O’Connor happy to see Davy shine as Wexford boss
WHEN it comes to Davy Fitzgerald, nothing surprises Clare hurling captain Patrick O’Connor. His old manager played such a formative role in his county career that he can see exactly why he is making waves in a different province. So if somebody said to him this time last year that Fitzgerald would have a team back in a provincial final in 2017, but it would be Wexford? ‘With Davy, anything is possible. If you were taking this exact date last year, you’d be thinking what is going to lie ahead and the winter was going to be an interesting winter. But it turned out to be, for both parties, a kind of a natural ending to the very successful time he had here and he’s expressed as much, that it was his call to go and he’s happy he did go. ‘Wexford are reaping the benefits now because from what I can see down there, there’s a really rejuvenated manager, his energy is up and he looks well, and he obviously has a Wexford team responding to all of the enthusiasm he brings to it. We’re delighted to see that here.’ The parting in Clare though came against a backdrop of discontent in various corners of the dressing room. A relationship that had brought Clare to the dizzy heights of an All-Ireland in 2013 and a National League last year, had come to a natural end. Both sides sensed as much. ‘Within the group, we knew that it was clean and it was good, what we were doing, and it was done the right way, between player and manager. But the stick that he took from outside — nobody wanted to see that happening to him because he’s an immensely passionate Clare man, first of all, and a hurling man second. ‘The relationship you have with your manager is never going to be pally-pally, it can’t be. He played me any time I was fit so from that point of view, I had a very good relationship with Davy. ‘Like any other player/ manager, we mightn’t necessarily have talked five times a week or anything like that but no player/manager is like that, it can’t be like that. It finished well between both players and management. He was happy to go and it was a natural ending, really.’ Little wonder Wexford’s dramatic path to a first Leinster final since 2008 — a crowd of well over 50,000 is expected against Galway on Sunday — has been closely followed in Clare. ‘We all watched the Wexford team and chatting to the lads, we’d be delighted to see them [going well]…as long as it remains in Leinster. If it goes outside that it might be a bit different! But we’re delighted to see him having success because we know how much he cares and how much he puts into it.’