‘You’re playing Wexford, you are not playing against Davy’

SHARING the same name with a hurling icon can bring about its own problems as Clare’s David Fitzgerald (right) knows only too well.

There have been a few cases of mistaken identity with phone calls on a couple of occasions, texts from managers seeking challenge matches and so it was probably fitting that Davy Fitzgerald would hand him his Clare debut in 2016 during his final year with the Banner.

“I never actually asked the mother” is Fitzgerald’s response to whether he was named after the Clare legend as they are set to lock horns in Saturday’s All-Ireland SHC quarter-final with Davy in the Wexford corner.

INTRIGUE

It adds another layer of intrigue to a season-defining showdown for both sides as the Banner look to bounce back from their second-half collapse to Cork as the Munster SHC crown slipped through their grasp at the final hurdle for the second successive year.

Many are dubbing it the ‘Davy Derby’ but sideshows are of little importance to the towering Inagh-Kilnamona defender and he’s keen to not let the past define their future ahead of a do-or-die clash with the Model men in Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

“Regardless of who is over any team, it’s about the players once you step inside the white line. He was only with us two years ago. It will be unusual alright. But you are playing Wexford, you are not playing against him. It’s down to the players,” Fitzgerald said.

“They will be looking at us and targeting this game especially after us losing to Cork. We can’t dwell on that now, we have to look ahead, that’s one thing this championship has taught us.

“Lads are still positive. If you told us before the Munster campaign you were going to beat Tipp in Thurles, Limerick and Waterford, you would have gladly taken that. Granted, we obviously wanted to win the Munster final.”