Getting back on top is all that matters

ON radio during the National League, Liam Griffin was asked about the style of hurling Davy Fitzgerald may introduce into Wexford.

When he was in charge of Clare, Fitzgerald won an All-Ireland playing a sweeper.

But in his three subsequent seasons with the county, that system was criticised, with some arguing it stymied the players.

Griffin responded by telling the presenter he didn’t care if Fitzgerald’s tactics involved moving the sliotar up the pitch in a wheelbarrow.

‘They were talking about defenders but I couldn’t care less: get us back to the top and we’ll worry about being purists after that,’ Griffin says now. ‘That’s the only reason I said that.

‘I’d love us to be expressive, I’d love us to be silken, I’d love us to be all of those things, but most of all I’d love us to be back there – within the rules of the game.

‘Not anything underhand, and that’s one thing I feel proud about from 1996. We did nothing underhand. We tried to be manly in our approach, in everything we did, and we won it the right way, in my opinion.’

Not like in his playing days: ‘You could almost assassinate a fella and bury him at the back of the goal, and no one would even notice.’