Fitzgerald: ‘They killed us at midfield’

Clare manager Davy Fitzgerald hailed Cork’s performance in today’s Munster SHC semi-final – but voiced his displeasure at match referee James McGrath’s performance.

The first half free count heavily favoured Cork by 12 to five – and Cork hitman Patrick Horgan profited with 1-8 from placed balls before the interval.

Fitzgerald, while paying tribute to the Rebels, added: “I think there were other factors which I won’t get into.

“I think the free count was 12-5 in the first half – Conor McGrath was absolutely pulled to pieces but no free. But listen, Cork were faster, better and stronger than us all over the field and deserved their win.

“They killed us at midfield – we changed our midfield. They killed us there, they won a lot of breaks, were very dominant there. Fair play to them, they were very strong today.”

For the second year in a row, Cork had Clare’s measure in Munster and Fitzgerald insisted that it will be more difficult to rise his team this time for the qualifier route.

He predicted: “I think we'll struggle this time. Like last year we had nothing won and whatever.

“We've done a lot of stuff in the last few months. I think we'll struggle a bit but they're fighters, we'll come back and we'll give it a lash.”

But when asked again about the officials an irate Fitzgerald insisted: “There are some things that badly need to be looked into in the GAA and one or two bodies need to be looked into.”

When asked to elaborate, Fitzgerald replied: “I'll deal with that in my own way but there is something I might speak about at the end of the year.

“And there is going to have to be something looked at because I knew something was going to happen today before the game even happened.

“And if you know that going into a game, sure you're wasting your time.”