Fitzgerald urges end to disputes

DAVY FITZGERALD has called on counties recently engulfed by internal disputes to “stop the nonsense”.

Not for the first time, the off-season has been blighted by civil wars involving county panels and managers, this time in Fitzgerald’s native Clare and neighbouring Limerick. Peace has broken out in the Banner but Justin McCarthy signalled his intention last night to continue in the Limerick post despite the withdrawal of many of last year’s senior hurling panel.

Finding middle ground between McCarthy and the Limerick hurlers would appear to be mission impossible at this stage, but Fitzgerald believes that “nothing is insurmountable” and that Croke Park officials should be utilised in an effort to resolve such standoffs.

“There’s wrong probably on both sides,” he said. “Trust me, on the management side of things, you will get things wrong, without a shadow of a doubt, but it’s important to have dialogue and thrash things out. We don’t need to go down this road of sacking managers or stupid things like that. We are an amateur game.

“There’s always two points of view and we have to find a happy medium and stop the nonsense and certainly take on board the views of players. I would have no problem with that, that is very important, but there has to be someone there that’s independent to say ‘the management are out of line’ or ‘the players are out of line’ or whatever the story is.”

Fitzgerald is no stranger to player-management showdowns.

The Sixmilebridge man’s decision to withdraw from Tony Considine’s Clare panel in 2007 resulted in a long-running saga that coloured the county’s season and he took over the helm in Waterford after a move against McCarthy.

Another potentially debilitating dispute was finally resolved in his native county last month when Mike McNamara stood down from his role as manager and Ger O’Loughlin was appointed in his place, and Fitzgerald is praying that a clean slate has now been laid.

“I’m just glad that’s finally finished. I think it’s important that people just stop the nonsense that is going on there, even people in the background that may have been causing a bit of trouble. Just stop it. Let whoever is in there do their job.

“There are good players, and very good talent, in Clare. It is important to let Ger manage the team. And the boys with him, don’t be cutting them, give them a chance to do things.

“But the tendency is in Clare over the last year or two to have a right go at the management. Even from people that should be supporting our own down there. Just let them have a go. I played with them for 20 years so you have to appreciate I’ll always have a soft spot for Clare, that’s important. Just let Ger O’Loughlin have a right go.

“He has good talent to work with, give him time and I have a feeling Clare will be strong in years to come.”

Add in Gerald McCarthy’s standoff with the Cork hurlers this time last year and it has been a difficult time for inter-county managers who seem to be increasingly susceptible to demonstrations of player power.

Fitzgerald said: “Trust me, any management you’re in now, unless you’re Brian Cody, you’re on a loser. There’s people in the stands whose tolerance levels are not as high as maybe they were years ago. They’ll see things they want to see and they’ll have players they think should be playing so it’s a tough place to be and there is a lot of pressure.

“Myself, I just try to block out as much as I can. I love it and I enjoy being involved but it could have a detrimental effect on people staying in management too long. There are a lot of different aspects to it now. The number one target straight away is the manager.

“That’s the way it has gone and I just hate it. I have a lot more appreciation for things now that I’m involved in this side of things. Maybe I could have been wrong on one or two things I did when I was playing and judging different bits and pieces. I hold my hands up because now I realise how many things go on behind the scenes to get the team to gel and to organise different things. There’s a lot of stuff that goes on that players don’t realise and I’ve only seen it since I got to this level.”

Managing inter-county teams has often been described as another full-time job but Fitzgerald claimed yesterday that his role as Waterford hurling manager was more demanding than that.

With that in mind, the question is being asked whether inter-county managers can continue to operate under the present circumstances and whether the time has now come to pay men whose lives are dominated by such a time-consuming, precarious job.

“I don’t think people realise how much time is put into it. I don’t think we should ever go down the line of being professionally paid, that’s for definite. All I can say is that even a lot of people in the GAA don’t realise how many hours are involved in this. I can promise you there is a lot more that 40 or 50 hours a week going into it.”