THE LAST MANAGER to guide Wexford to All-Ireland senior hurling glory, is delighted that Davy Fitzgerald is remaining in charge but believes the county needs to start thinking about operating after the Clare man departs.
Fitzgerald’s future had been in doubt in the aftermath of Wexford’s championship exit at the hands of Tipperary in late July, particularly due to the major commitment required in travelling to the south-east.
But it was announced last month that he was committing to the cause for two more years and this week added Clare All-Ireland winner Brendan Bugler to his coaching team.
Liam Griffin believes it is a positive move after the progress Fitzgerald has made but feels a ‘discussion needs to start’ over who will ultimately replace the Sixmilebridge native.
“Davy is very highly regarded in Wexford and rightly so,” stated Griffin, who is being inducted tonight into the Hall of Fame at the Gaelic Writers’ Association annual awards, sponsored by Sky Sports.
“He has done a great job and he has a good relationship with the players, the board and the people. Davy has learned every step on the way and he has shown that he is willing to learn.
“He has been very good for Wexford. At least now, everyone knows where they stand. It is two years and that is it. The big thing now is the succession stakes as to who will succeed Davy and that discussion needs to start now.
“The players are delighted he is staying on and hopefully it will inspire them to get to the final next year and let’s see what happens then.”
Thoughts of the current Wexford group emulating his 1996 team started to drift across the mind of Griffin when they moved into the driving seat in the second half of that Tipperary match.
“I thought we were going well and we had a great chance of closing it out but unfortunately it did not happen.
“It is a pity because it would have been novel to have ourselves and Kilkenny in an All-Ireland final.
“And if we had won that, we could have all retired and burned our hurls,” laughed Griffin.
Griffin has been one of the key figures behind the Club Players’ Association and has a keen interest in the relentless debate over the myriad of problems afflicting the GAA in terms of fixtures and competition structures.
Last Saturday’s approval of a second tier in the football championship was criticised for being introduced before the workings of the GAA fixtures review group were released.
But Griffin still hopes there will be ‘an open mind’ to the proposals that emerge.
“Politically, the CPA and I, while we are mostly concentrated on the clubs we are also county men in that we have a great love for our counties, we too support tier two.
“I was part of a committee that proposed the Christy Ring and a tiered championship in hurling when Sean Kelly was president. There were a lot of people who had plenty to say about that at the time too but we felt it was a good idea.
“Now that tier two has been passed it may well be that those at the top in the GAA, including the GAA president, may feel it was a necessary step.
“It did not (feel) like an obvious next step; you would have thought that he fixtures committee would have come back first and then it would have been taken on from there. But we are where are now. Maybe it is the forerunner to change.
“What I would say is that I hope we have an open mind as to what will come out of that report rather than sectional interests prevailing. This is about a games programme and not sectional interests. It is about delivering a games programme that is fair, equal and that works.
“I don’t think that is beyond the wit of anybody. Hopefully we will get good and logical decisions but if they don’t stand up to the fairness test, then we will end up with more of the same and more of the same is not good enough. We have a great chance now to make a better fist of the totality of the fixtures issue.”
On the latest episode of The42 Rugby Weekly, Andy Dunne tells Murray Kinsella and Gavan Casey about where it all went wrong for Joe Schmidt’s Ireland
