Can Davy Fitzgerald still make magic in broad daylight?
Man gets into taxi.
Journey agreed, chat proceeds. What did the driver do beforehand? His answer proves unexpected in the extreme: “I used to be a motorcycle rider on the Wall of Death in a circus.”
Brief silence, before the inevitable follow up: “And why did you give it up?”
“Ah, I started getting vertigo. And the Wall of Death is no place for vertigo, especially with a lioness in the sidecar.”
I thought of this anecdote as news broke that Davy Fitzgerald is taking himself to Wexford, succeeding Liam Dunne as manager. The story tickles hurling’s parts in ways mere analysis cannot reach.
Fitzgerald fosters something of a Big Top atmosphere in his sideline career. Fighting with journalists, spats with sundry, diatribes against officialdom and the GAA’s big fish… You name it: all present and transfixingly incorrect. Those who say ‘Davy is box office’ implicitly agree.
2017’s hurling just got seriously enlivened, which or whether. No doubting this facet. Davy Fitzgerald had broached taking time out, in light of recent health issues, but the itch for involvement clearly won out.
You have to admire his drive, even if agnostic about his approach. Whatever about a circus motordrome, Fitzgerald is getting back on a most perilous form of transport, the managerial hurry go round.
The next step may be succeeding Ger Cunningham in Dublin.
Key point? That Wexford must know what they are getting. This candidate has been an intercounty manager for the last eight seasons. Any mystique is long gone, which is important.
Defending the British monarchy in 1867, Walter Bagehot remarked: “We must not let in daylight upon magic.”
The wisest 21st-century managers heed this counsel. Tipperary’s Michael Ryan oversaw an impressive backroom, as was illustrated by a nice post-All Ireland Final photograph with the Liam MacCarthy Cup.
The time to be foregrounding your backroom is September, not the springtime of the year, as Davy Fitzgerald chanced this season. Sanctioned newsprint informed us there were 30 plus at his call and that players need not even bring a towel to training. Was I alone in finding this stuff vernal hubris?
Even so, there are plus points. Fitzgerald will offer professionalism and organisation. To his new panel, he owns the authority bestowed by silverware with both Waterford and Clare. The Wexford players are said to have been central to Fitzgerald’s appointment ahead of Frank Flannery, current manager of Oulart-The Ballagh and coach with Cork.
Nub? Wexford have gambled. They went for jump leads, Fitzgerald’s energising qualities, rather than for the engine overhaul that would have been Flannery’s tenure.
On his own account, Fitzgerald will bring seven ways of hurling and a hundred drills. Perhaps significantly, he will not be accompanied to Wexford Park by Paul Kinnerk. The Clare players consistently emphasise Kinnerk’s crucial role in delivering 2013’s All Ireland success.
Kinnerk returned this season, only to depart again recently for Limerick. Whatever the rhetoric trotted out, Davy Fitzgerald is allergic to sharing credit.
He got appointed Waterford manager in the summer of 2008, after Clare trounced Waterford in a Munster first round and Justin McCarthy was ousted by player unrest. Ironies swim through the years, glinting like fish. Now the same man, effectively ousted in Clare by player ennui, heads for Wexford.
One way, this decision counts as unusual, in that Fitzgerald’s last three seasons have been a disaster, without even one visit to Croke Park. Another angle, the decision counts as predictable, due to prior silverware.
But which is more relevant, the last three seasons or the previous five? Sometimes the cycle ends, as Manchester United may be finding with Jose Mourinho, whatever the prior achievements.
As ever in sport, time is the only element with answers. Results dictate assessment. For the meantime, here are a few unavoidable conundrums.
How will Wexford set up? With lavish attacking talent at his disposal in Clare, such as Tony Kelly and Conor McGrath, Davy Fitzgerald felt moved to hurl in ultra defensive fashion.
What happens now, with lesser forwards at his disposal? Logic says Wexford attackers in 2017 might see as little of the full forward line as penguins see of the equator.
Equally, Fitzgerald constantly talked down Clare’s standing in the game. Success in the Munster League was namechecked as a co-ordinate in a fashion that grigged Banner supporters. The last couple of seasons, while managing Clare, he often spoke as if he were managing Wexford. Now that he is managing Wexford, will he speak as if still managing Clare? Finding the best tone has never been a strength.
More importantly, is the Davy Fitzgerald of 2016 still prepared to learn? Item: he claimed in print after last August’s Kilkenny-Waterford All-Ireland semi-final that Tadhg de Búrca was deployed as a sweeper, when plainly Derek McGrath, to excellent effect, retreaded de Búrca as an orthodox centre back.
That Richie Hogan dropped deep for possession, an element on which Fitzgerald battened, did not alter this truth. It is as if there is an ego-based reluctance to accept his obsession with sweepers might be an old broom, that penguins sometimes should need sunglasses.
Let us not forget the wider vista. Even if Wexford appointed Nigel Farage as manager, the county should be wished well. Hurling needs Wexford as strong as possible. While optimum level hardly stretches, at the minute, to an All-Ireland Final appearance, there are credible targets. A Leinster Final and Division 1A hove in this regard, measures their new supremo should be able to address.
Despite misgivings, I hope Fitzgerald succeeds with Wexford (even though the marker is far lower than obtained last spring). He is now climbing a stepladder rather than a ladder. But the magic, whatever happens Slaneyside, is history. Gouts of daylight, from releasing that DVD in late 2013 to appointing a PR man, left this situation inevitable. Fitzgerald became, in the phrase, rough magic.
As we rev up for 2017’s do or die encounters, that old lioness called prior form remains in attendance.
