Furious Fitzgerald blasts ‘horsing and dragging’
Clare’s Podge Collins, having pulled off David Redmond’s face guard, was red carded in first-half injury-time, a decision which disgusted Fitzgerald.
The All-Ireland winning manager, who earlier this year called for the introduction of a second referee to cut out the growing number of off-the-ball incidents during a game, insisted a player should only be sent off for hurting an opponent.
According to rule 5.20, recently amended to result in an immediate red card, “to behave in any way which is dangerous to an opponent, including to deliberately pull on, take hold of a faceguard or any other part of an opponent’s helmet”.
Wexford boss Liam Dunne said the decision to dismiss Collins was harsh, lamenting the above rule which he claimed “does nothing for the game”.
Raged Fitzgerald: “They say what they say, if you touch the guard, you are off. If you are sent off, you should be sent off for hurting an opponent. That is how it should be.
“Cathal McAllister said he had no choice but to send off Podge. He was sent off and yet there were players being pulled and dragged. I said the same thing against Cork. Conor McGrath is absolutely dragged and horsed, Podge Collins was pulled and dragged at the start of the game and yet it works the other way. I am disappointed. The powers-that-be decide what happens. Was it a factor in the game? We had to play 40 minutes with 14 players. Obviously that is tough going.”
Fitzgerald did not rule out an appeal from the Clare camp ahead of the replay.
“We will have to look at it. It was very harsh on the lad. He was absolutely distraught, if you saw him. I don’t think that is right. He caught the face guard and the powers-that-be think that merits a red.”
Though delighted with the character shown by his charges, Fitzgerald was adamant the team had been affected by “mickey mouse messing” in the county in recent weeks. Fitzgerald refused to elaborate, but it was most likely directed at the decision to stage a full round of club games a fortnight back, despite a written appeal from management to have them postponed.
“The mickey mouse stuff that has been happening below in Clare for the last few weeks has been an absolute scandal. It is not right, it is not fair. I am really hurt by what has happened. People think they are doing the best for themselves. Any team deserves a chance coming into a Championship game.
“That is my honest opinion. What we did last year we should not underestimate. It was massive for the county and we need to stop the messing. We need to stop and support what we have. That is the bottom line. What we need to do is unite together and work like never before.”
Wexford manager Liam Dunne refused to concede the result had been a lost opportunity, adamant the extra game will benefit the development of his players.
“You come down to play the All-Ireland champions in Ennis and you are five points up at half-time. They take the lead in extra-time and then we came back. You can look at it both ways,” he mused.
“Obviously we wanted to win the game, we believed we could, and we didn’t win it. It gives our fellas another opportunity to play the All-Ireland champions. We are a work in progress. We are trying to get back up step-by-step, inch-by-inch.
“We said in the dressing room following the Dublin game that the things that went wrong for us that day were fixable. At this level it is about taking your opportunities. We had a lot of goal chances and we didn’t put them away. That is where we are at and what we have to keep working on.”
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