‘The biggest heap of rubbish’: Davy Fitz laughs off maor foirne criticism

Wexford manager Davy Fitzgerald at the launch of the 21st annual KN Group All-Ireland GAA Golf Challenge, at Waterford Castle Hotel and Golf Resort. Photo by Matt Browne/Sportsfile

Davy Fitzgerald has laughed off the idea that players should be able to work out tactics for themselves without the need for a maor foirne.

The suggestion was made by playing rules committee David Hassan in proposing to get rid of the role of the running selector at Congress.

“That’s the biggest heap of rubbish,” said the Wexford manager. “They are in the zone, they are concentrating on different things.”

Had the motion to end the maor foirne role been passed, Fitzgerald agrees teams would have looked at ways to pass on messages to players.

He uses the example of Wexford going down to 13 players against Dublin last Saturday week to make his point.

“I had to tinker so many times and if I told you some of the stuff we have done you wouldn’t believe it — the formations we ended up playing were absolutely off the head. So, how are you meant to get that message to the players? What do you do to make the changes? I’m sure they wouldn’t want me going on the field anyway.”

Fitzgerald laughs at those who view Wexford as playing to a strict style and formula. “It’s very funny, you’re told you are making players ‘robotic’.

“To me robotic is get the ball and hit the ball. That’s robotic. With the way we play, you can run, hand-pass it, crossfield it, dink it, score it.

“I want the players to have options. I’d never like to take away the freedom the boys have to play. Afterwards we might sit down and go through things but you always allow the players to have a number of choices.”

- The 21st annual KN Group All-Ireland GAA Golf Challenge returns to Waterford Castle Hotel and Golf Resort on September 11 and 12. Four-person teams are invited to represent their GAA clubs for All-Ireland glory on the golf course. This year’’s Challenge is in aid of Waterford and South Kilkenny Down Syndrome Ireland. For more details, visit Facebook (All-Ireland GAA Golf Challenge) or Twitter (@golfgaa).