Davy Fitzgerald concerned at pressure on referees

Wexford manager Davy Fitzgerald believes too much pressure is being put on referees to clamp down on poor tackling, leading to unnecessary red cards being doled out.

While claiming not to have seen the incident which led to Wexford’s Liam Ryan and Limerick’s Seamus Flanagan being sent off in the first half, Fitzgerald is concerned that diktats from Croke Park are putting referees on edge.

“All I feel is, and even from talking to a few of the referees, there is a big thing to clamp down on anything remotely like a dangerous tackle. You are kinda putting the referees a small bit on edge.

“Let’s pull back off them a small bit, let’s let them referee it as they see it.

“Last year was one of the best years we ever had for hurling, why are we trying to change? Let them off.”

The Wexford manager was adamant the two red cards worked in Limerick’s favour as it lessened the body count in the Wexford half of the field.

“We want more bodies back there to make it harder for them. The last thing you want is for the Limerick forwards to have more space. I thought we coped pretty well, but if you take our injury list, there are probably four backs that will end up playing that weren’t there today.”

Limerick were largely reliant on dead-ball efforts to keep their account ticking over in the second period, with Fitzgerald claiming the All-Ireland champions came upon a few soft frees.

“It just feltone or two of them were easy enough up our side of the field. If you look at how deep their half-forward line goes back, they go right back inside their own 45-metre line, it is very hard to defend against that.”

The Wexford manager added: “It is a game we could have won. We hit the post at the end and the lads are after telling me we hit the goalkeeper’s helmet, as well.

“We had two point-scoring chances which we didn’t take — one of those was a free which Liam Óg [McGovern] took quickly and he’s probably saying to himself inside that we should have put that over the bar.

“We’d have probably won it if we got the goal and drawn it if we got the point.”