Davy: I feel like I’ve been hit by a car

WATERFORD manager Davy Fitzgerald yesterday com-pared Sunday’s devastating All-Ireland final defeat to being ‘hit by a car.’

However the former All Star goalkeeper insisted that no team could have matched Kilkenny at the weekend and claimed ever side in the country will have to improve if the Cats’ dominance of the code is to be ended.

Said the Sixmilebridge man: “I was never hit by a car but this was as close as you could get to it.

“I asked myself a lot of questions yesterday but I don’t think there was anything I would have changed. If I am being realistic and honest, playing the best hurling we could play we would not have won the game.

“Kilkenny have brought a new dimension to it. Their physicality and their tackling, their shape, the way they play, taking the ball up in numbers. It is a different game now. I learned a lot yesterday. You can feel sorry for yourself and look down, but you have got to try and learn and Jesus that was some lesson.”

But he warned that Sunday’s display at Croke Park wasn’t just a painful lesson for Waterford but for the entire hurling community.

He reasoned: “We have two choices now in the GAA world. Either we sit down and let them do what they are doing to us or try and come up and match it one way or the other. I would like to be part of it some way or other and try to figure out in the next year or two how to do that but hats off to them yesterday.”

Fitzgerald recounted the loneliness of his role as Brian Cody’s side went on a rampage midway through the first half.

“I remember looking out and thinking ‘Jesus, what am I going to do here’. I got word up to my guys in the box to see what was the craic with the stats and there was 13 positions that were being beaten in at the one time. We were staring down the barrel of an unreal defeat yesterday, goal-wise. Those fellows were not easing off yesterday and you know that they could bang in six or seven goals, no problem. That was a fair tough dressing room at half-time when we were trying to regroup and reshape things. It wasn’t easy but certainly myself, and I would be the most critical person in the world of myself, I will have to see how I can improve. I am three months in the job and I am disgusted with what happened but I am proud of the victories we had during the year.”

Despite the lows yesterday, Fitzgerald is convinced this group can bounce back. And he cited personal experience from his playing days to support his argument.

“Psychologically, you are either strong mentally or you are not. In Clare, we got hammered in the 1993 Munster final. We were beaten again in 1994 but we won an All-Ireland in 1995. Psychologically, it is up to the person and up to the fellows themselves. It is up to the manager to get it out of their minds. I wouldn’t accept it. These guys won’t accept it.

“They have won Munster titles. But you don’t feel sorry for yourself. You only feel sorry if you throw in the towel, then you really have to look at yourself. We were in an All-Ireland final and you don’t get there and just become a bad team.”

However Fitzgerald, in his debut season as an inter-county senior manager, wasn’t prepared to commit himself to another season at the helm down in the south east.

“I’m not going to think about that one, I’m going to go away for a couple of weeks. I’m going to relax and chill out, and see what the story is. All I can tell you about myself is that it was an experience. The lads were brilliant to work with and I think they enjoyed what I brought as well. I have to learn a lot, go away and have a look at myself. I would love to come back in the future and have another go at Kilkenny and see how we get on. It might take a small bit of time but there’s always hope. That’s the thing about hurling, and don’t ever forget it.”

With the season drawing to a close, Fitzgerald also expressed his annoyance at one of his critics.

“I took a lot of stick from one particular person yesterday who has been waiting a long time to have a go at me. And I think that really shows the person up for what he’s about. I have my faults the same as any other guy. You have to take the good with the bad but certain people have vendettas and that has no place in hurling.”