Irish Daily Mail

CLARE BROKE DAVY’S HEART AND HE HASN’T FORGOTTEN ABOUT IT

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IT WOULD be fun to be that fly on the wall in Davy Fitzgerald’s dressing room today, where it is likely be will be telling his Wexford players a few home truths about the team they are facing.

I noted that Davy went down the diplomatic route when asked how he would deal with playing against his own.

‘I’m not even thinking about our opponents. It’s a tricky one for me so the less I say about Clare the better.

‘It’s too close to my heart and I know them well. I’ll be accused of playing this game or that game, so I won’t say anything,’ said Davy this week.

The reality is that he will be saying lots, but just within the confines of his own dressing room.

And when he does speak to his Wexford players about Clare, it will hardly be about how closely he still clutches his former players to his heart, but his words will most likely be fuelled by the hurt he felt when they broke his heart in 2016 and moved against him.

He would not be human if he did not feel that way and if he can throw an extra bit of fuel on fires inside Wexford tummies, he will not hesitate to shovel it on.

The problem, though, is that it will take more than that for Wexford to find a way past Clare today.

It is hard not to believe that Wexford’s confidence has not been rocked to the core by that final round game, in what was effectivel­y a Leinster semi-final, to Kilkenny where they simply could not stand up to the heat of Nowlan Park.

To give up a nine-point lead, to be outscored by 0-15 to 0-5 in 30 minutes of hurling has the potential to melt the most focused of heads.

All season, Wexford’s season had been building to that point — Galway’s superiorit­y is such that it was always likely that a place in the final would come down to that game between the old rivals, and Wexford simply did not show up.

I am not saying it was an absolute failure — they played some great hurling in the first half where Paudie Foley was immense — but the way they imploded at the death against a transition­al and vulnerable Kilkenny team suggests belief is still very much an issue.

Of course, there is a very neat line that can be drawn to suggest that Wexford and Clare are not opponents, but rather two peas in a pod.

After all, Clare dominated Cork in the first half of the Munster final, led by eight points but were beaten a lot more emphatical­ly than by the two-point margin at the death.

And when you also throw in the fact that was the second time Clare had lost to Cork this summer it is easy to make the argument that even though they are still in the race, they are not front-line contenders.

I am not so sure about that. There are a couple of very important difference­s between Clare and Wexford.

The first is the form-book, which tells us that Clare have beaten Waterford, Tipperary and Limerick, which reads a lot more impressive­ly than beating Dublin, Offaly and Westmeath.

The second one is even more important because there is some evidence that Clare are improving as the summer progresses, and, significan­tly, have far greater room to make that improvemen­t.

There was a gaping imbalance between defence and attack all season with Clare but that has, to a point, been addressed.

Certainly, the full-back line has improved and I accept that might sound like a strange observatio­n to make where they are coming off a game where they have just conceded 2-22.

But Clare’s second-half implosion against Cork was sourced in a lack of intensity out the field as much as anything, although their failure to cope with Seamus Harnedy’s power game will set off a few light bulbs inside Davy’s head.

But the bottom line is that Clare have reached this point, without some of their most talented and proven players not performing to the absolute limit of their potential. In terms of skill, Tony Kelly, is arguably the best around but he has played in fits and starts all Championsh­ip. If he alone was to catch fire, then Clare as a team would be utterly and gloriously transforme­d into front-line contenders. And it is not just him; Podge Collins has only offered us glimpses, Shane O’Donnell is only the shadow of what he can be while Conor McGrath is struggling to make the team. That is an awful lot of

serious talent which has been not been tapped to the full by a team who are in the last six of the Championsh­ip.

And when you add to those who have been delivering such as John Conlon and Peter Duggan you get a glimpse of just how potent this Clare team can be.

Conlon — who as readers of this page will know we have long been a fan of — is enjoying a career-defining season and is visibly lifting those around him.

I look at the Wexford team and I am struggling to see where they have a similar player who has the ability to lift them.

Of course, you have the likes of Foley, Lee Chin and Ciaran McDonald but can any of those players point to a sustained level of excellence like Conlon’s?

And that is important because excellence breeds excellence.

All players have egos and the likes of Kelly will in a way be stung by the fact that he is no longer perceived to be the main man for Clare, and he will be desperate to take his game to that level where we will be forced to have that conversati­on about the Ballyea man again.

So will the whole lot of them and they could not pick a better day to remind the hurling world that their future is still very much in front of them.

And the fact that Davy will be the one to suffer will only sauce their desire to produce their best form of the season.

It could well be that Davy inspires his beloved Clare one more time, but this time there will only be ice-cold comfort for him in it.

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 ??  ?? Key: Peter Duggan
Key: Peter Duggan
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Tom Ryan
 ?? INPHO ?? Rallying the troops: Davy Fitzgerald will have his Wexford players fired up
INPHO Rallying the troops: Davy Fitzgerald will have his Wexford players fired up

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