Davy says Déise made halfway offer to Antrim

DAVY FITZGERALD says he and his Waterford hurlers offered to go half-way to meet opponents Antrim in Saturday’s All-Ireland SHC qualifier.

The fact that Antrim were drawn away to Waterford and Dublin to Cork in the qualifiers has drawn criticism during the week on the basis that weaker teams should enjoy home advantage against their more favoured opponents, but Fitzgerald said yesterday that Waterford had offered to meet their opponents — whoever they were drawn against — at a neutral venue halfway between the two counties.

“If we’d had to go Antrim we’d have had to do it and nothing said about it, long trip that it is,” said Fitzgerald. “The Waterford county board suggested before any draw was made — Galway or Antrim — that we play the other team halfway. We felt it made more sense to do that, no matter who we were playing.