CATS ARE ALIVE AND KICKING
Furious Fitz lashes out as stunning Kilkenny comeback sinks Wexford
WEXFORD manager Davy Fitzgerald praised his team’s ‘superhuman’ effort as they missed out on a Leinster hurling final by virtue of an agonising one-point defeat by Kilkenny at Nowlan Park.
In a thriller, Brian Cody’s National League champions come back from nine points down early in the second half to set up a meeting with Galway.
Afterwards, a clearly irate Fitzgerald felt that Wexford’s cause wasn’t helped by
some decisions that went against his team by referee James McGrath, pointing to a free count that favoured Kilkenny.
‘That’s not right, I think I’m wasting my time in this job. I’m not going to say why but I am wasting my time. Just go back and look at it. Fair play to Kilkenny and they fought back hard, I really admire their style.
‘There’s frees given in one half and they’re not given as easy in the other half and that’s fact. I love the way Kilkenny play but we might as well waste our time if it’s not 100 per cent across the board.
‘That’s being totally honest. They disallowed Paul Morris’ one. Fine. After he getting thumped himself. That’s grand. Disallowed a point after he getting thumped and reacting back. Disappointment doesn’t come into it.’
Kilkenny’s victory means that they will face Galway in the Leinster final in three weeks’ time while Wexford will meet Carlow or Westmeath in a preliminary All-Ireland quarter-final a week later.
Fitzgerald felt that Wexford’s gruelling schedule of four championship matches in 21 days finally caught up with them in the second half.
‘I knew we were going to fade. For us to get what we got out of it, that was a superhuman effort. A superhuman effort. Four weeks is tough going. I think if we had a week’s break, trust me, we would have finished the game a lot stronger. Because we are as fit as anyone in the country.
‘I thought we should have been up 10 or 11 points in the first half. I thought there was only one team in it.
‘I said to the boys in the second half, “the only thing that is going to catch us here, have we the energy to keep going?” I said it to the boys on the sideline.
You have to give Kilkenny credit. When they see that there is a small chink, they went for it.’