Mullane: Davy not on our radar

It only takes a few seconds for the name to be mentioned and John Mullane isn’t a bit surprised. Davy Fitzgerald steered Waterford to their first All-Ireland final in almost 50 years but now he’s back with his native county.

Hardly a shock, then, for Mullane to be asked how often Fitzgerald’s been mentioned in the Waterford camp.

“You mightn’t believe this, but Davy’s name hasn’t even been mentioned,” said Mullane, speaking at the Centra Brighten Up Your Day Community event in Tipperary.

“Not once. Our entire focus is on getting ourselves right for the Clare game, on controlling whatever it is we can control. The other team’s manager isn’t something we can influence at all so we’re not even talking about it,believe it or not. For us it’s all about June 17, and going out to try to win a hurling match. Davy doesn’t come into the equation at all.”

Well, it’s not as if Waterford haven’t had distractions of their own at management level. Selectors Nicky Cashin and Br Philip Ryan stepped down before the league was over and manager Michael Ryan appointed Ken McGrath and Seanie Cullinane to replace them.

“Obviously it was a surprise when the lads went, and they had their reasons for stepping down,” said Mullane.

“In fairness to both of them, they were honourable enough to come straight out and say they had to walk away. Michael [Ryan] and the players respected them for that.

“Thankfully it happened early enough in the season that we were able to get ourselves back on track. Ken [McGrath] and Seanie [Cullinane] came in then and the whole thing has driven on well since then, in fairness.

“After three games of the league it was looking pretty grim, and you’d have to say the entire year would have been a bit of a disaster if we’d been relegated.

“Thankfully we were able to turn it around against Galway and Dublin late in the league, but after three games lost you’d have been thinking, ‘where are we going to get a win out of here’. It was good to turn it around and stay up for the sake of next year, and also to give us something positive to draw on heading into the championship.”

It also ensures the newer players on the panel have top-flight hurling next year. Mullane says that will be crucial to their development.

“The likes of Gavin O’Brien and Philip Mahony have come in and lifted the whole thing, they’ve come in from minor and U21 teams who’ve won Munster championships, who’ve made it to Munster finals, so the experience of playing at the top isn’t that new.

“They’re all talented players, and it’s good to have them in, and for thatreason it’s good that we stayed in the top division too, in order to bring them on as players next year.”

They’re not the only promising youngsters around, of course.

“Clare are a team that are coming close to making the breakthrough at senior level,” said Mullane.

“They’ve had very good underage teams for a few years now, and we know from our experience with him that Davy will have them well drilled. They’ll be well organised. They’ll be fit and they’ll be mad to win this Sunday.”