‘Davy needs to land Leinster title this year’
THERE was a time when Damien Fitzhenry would have considered Davy Fitzgerald a rival. Twenty years ago — during a golden era for hurling goalkeepers — the pair were two of the very best around. He probably never thought there would be a time when his Clare counterpart would be charged with elevating his own county.
But that is exactly what Fitzgerald has done with his own unique charisma and there’s a pep in Wexford’s step as they welcome AllIreland champions Galway to town this weekend. They are sitting pretty alongside the Tribesmen at the top of the Leinster table, both on four points, but causing a sensation and beating the Liam MacCarthy Cup holders would lay down a marker.
‘This is going to be one of the games of the year for Wexford, regardless of the result,’ Fitzhenry reckons. ‘If they win, they are in a Leinster final in Croke Park. If they lose, it looks like it will be a dog-fight in Nowlan Park the following week. Whatever they don’t learn against Galway, they will learn the following weekend.’
However, Fitzhenry believes that Wexford should be aiming to win some silverware to represent the progress they’ve made this year and he believes that Fitzgerald’s future will hinge on that.
‘If he produces the goods this year, and there is silverware brought to Wexford, I can see him [Fitzgerald] there for the foreseeable future, for the next couple of years. But we will have to wait and see. If no silverware arrives this year, that is two years — how long do you stay? How long do you leave it? How long do you keep with the same crew to turn that around? A lot will depend on what happens this year.
‘Anything less than a Leinster title or getting to an All-Ireland semi-final or final is no progress on last year. If you talk about progress, the team has to be moving on. We definitely have quality with the team but whether we have 20 players of that quality —the 15 to start and five to come on — that’s another day’s story. But we are definitely good enough to give each of those other teams a run for their money.’
When Fitzhenry was at the peak of his powers with Wexford, Offaly were the county that gave him the most trouble. And if the Faithful County lose — as expected — in Parnell Park on Sunday, they face the prospect of being relegated out of the Leinster Championship and Liam MacCarthy Cup. Such a situation would be unsatisfactory, according to the Wexford legend.
‘I think it’s completely unfair that some county within the Championship will be taken out of it. I don’t think the counties knew what they were voting on, to be honest. It looks like it was a shot in the dark. And to do it within Leinster when a team could lose all their games in Munster and still be there. I think they are cutting their nose off to spite their face.’
If Westmeath, for instance, win the Joe McDonagh Cup, Fitzhenry believes there could be a six-team Leinster Championship next season.
‘Why not? Anything would be better. The whole thing is to try and get teams to have as many games as possible, and to make hurling obviously the better game that they can. But they won’t do that by relegating a team down.
‘When I started back in 1993, Offaly would have been a huge team for us, a bogey team. Offaly were a team that were capable of doing anything. Now, 25 years later, there is a chance of them not being in the Leinster Championship. It’s a shame, really.’