A statement of serious intent

For four hours on Sunday night, Davy Fitzgerald and Dónal Óg Cusack thrashed it out. What each would expect of the other. What they would expect of Clare. Common ground found, they plotted and schemed for 2016.

They might be members of the old goalkeepers club but they had never been close. They have clashed in the past on a number of matters and shared different opinions on the GPA. But on the one topic that matters, sources close to the Clare manager say the pair “gel”: Cusack sees hurling the way Fitzgerald sees it. What Fitzgerald did with his players in 2013, Cusack has described as a “fantastic brand of hurling”.

Had Cusack been in the grounds that shares his name in February two years ago when Fitzgerald was heckled as Clare played short and through the lines in losing to Waterford, he would have sympathised. For it’s exactly how he would have set up Clare. Seven months later and those jeers had turned to jubilation.