Fitzgerald: We have a great game and it’s important that we mind it

IT WAS, sighed Davy Fitzgerald, (right) “probably one of the most frustrating games I have ever been involved in. You just couldn’t get a flow in the game.”

Hurling is currently in the grip of a debate over its policing and governance, with the old guard railing against a toughening of the laws. The game is as prone to cynical play as any other, but this match was absolutely strangled for the majority by excessively invasive refereeing.

Limerick referee Johnny Murphy applied a rigorous interpretation and if the old rule of thumb that one shouldn’t see too much of a referee holds true, then we saw far too much of the main match officials. By the end of a maddeningly officious evening’s work in Croke Park on Saturday, he had issued 13 yellow cards, three reds and blown for somewhere in the vicinity of 50 frees.

Murphy’s Law didn’t endear itself to the Wexford manager, even though he was delighted to get a win that didn’t look at all likely for most of the game. “We have a great game. We have a great game, and it’s important we mind it,” said Fitzgerald. “In hurling you can blow for a free every minute or two, but it’s important to be sensible. I’m not going to give out right now because there’s no point but I love the game of hurling we have, we need to be careful.”

The ending was completely out of sorts with most of what had passed before, with a goal from Jack O’Connor, after a weaving run, putting Wexford in the lead two minutes into injury-time.

Dublin will be kicking themselves. They led for most of the game and should have carried a better advantage into the final straight, but Paul Ryan had an iffy day on frees, after replacing the injured Oisín O’Rorke. They conceded a goal in the 31st minute, when Mark Fanning scored from a penalty. They replied with four unanswered points to close the half 0-10 to 1-5 in front.

Two more from Ryan frees on the restart had them leading by six but Wexford had useful scoring options in Paul Morris and Rory O’Connor, both of whom troubled Dublin and picked off crucial scores.

Lasted

Wexford gave Lee Chin and Matthew O’Hanlon their first League starts but neither lasted the pace. Danny Sutcliffe started for Dublin after recent injury and was also called ashore after minimal influence, though Eamonn Dillon caught the eye with one magical score and an outrageous first touch to kill a pass from Daire Gray on his stick, leading to a pointed free for Ryan.

Wexford looked in serious trouble as sub Conor McDonald was sent off when Paddy Smyth was challenged by three different Wexford players, McDonald’s contact probably the least dangerous of the three. That happened after 54 minutes with Dublin leading by four points. With three minutes of normal time left, Shaun Murphy went off on a second yellow. Two minutes after that Eoghan O’Donnell followed him off, on a second yellow, just before the late Wexford rescue mission.

“Yeah look, two minutes into injurytime – to concede a goal at that stage was disappointing,” admitted Mattie

Kenny, the Dublin manager. “When the game opened up too much, when it’s a 13-a-side game, there’s a lot of space. Wexford made a couple of runs that we just got caught for. You’d like to have closed out the game. While we’re disappointed with that, the lads put in a huge performance.”

Near the end, Chris Crummey had to go off at a stage when Dublin had used up their full subs allocation, leaving them with 13 players. On the number of stoppages, Kenny said: “Everyone loves the speed of hurling and the manliness of it. I don’t think there was a dirty stroke out there. There was a lot of technical frees.”

Wexford looked laboured for long periods, perhaps feeling the effects of a herculean effort in defeating Kilkenny.

“This is mid-February and you’re not going to be reading anything,” said Fitzgerald. “Because when we play the Dubs in Wexford Park in mid-May, it’s going to be completely different. The only thing I can take out of tonight is massive resilience, because we went down four points and were down to 13 men . . . and they had 15 for a while, so you’re down two bodies and we hung in there.”

Dublin’s late surrender followed the dismissal of Eoghan O’Donnell with a minute left to play, on a second yellow. After O’Connor’s goal in injury-time, Paul Morris hit two scores to one from Cian Boland, a snapshot from a rebound that could have ended up in the net. Dublin head to Ennis next Sunday, while Wexford face a less arduous task against Carlow.

SCORERS – Wexford: P Morris 0-7 (3f, 1 ‘65’); R O’Connor 0-4 (1f); Jack O’Connor, M Fanning (pen) 1-0 each; L Chin (f), D O’Keeffe, P Foley 0-1 each. Dublin: P Ryan 0-8 (8f); R McBride, R Hayes (1f) 0-2 each; C Crummey, O O’Rorke (f), D Burke, E Dillon, J Madden, C Boland 0-1 each.

WEXFORD – M Fanning 8; Joe O’Connor 7, L Ryan 7, C Firman 7; D Reck 8, M O’Hanlon 6, S Murphy 6; A Rochford 6, D O’Keeffe 7; K Foley 6, L Chin 6, R O’Connor 9; P Morris 9, M Dwyer 6, A Nolan 7. Subs: P Foley for O’Hanlon (h-t), L Óg McGovern for Rochford (h-t), Jack O’Connor 7 for Chin (47), C McDonald 5 for Dwyer (44), C Dunbar for Nolan (68).

DUBLIN – S Brennan 6; C O’Callaghan 6, E O’Donnell 7, P Smyth 7; J Madden 8, D Gray 7, J Malone 7; S Moran 7, R McBride 6; D Sutcliffe 5, C Crummey 7, D Burke 6; D Keogh 5, R Hayes

7, O O’Rorke. Subs: P Ryan 6 for O’Rorke (inj 14), C Boland 6 for Sutcliffe (inj 43), E Dillon 7 for Keogh (53), A Dunphy for O’Callaghan (58), T Connolly for Madden (68).

REF – J Murphy (Limerick)