Fitzgerald fears effects of Clare’s quick turnaround

Banner boss bemoans fact his young side will have a little time to prepare for phase three test.

The Clare Shout made a welcome return to the GAA on Saturday but it was Davy Fitzgerald who warned it could be short-lived.

With just seven days to prepare for their phase three qualifier against a team who will have had an extra week’s rest, Fitzgerald fears his younger team may struggle.

By the end of the game, four of last year’s minors made up almost a quarter of the 14 men on the field.

Tony Kelly was the pick of the greenhorns, his smashing 54th-minute free giving Clare a lead they didn’t relinquish.

Fitzgerald didn’t even need to remind Kelly to go for goal.

Although, the manager gave away the Ballyea teenager’s intentions when encouraging his team-mates to follow in on his shot.

The word is Kelly can strike as fiercely from his right as he can from his left, the side he opted for on Saturday evening.

“We were going for the jugular that is the way it was,” said Fitzgerald. “Nothing else entered my head. It was a fair thing for a young lad in his first championship match to stand up and hit it — and by God did he hit it.

“Him and Seanda Morey are very young guys, so are the rest of the team, but them two and Colm Galvin, another 19-year-old, came in and stood up.

“I’ve said it all the time, this bunch are a good group, but it will take a bit of time. For me it is a pity we are out again next week.

“Don’t get me wrong, we are delighted to have the opportunity to be out again next week.”

But Fitzgerald is worried Clare will have little time to prepare for the prospect of Limerick or Wexford.

Even though he was delighted with the likes of John Conlon and Brendan Bugler leading the way, he reckons it will take a lot to bring the players back down to earth.

“We are on such a high at the moment, but we have to come back down. We are going to get no real training in.”

While the pre-match talk was of the expectation being on Dublin after their years of good work under Anthony Daly and the capitulation against Kilkenny, Fitzgerald said Clare had put an onus on themselves to come good.

“We said we wanted a tough draw after the Waterford game to find out what we are about. I think we showed we have character.”

Fitzgerald was all too aware of the frustration emanating from the home crowd at his team’s short passing tactics, especially in the first half.

“They were frustrated and we knew that. The short passes we did won the game because Dublin tried to retreat back and we brought them out by getting the ball to Sean Collins and John Conlon.

“We got a number of points out of that. Will it work every time? It won’t. We have to be careful with how we use the ball at the back.”

Even with a man down and trailing by six points, Fitzgerald never lost faith. He claimed not to have seen the tackle by Nicky O’Connell on Danny Sutcliffe, which led to his second yellow card, but didn’t panic. Nor did his team.

“We were going to be okay. This team was going to be fighting until the end. We worked on a scenario [of losing a man] and what we would do. We didn’t panic, we knew what had to be done.”

Privately, Fitzgerald has said this group of players is the best he’s ever trained. His public utterances certainly lean towards that.

“This team will give everything and I am so proud to be a part of what they gave on that field. We want to see more of that. We are still in the championship in mid July and we will see if we can go a bit further.”