WHEN DAVY FITZGERALD decided to step down as Clare senior hurling manager on 21 September, he could hardly have envisaged that he\u2019d be a more than interested spectator at Wexford Park for tomorrow afternoon\u2019s county senior hurling final between Oulart-The-Ballagh and Cloughbawn.<\/p>\n
But on the merry-go-round that is now senior inter-county management, Fitzgerald has hopped on in Wexford and will guide the fortunes of the Slaneysiders for the next three seasons, with a review planned after year two.<\/p>\n
And so Fitzgerald will make a round-trip of some 400km tomorrow afternoon, from Sixmilebridge to Wexford town and back again, to run the rule over some prospective panel members before he gets stuck into a real job of work ahead of the 2017 campaign.<\/p>\n
As things stand, Fitzgerald cannot rely upon the availability of three cruciate knee ligament victims next year.<\/p>\n
Andrew Shore and Shane Tomkins both underwent surgery on the same day in June while it emerged more recently that McGovern sustained the dreaded injury on duty for St Anne\u2019s against Naomh Eanna in August.<\/p>\n
McGovern, along with Lee Chin, was one of Wexford\u2019s most impressive performers in 2016 but Tomkins and Shore played no part in the championship.<\/p>\n
Tomkins, on his day, is a more than useful and combative forward, a potential John Conlon-like figure for Wexford.<\/p>\n
\n Wexford’s Shane Tomkins is recovering from a cruciate knee ligament injury.<\/p>\n
Source: Cathal Noonan\/INPHO<\/p>\n
McGovern is a will-o\u2019-the-wisp attacker, pacey, direct, low centre of gravity and well able to take a score, while Shore can play at centre-back but was earmarked for a centre-forward role during the summer by Fitzgerald\u2019s predecessor Liam Dunne.<\/p>\n
In that sense, Fitzgerald is behind the 8-ball straight away, while some of his early phone calls will be to ascertain Jack Guiney and Kevin Foley\u2019s immediate plans.<\/p>\n
Foley opted out for the championship gone by due to study commitments while Guiney decided to take himself off the panel in February.<\/p>\n
Get those two back involved, pray for swift returns for the cruciate trio, and Fitzgerald will have something concrete to work with.<\/p>\n
\n Davy Fitzgerald will be hoping that Jack Guiney (pictured) will return to the Wexford squad.<\/p>\n
Source: James Crombie\/INPHO<\/p>\n
Speaking to Liam Griffin recently, the legendary 1996 All-Ireland winning manager believes that Fitzgerald is poised to profit from Dunne\u2019s \u201cfantastic\u201d work over the last five years.<\/p>\n
Griffin acknowledged that losing out on a sixth year at the helm is \u201ctough\u201d on\u00a0Dunne, who was interviewed for the position but overlooked by county board chiefs in favour of ex-Clare boss Fitzgerald.<\/p>\n
But he says that\u00a0Dunne\u00a0has left behind \u201ca good legacy\u201d, and he\u2019s backing Fitzgerald to build on those foundations.<\/p>\n
\u201cLiam\u2019s done a fantastic job, a very difficult job to rebuild the team from when he started out.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a natural progression, (it) took him that long to build a team and a squad and sadly for him, after doing all that, the general consensus was that a new voice was required.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the prerogative of the chairman and committee to come up with that decision.<\/p>\n
\n Wexford’s 1996 All-Ireland winning manager Liam Griffin (pictured) is predicting success for Davy Fitzgerald in Wexford.<\/p>\n
Source: Donall Farmer\/INPHO<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s tough on\u00a0Liam\u00a0but Davy will be the beneficiary of the good work he\u2019s done and in the evolution of management in any area, even in business, you start a business and the next person brings it to another level.<\/p>\n
\u201cLiam\u00a0did a great job and that shouldn\u2019t be forgotten. What\u2019s left behind is a good legacy and it\u2019s incumbent on everybody to get behind Davy in every way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fitzgerald will be anxious to hit the ground running, beginning with the Model County\u2019s opening Division 1B fixture against Limerick next year.<\/p>\n
And Griffin predicts that Fitzgerald will bring a dash of spice to his new role.<\/p>\n
\n Liam Dunne managed Wexford for the last five seasons.<\/p>\n
Source: Cathal Noonan\/INPHO<\/p>\n
Fitzgerald won\u2019t tolerate players not toeing the party line (Clare\u2019s Davy O\u2019Halloran and Nicky O\u2019Connell will testify to that) and if nothing else, Wexford fans are in for an interesting couple of years.<\/p>\n
Griffin says:\u00a0\u201cDavy, first of all, is a character, an interesting character.\n<\/p>\n
\nYou need characters in our game, warts and all.\u00a0If everybody was the same, it would be a very sad situation.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\u201cHe\u2019s been very successful as a manager and was over a team that won a League title this year, an All-Ireland in 2013 and he also brought Waterford to an All-Ireland final (2008).<\/p>\n
\u201cHe must have learned on every inch of the road and hopefully that will stand him in good stead.<\/p>\n
\n Liam Dunne commiserates with Davy Fitzgerald after the 2014 All-Ireland SHC qualifier replay.<\/p>\n
Source: Donall Farmer\/INPHO<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has a good, young, emerging team. He doesn\u2019t have a massive amount of players but he does have a good squad.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he gets the players not involved for the last couple of years, and the injured players back, he should make good strides and that\u2019s what we all want.<\/p>\n