Relieved Fitzgerald hails his maturing young fighters

Davy Fitzgerald admitted this Clare team have already surpassed his expectations after winning through to the county’s first All-Ireland semi-final since 2006.

Nine of his panel will be involved in the county’s U21 Munster final against Tipperary on Wednesday week and he was delighted they had proven people wrong once more since their Munster semi-final defeat to Cork.

“Every time we got hit with a blow. I’m looking out at these lads and probably nine of these lads are under 22 years of age. They just amaze me. To be at this stage with this team, my own personal view was that it would take them another year or two to get there. To get where they are is unreal,” he said.