Yellow peril: The Championship heat intensifies on Davy Fitz’s Wexford

Fitzgerald’s way is anathema to many fans, no matter what success it has brought

NOBODY ever confused The Marty Squad as a sporting version of Prime Time Investigates, where powerful officials and institutions are held to account. RTÉ’s post-match analysis programme on Sunday evenings is in keeping with its host Marty Morrissey, a light and breezy hour capturing the Championship’s action and talking points, without the need to leave blood on the floor.

Roving reporter Brenda Donohue fits the profile, documenting the colour of a summer Sunday and the chatter going around the stand. When she collared longtime Wexford hurling loyalist Jim Bolger for a few words on leaving Parnell Park after last weekend’s draw with Dublin, she didn’t expect to send a message out that would be picked up nationally.

Now the highly regarded thoroughbred racehorse trainer is known for his sporting acumen and ability to spot and nurture talent. The man who has turned the Hurling For Cancer Research charity game into its own summer success story has been intertwined in the county’s fortunes, being a long-time supporter, financial and otherwise.

Wexford had persisted with their counter-attacking set-up that involves a sweeper, or extra defender when not in possession and Bolger was not impressed. They trailed by five points heading in to the final quarter, only to grab a couple of goals before seeing victory snatched from them by a dramatic Sean Moran goal.

‘I’ve been following hurling all my life and I played hurling as well. It’s in our DNA down there,’ said Bolger. ‘If we went back to the traditional style of hurling that Wexford always had, we’d be winning more games and we’d be going home winners this evening as well.’

When Donohue asked him to expand, he didn’t hesitate.

‘That short game is very energysapping and very risky. To me it makes no sense whatsoever.’

Asked what Wexford must do to win a game, he spelt it out in no uncertain terms. ‘Go back to the Wexford traditional style of hurling and we’ll win.’

‘Are you going to tell Davy Fitz that?’ asked Donohue, causing Bolger to unleash both barrels.

‘If someone can’t work that out for themselves in a managerial position, there’s not much I can do about it.’

Now that was after a draw. Imagine the conversations if Wexford go to Pearse Stadium in Salthill on Sunday afternoon and don’t come away with at least a point.

The Davy Fitzgerald Way has been anathema to plenty of hurling supporters, no matter what success it has brought. When he took over a fractured Waterford and master-minded a Munster title against the head in 2010, the tactical set-up wasn’t to everyone’s tastes.

When he delivered an All-Ireland to Clare in 2013, he could still hear various supporters roaring ‘let the ball long’ rather than work it short and funnel possession through a sweeper at the back. When he guided Wexford from Division 1B to a first Leinster final appearance in nine years in 2017, he still had to block out the critics, particularly after the last two summers of tame, unfulfilling AllIreland quarter-final exits.

Bolger adding his voice to the chorus only serves to sharpen the spotlight once again.

The man who managed Wexford to the county’s last All-Ireland in 1996, Liam Griffin, made headlines with his own declaration on a style of play that goes against the game for traditionalists, of which there are plenty.

‘To tell you the truth, if they brought the ball up the field in a wheelbarrow it would not bother me,’ he said in the wake of his county’s return to the top flight for the first time since 2011. Turning Kilkenny over in Nowlan Park for the first time in 60 years to seal a semi-final place only hardened that line of thinking.

In a follow-up interview with this paper, he pointed to the damage Kilkenny inflicted on Fitzgerald’s Waterford in the 2008 All-Ireland final, and how it forced a sea-change in thinking by those trying to bridge the gap.

‘What were the rest meant to do? The Davys, Derek McGraths, Liam Dunnes, they couldn’t just be sitting ducks for Kilkenny. Like Wexford were in 2015. And we paid a heavy price. That’s been a good lesson for that team.

‘You can’t go to Kilkenny and say, “Well lads, we want to give you a Riverdance – but there will be a flood in the back of our net.”

‘Needs must. Why I said take it up in a wheelbarrow, and I didn’t mean it in a derogatory term, I don’t care how they get it up there. We needed to get back. The time for us to become purists, to refine this product and turn it into a Riverdance, is just not now.

‘How we make it up as we go from here, I hope we’ll expand on it. I prefer hurling when it’s a Riverdance.’

So does Jim Bolger. Davy Fitzgerald prefers winning over aesthetics, every day. While Wexford have expanded their tactical play – witness Dónal Óg Cusack picking out the counter-attacking play of centre-back Matthew O’Hanlon in the Dublin game, the extra body at the back giving him the licence to stay forward and indirectly play a part in Liam Óg McGovern’s goal. As the furthest man forward and Wexford player closest to Dublin’s goal, he needed minding to the extent that Jack O’Connor was able to use a sidestep to find some space and find the net. The counter argument is that if you simply left your scoring forwards further up the field, there would be no need to train in a system of play where the number six runs most of the length of the field. Especially when Wexford have such attacking talent in their ranks, from the edge-of-the-square goalscoring threat of Conor McDonald, to the direct running of Lee Chin, to the free-scoring ability of Rory O’Connor. With a seven-day turnaround, Fitzgerald (left) is hardly going to change horses now in terms of Wexford’s tactical approach. A defeat will leave Wexford up against it in terms of sealing a top-two finish in the five-team Leinster group, and thus making it to a Leinster final. With home games against Carlow and Kilkenny to come, it will put pressure on to even finish third and make it to the All-Ireland series. A win though, and the whole summer opens up. The reaction to Sunday’s round two result will tell its own tale.