Davy: Postpone Fitzgibbon weekend, player welfare comes first

Limerick IT manager Davy Fitzgerald wants the Fitzgibbon Cup finals weekend to be postponed in the interest of player welfare.

LIT emerged victorious in yesterday’s rescheduled quarter-final clash and will return to the field for Friday’s semi-final against local rivals UL. The decider is fixed for the following evening and the LIT boss said it is grossly unfair to expect a team to play three games in five days. Fitzgerald encouraged Comhairle Ardoicheachais (CA) to delay the final until next week.

“To ask us to play again in three days….you see what that game knocked out of our bodies there, we weren’t able to walk after it,” he noted.

“To expect us to go back out again is a big ask. I would encourage the CA to see common sense, they are always on about player welfare. I don’t think we will have a chance if they ask us to go out again on Friday after the effort we put in today. UL have had no game for a week and a half.

“Preparations have been made for this weekend, but then preparations have been made for the past week for playing this game and they have been changed. To me, it should be about the players. LIT will host the Fitzgibbon Cup any time, this should be about the players getting a right opportunity. I am sure UL would be okay with that, I am sure they would want to beat us when we are fresh.

“That would be my thing to put it back a few days. I think our lads need another day or two and then play the final midweek. That would be fair on everyone. You have two teams with a massive advantage [Cork IT and UL] and then you have two teams with three days. It probably isn’t a level playing field. We will do what we have to do, I am only saying I would encourage [a postponement] in the interest of fairness.”

IT Carlow manager DJ Carey empathised with Fitzgerald, calling also for stricter eligibility guidelines. “I would have sympathy for LIT and, if we had won today, we might have been asking for a postponement,” he said. “I don’t know what lessons can be learned from this whole affair apart from that if someone is a student, they are a student. It is as simple as that. I am not sure what the absolute technicalities of everyone’s course are, but if you are doing a course from September onwards you are a legitimate player as far as I know and would be concerned. If that is not the rule, then state what is the rule.”

Meanwhile, Mary Immaculate lambasted the DRA’s decision not to reinstate the teacher-training college as a ‘travesty’. “The ongoing failure to apply the competition’s rules regarding player eligibility equitably and honestly casts an unfortunate shadow over this prestigious competition, a problem that is worsened by the lack of consistency and transparency in the appeals process,” said a statement.