those are from Dublin living in north Wexford.
“The amount of people that were there today with families is fantastic. We need to keep that momentum going because that’ll bring more hurlers and it’ll develop the game further. We need to do that.
“Now we’ve another opening of a window and I’d despair if we don’t go through it this time but I hope we do. That would have been my take in ’96 but it didn’t happen.
“We’ve got to plan a succession plan for Davy. He has made a huge impact on us. We’ve had so many false dawns. We need to make a conscious decision, do we really want to grow and develop hurling?”
Ex-Galway skipper David Burke agreed with that sentiment.
“He’s brought a massive enthusiasim and energy into Wexford and it’s great for the game, it really is,” he stated. “To keep that momentum and to keep players training at the level Davy Fitzgerald requires and brings to it is going to be hard work for all of those players down there.”
