MODEL of CONSISTENCY
Conor McDonald insists Davy is the only man for Wexford
WHEN it comes to Davy Fitzgerald’s intense management style, the general view is that a point is reached when players stop responding to his manic energy. And it tends to happen in the third season — as it did in both Clare and Waterford.
However, they have bucked the trend in Wexford. They claimed the Leinster title in Fitzgerald’s term at the helm, only narrowly missing out on a place in the All-Ireland final. And rather than feeling drained by the manager’s methods, the players were keen that he come back for more.
When Fitzgerald was weighing up his options last September, his phone consistently buzzed with text messages from the Wexford squad. As Conor McDonald explained in Croke Park yesterday, they believed there was more to achieve under the Clare man.
‘All the players were adamant that we wanted to keep him,’ the forward stated at the launch of the Allianz Hurling League. ‘It was a long road but we had to respect what he was doing for us. Ultimately, he came back, which was a massive plus. The player management bond and the bond with the backroom, there’s a good aura about the place.’
McDonald dismisses the perception that Fitzgerald’s intense management burns out quickly. ‘I remember being asked that before, going into the third year and I was just thinking “how is this even a thing?”.
‘It’s something I never agreed with, never felt that it was going to happen. If anything, I think we have probably got stronger with this group of players than he did with other teams. I don’t know whether it’s the group of players that he has bonded with more.
‘We’re going into year four now and we’ve got a little bit of success last year. We have him back this year again. I don’t know about this whole shelf-life thing. He has proved everyone wrong on that.’
In the idle months for intercounty activity, it was speculated that Fitzgerald was being courted by Galway. However, McDonald says the players were never concerned that his head would be turned by a rival’s advances.
‘I was probably just more worried that he wasn’t going to stay with us rather than where he was going to go next. We were adamant to keep him. That was the main focus. It wasn’t really was he going to jump ship to Galway, it was more important that we keep him. It would have been odd seeing him in the Championship or the League on the opposing team. But thankfully, we still have him.’
Drafted into the Wexford squad as a 17-year-old by Liam Dunne, this will be his eighth season lining out for the Model men, but much changed in that period. Last weekend, they beat Galway to claim the pre-season Walsh Cup, but such a result is now normalised — they feel on the same level as the Tribesmen.
‘I just think it’s worth winning games, no matter who the opposition are,’ the Gorey native says. ‘The more often you win, the more developed the habit becomes. You learn how to win, we had to dig that game out. It’s early in the year, but it is nicer to have a bit of silverware than not.’
With Lee Chin and Matthew O’Hanlon both out injured and Diarmuid O’Keeffe not returned from his travels yet, it will be a depleted Wexford side who travel to O’Moore Park to face Laois on Saturday evening. And while McDonald accepts Eddie Brennan’s side could cause an upset, especially after their summer exploits, it is the sort of match in which the Model County could lay down a marker because the League is something they want to win.
The last of Wexford’s four League titles came back in 1973, although McDonald stopped short of saying it was a priority.
‘We are at a stage now where the more games we win, the better momentum we get and better we perform. The League is similar to the Championship in ways and I don’t see how it wouldn’t be a priority to do your absolute best each day we go out. There will be new lads getting a run too and they will be eager to make an impression, so if you are not eager to keep your place or get your place, you are probably not in the right set-up.’
And Davy Fitzgerald’s set-up seems to be the right one for this group of Wexford players. Whatever buttons the charismatic Clare man presses in the south east, it works. That will certainly be clear in the coming weeks.