GAA: CERTAIN RUMOURS have been circulating that Waterford hurling manager Davy Fitzgerald somehow helped stage the nail-biting climax to the Allianz Hurling League so that Dublin, under Anthony Daly, his former team-mate and later manager, would narrowly progress to the final, while Waterford themselves narrowly missed out.
While Fitzgerald wasn’t commenting on that, he’s certainly not denying his former Clare soul mate a day in the spotlight – which Daly now gets with Dublin’s final showdown against Kilkenny.
“I am delighted for Daly,” says Fitzgerald. “I suppose I did him a favour (by beating Galway). He sent me one text before the game, and he rang me too. I told him we were probably missing six lads, and he said, ‘ah, you are not serious’. But I just told him we’d be giving it a go, that we weren’t coming out to make up the numbers.
“But Anthony has done a great job. Of course I would have a lot of respect for him, because I played with him for so long. He is a good guy. If Cork had won (against Dublin) we were in a league final, and that was very close to happening. So we were there or thereabouts.
“But I also think hurling needs Dublin there. I think we all know that as hurling people, the more they are around it the better. The support they bring brings another bit of atmosphere. Maybe I am wrong, but I think the league was a very decent league and there were a lot of teams even enough. And isn’t that what we want in hurling, six or seven teams competing? We don’t need just one or two teams competing, hogging the limelight all the time. That is what we need to do and I don’t think we are far away from that either.”
Waterford produced another largely consistent league, and although missing out on the final by just one point, Daly has much to be satisfied about. However he is far from satisfied with the current league structure, and clearly sympathises with the likes of Offaly, who find themselves relegated back to Division Two, while his former county Clare must beat Limerick in the Division Two final in order to get promotion back to Division One.
“We need to get a few right hurling people in there,” says Fitzgerald, referring to the ‘powers that be’. “Personally myself the league needs to be changed. I honestly think there are three or four teams in Division Two that need to come up to Division One. If they are able to play in the Liam MacCarthy, why aren’t they able to play in Division One of the league?
“If they are talking about saving hurling, and then saying we will leave these teams down (in Division Two), when they are good enough to come up, I don’t agree with it. I think you could look at three or four teams there that should be coming up. If we had a 14-team Division One, with two groups of seven, and then we had a semi-final and a final, it would help them on a good bit. I think it is worth a try.
“And to end up playing as well as we did all year, and still not have a chance to get to a final, I think is unfair. I think they need to look at the system, and I think that would be better for hurling in general. Instead we will probably go back into the same system. That’s my opinion. It is how I feel. But the powers-that-be know different.”
In the meantime, Fitzgerald is already focusing on the Munster championship semi-final date with Limerick, on June 12th. “We have a few lads to come back and try and get their places, and that should make it interesting. But to tell you the truth, my only focus is Limerick and I am afraid of my life of that game. We will have supporters getting carried away and thinking about x, y and z. If you look at Limerick’s history with Waterford they put it up to us any time they feel like it. I am wicked afraid of that game and that’s being straight up with you.”
“Donal O’Grady is a serious manager, they haven’t lost a game yet. We know what we are up against. We know how hard they are working on their running game and different things. We have to be ready. You saw in 2007 when Waterford looked odds on to make an All-Ireland final and what happened?”
