IT’S D-DAVY FOR MODEL
Wexford legend Fitzhenry warns boss progress must be shown
WEXFORD great Damien Fitzhenry insists it will only be progress for Davy Fitzgerald if he guides the county to a Leinster title or an All-ireland semi-final.
The duo were central to a golden age of hurling stoppers back in the 1990s and 2000s along with Donal Og Cusack and Brendan Cummins.
But clearly there are no keeper union rules in force as Fitzhenry laid it on the line to the Clareman as to what’s required in his second year at the Model County’s helm.
He said: “If Davy produces the goods this year and silverware is brought to Wexford, I can see him there for the foreseeable future – for the next year or two years.
“We’ll have to wait and see. If no silverware arrives this year, that’s 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 this year.”
Wexford have undoubtedly made strides under Liam Dunne and, more recently, Fitzgerald.
But Fitzhenry believes that it’s time that they seriously challenged for the big prizes again.
“Absolutely,” said the 43-year-old. “Anything less than a Leinster or definitely getting to All-ireland semi or All-ireland final is no progress on last year. If you’re talking about progress, you have to be moving on.”
It’s a high bar that Fitzhenry is setting.
“But that’s the way the game is,” he replied. “You have to train hard and try and get there, to produce those performances.
“We definitely have quality within the team to do that. We have 15 to start and six to come on – if we have the quality of 21, that’s another day’s story.
“But we’re definitely good enough to give every one of those teams a run for their money.”
Wexford have two wins under their belts under the new Leinster Championship format – against Dublin and Offaly.
They should have been out of sight before the Dubs produced a late fightback that almost resulted in a win while Wexford did hammer Offaly last weekend.
Saturday’s encounter with Allireland champions Galway will be their most searching examination of the summer so far.
But win that and Fitzhenry knows that expectations will rocket in the south-east.
He said: “You’ll always have people who will, if you come up with a huge performance, lose the run of themselves and say, ‘We’ve beaten the All-ireland champions, we’ve nothing to do now only turn up and play three or four games and we’ll be All-ireland champions’.
“But everybody who follows hurling knows that it’s not as simple as that. I think it’ll take a huge performance from our lads to beat Galway at the weekend.
“If we don’t, there’s another huge obstacle the following weekend in Kilkenny. It’ll be a real dogfight to see who gets to Leinster final day.”