Davy Fitzgerald warns Sunday's Division 1 final may not be a day for the purists

Davy Fitzgerald has cautioned Sunday’s Division 1 final is unlikely to be pretty on the eye as Clare and Waterford populate the middle third.

The Clare manager does not expect Waterford to change their style of hurling and can see the midfield area clogged with bodies.

“Waterford started playing a certain way about a year and a half ago. I think they have developed it massively. I’ve been looking at it for a while and it will be hard to break it down.

“It mightn’t be the prettiest game under the sun on Sunday because the middle third will be very congested. It won’t be an open game of hurling.”

Knowing Derek McGrath as well as he does and having put Waterford under the microscope, the biggest praise Fitzgerald can give Sunday’s opponents is that Clare won’t prompt them to alter their tactics.

“They’re still not going to change the way they play. I don’t think you can force them to play another way. It’ll be hard enough to get scores in that middle third. The way they’re set up, it will be tough.

“Let me make no mistake about it, I love what he’s done. He’s come up with something. He’s a really smart guy who has worked hard.”

McGrath has openly spoken about how he picked Fitzgerald’s brain in the past. The Sixmilebridge man would consider himself friendly with the man with whom he’ll share the Kinane Stand sideline twice in the next five weeks.

“We wouldn’t have been in touch since the championship draw!” smiled Fitzgerald. “Would we have been in touch before then? I’ll let Derek tell you that, if he wants to. There would have been more than texts. He took a lot of stick in 2014.

“I remember doing interviews on WLR and saying ‘give this fella a break’. They were giving him a hard time. I said, ‘Trust this fella, he’s smart’. “I backed him because I believed he was smart enough to figure it out and get it right. You should never judge a fella straight out. Trust me, he’s deadly.

“We would have had a number of chats. He doesn’t need to get any ideas off me. He’ll pick a few things here and there. He’ll use a lot of his own stuff. It wouldn’t surprise me if Derek would go to anyone for an idea and then he would put his own brand on it because he’s able to do that.

“I’d have a fair idea of who he talks to and what way he is thinking about things and fair play to him. I’d love to find something bad to say about him but I can’t!

“Maybe after Sunday I’ll try! I love seeing a guy who got hammered – and he really did get lambasted down there from his own – and he stuck it out and turned it around and I’d say ‘hat off to him and the young players’.”

Fitzgerald has no time for those who have accused Waterford of making hurling a less attractive game.

“They can give all about it all they like. In 2014, Derek was getting pulverised left, right, and centre. So Derek’s thing was ‘I’ve got to win games and do what I have to do for Waterford’. So he worked on the best system he could to make Waterford competitive and win games.

“You ask the people of Waterford if they would prefer to play a big, open style of hurling and be hammered or play a style that suits them and win games.

“I’ve a fair idea what they’d tell you.

“It doesn’t kill hurling! The scores Waterford get are phenomenal. Are they getting as many goals? They’re not. But I’ve seen a lot of their scores between midfield and the 50 and they are serious scores. It takes a serious talent to throw that ball over from that distance.”