Winning All-Ireland isn’t priority for Davy in 2020
2020 ISN’T about winning All-Irelands.
That’s according to Wexford Senior hurling manager, Davy Fitzgerald, whose pre-recorded interview with Des Cahill was shown on ‘The Sunday Game’.
‘To me, this year isn’t about All-Irelands. Look, it would be lovely to win one with Wexford, it would be lovely to win a club with Sixmilebridge. It’s about getting out and being able to participate, being able to get into our fields and being able to play a game,’ he said.
‘If we can do that, we’re winning. We’re getting a bit back. If we can achieve that it would be massive,’ the manager added.
‘But we will deal with whatever is there. Of course we would love a longer championship but for a few months it looked like there wasn’t going to be anything.
‘For the last couple of months, things have been tough, people have been worried about getting Covid, people have lost loved ones and our deepest sympathies, we have all been thinking of them.
‘Through all of it the country has stuck together. We just need to finish this off. We are a resilient bunch and please God we’ll be back out in the fields soon. We’ll mind each other and take care of each other. Things will be good, things are looking up.’
Fitzgerald said that to be given a bit of hope would put a smile on your face.
As manager of the Wexford hurlers and the Sixmilebridge club side, Fitzgerald will be in the thick of it when things resume, though he did initially feel that county should have preceded club on the resumption.
‘If it’s club before county, then I’m happy, but what I said was that from a safety point of view, I thought the county might have been easier to manage with way less numbers being involved across the various squads,’ he added, in reference to his interview in this newspaper last week.
‘Obviously the G.A.A. have this thought out so I’m more than happy. I’m lucky in that I coach my club side Sixmilebridge which I’m delighted with, so I’ll be back out.
‘Club is so important for me. Once any of them, club or county, are back out I’m happy. Never once would I put club before county, or county before club.’
On the tight schedule for players before the start of the planned championship in October, Fitzgerald said: ‘It will be very hard. If you have a strong dual county, you’ll have to get both club championships played off in a set time, so by mid-September you could still be down x amount of players.
‘The logistics will be tough, but we’re just going to have to get over it and deal with whatever comes.’