DAVY: MUNSTER TOUGHER THAN EVER TO WIN NOW

CLARE hurler David Fitzgerald said the new round-robin format will make it even harder to win a Munster Championship in 2018. Despite winning the All-Ireland in 2013, the county’s senior hurlers have a miserable record in the province, having to go all the way back to 1998 for a last title. Even in that breakthrough summer four years ago, they were knocked out of Munster by Cork on a 0-23 to 0-15 scoreline. ‘The beauty of the knockout is kinda gone where anything can happen on Munster Championship day,’ said Fitzgerald of the format where Clare will have four games — two home, two away — with the top two progressing to a provincial final. ‘So it will be tougher to win a Munster Championship for any of the teams.’ And he confirmed that former Cork goalkeeper Dónal Óg Cusack will be involved again as Clare coach in 2018, despite speculation over his role in the aftermath of the county’s qualifier defeat by Tipperary and again in recent weeks. In a statement late on Saturday night, Cusack identified himself as the second person who gave a character reference to Tom Humphries, the former Irish Times journalist who faces sentencing for grooming a girl when she was 14 years old and sexually abusing her over two years. The All-Ireland winner said he had shown a ‘lack of judgement’ and apologised for any hurt or offence caused by his action. Fitzgerald was part of the Clare team that swept to National League success in 2016 only to crash and burn in the Championship. ‘The players are there,’ he insisted. ‘We have been kind of unlucky in some senses but we have to see out matches. The likes of the Kilkennys and Galways and Tipps mightn’t necessarily be playing well in matches but they will stay in the game and that’s something we have to try and work on, I feel.’