Cian Dillon: Difficult task telling Davy Fitzgerald players wanted him out

Cian Dillon has spoken about relaying the difficult news to Davy Fitzgerald last September that a number of Clare players wanted a change of management. 

Fitzgerald had all but decided to step down but his mind was made up when some of the squad expressed a wish for a new figurehead. As indicated by Dillon and Fitzgerald’s warm exchanges at Sunday’s Allianz Hurling League launch, the split has been amicable.

But Dillion admitted it was a testing time for all involved. “As joint-captain under him, it definitely was. It had been pre-empted before that because he knew what the story was and he had been constantly talking to us. Then when we were chatting, it was just a case of him being resigned to the fact anyway. He’d pretty much said it to us in the dressing room in July and there wasn’t much difference in his mindset so it was just a case of ‘that’s it’ and let’s move on for both parties.”