Banner threat from within

YET again, a Clare man will plot the downfall of his native county when Davy Fitzgerald sends Wexford into battle against the Banner, with whom he won two All-irelands as a player and another as a manager, in Saturday’s All-ireland hurling quarter-final.

The Clare team and management of the mid to late 90s contained a particularly large number of strong personalities, the type of which have been demand for coaching and managerial roles in other counties for a long number of years now.

Former Clare trainer and subsequent manager Mike

Mcnamara was involved with Galway in 2002 when they lost to Clare in the All-ireland quarterfinal and in 2004 managed Offaly in defeat against his native county in a qualifier.

1995 and ‘97 All-ireland winning manager Ger Loughnane took his Galway side to Ennis for a qualifier in 2007 which they lost, while Anthony Daly also had a pair of qualifiers against Clare when in charge of Dublin, winning one and losing the other.

Fitzgerald has only had to take on Clare once in the Championship before, back in 2010 when on his first inter-county managerial assignment with Waterford, who beat them in a

Munster semi-final.