Davy’s plea for ‘small fry’
Speaking the morning after the game in Clare’s Dublin hotel, he intimated he was more annoyed about a number of decisions that went against his team than when he spoke at the post-match press conference.
“We got to draw a line under it and just forget about certain things and just get on with the next day now. That’s the most important thing.”
Fitzgerald suggested the GAA must now give careful consideration to the appointment of the referee for the replay.
“I don’t know what they’ll do and what the story is. They have got to have a good look at that and sort it out. We might be only small fry but we deserve a good crack at anything and I’ll just leave it in their hands completely. That’s the way it is.”
When asked if he was inferring an opinion Clare weren’t respected by officials as much as bigger counties, he responded to journalists: “I don’t know. I think the best thing, because I’ll only get myself in trouble no matter what I say, is I am not going to comment. All I’ll say is the amount of texts and calls I’ve got from people outside of Clare is unreal. I’d just prefer not to go into it.
“Ye know yourselves, ye were looking at the game, you have your own opinions. I’ll leave that to yourselves. That’s the way it is.”
Queried if he would like to see more common sense officiating apply in the replay, Fitzgerald replied: “I won’t answer it. Listen, everyone has seen it. I’m not going there. Like some people will say to me some of the referees have an agenda against me. I don’t know. You’ll have to look at a few of the games to decide that yourself but it wasn’t the first game this year. I’m not, and this is a quote, I’m not getting into it about them. I’m going to let Croke Park, I trust them, to deal with whatever. We in Clare are not going to say one word about the referee. We’ll just leave it.”
One of the matches Fitzgerald appeared to be referring to was the All-Ireland semi-final win over Limerick. In his post-match comments, he said he was unhappy with linesman Michael Wadding.
Last month, Clare selector Mike Deegan revealed the management attempt to speak to referees prior to throw-in so as to clarify what they look out for in matches.
Clare will return to training tonight, but without their U21s who will be preparing to face Antrim in Saturday’s All-Ireland final in Thurles.
“I think it’s tough. If you look at is, we played a game yesterday (Sunday), we had a Munster U21 semi-final, Munster U21 final, All-Ireland semi-final, and that’s between all our games. The lads keep having to get up on a high. We have 15 of them on our panel. There will be five or six of them involved the next day (replay), I can tell you. So, it’s tough, it’s very tough on them young lads.
“Can they rise themselves? They can. Will it be a big ask? It will be a big ask. You know, Cork will feel probably themselves that they will be way better the next day and that they are going to run us off the park up front and they are going to score four or five goals, and maybe they might. It’s something we have to look at and try and make sure it doesn’t happen.”
The likes of Podge Collins, who will line out in Semple Stadium, have spoken of the Antrim game as a positive but Fitzgerald isn’t convinced.
“It’s definitely not good for us, trust me it doesn’t help our preparations. It’s just a big ask for lads who played in that game yesterday. I woke up this morning and I was absolutely drained and I can imagine how the lads feel.
“So to ask them to go back down, get back up for an All-Ireland U21 final, come back down again, get back up again, it’s a big ask.
“Is the initiative with Cork? Being realistic, it probably is but that’s up to us to try and make sure I can do my job in the week and a half before the game.”
On Sunday night, Fitzgerald allowed his players who drink to let their hair down — “but that’s the end of it now, it’s back to business,” he warned.
The 42-year-old wasn’t all doom and gloom, though: “Listen, I was thinking about it and we only played in six All-Ireland finals, seven after yesterday (Sunday), and now we get to do to two in the one year.
“Jaysus like, I don’t know. That being said we’ll find it hard to get that performance out of the boys again.
“But that’s the challenge, we’re going to have to see. We’re not afraid of it, we respect that they’re a good team, we respect them but we’ll be looking forward to it.”
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