By Rory Jacob

Other than a few fleeting words on the pitch after a game over the years I’ve never spoken to Davy Fitzgerald for any length of time, but to me I find him fascinating as a hurling manager, writes Rory Jacob.

I first came across Davy on the sideline in 1994, he was manager/coach of the Clare U14 Tony Forristal team and I was an 11 year old hurling fanatic at the tournament for the day to support my brother Michael. I still remember Davy vividly, he covered every inch of the sideline with ‘enthusiasm’ for want of a better word and even then you could see that he demanded the highest standards from his players even though some of them were only knee high to a grasshopper.

Today Davy is older, a little calmer and much more experienced but his enthusiasm has not dimmed and I’m certain to the players on the current Wexford team if Davy asked them to run to the moon and back, to a man, they would do it without question because you get the feeling right now they believe in the ‘Gospel’ according to Davy 100%. And why wouldn’t they believe, promotion in year 1, a first championship win against Kilkenny since 2004 and 4 wins from 6 games since our return to the top flight for the first time since 2011.

The biggest challenge for any manager is to get players to follow you. You get the feeling the Wexford players love playing for Fitzgerald. He demands professionalism from every member of the team and management , he brings in knowledgeable people around him, he pushes them to the limit in each session and he prepares them meticulously to play to a style which is suited to getting the team results. These are the things the modern player looks for in a manager.

“The Davy Way”

To play the Davy way you first of all need supreme fitness and this Wexford team seems to be incredibly well conditioned which can be seen from the fact that we have tended to finish all our games so far very strongly. I suppose the question going forward however is can we maintain this level of energy and enthusiasm right throughout the grueling Leinster championship schedule and hopefully All Ireland stages? I would be sceptical if we can maintain this for the full year since we tend to call on the same core group of players for every game. This is a big obstacle the team must overcome this year as last year after the Kilkenny game in Wexford Park a little bit of the spark went from our game. However a big plus at the moment is that we are winning and the one thing that will help fire the players into action is the thought of playing high profile games with enthusiastic vocal support driving them on. After all that is why the players devote their entire lives to training and preparation.

Davy’s vision on how the game should be played is certainly innovative. Wing backs who attack like wing forwards, swarm defence, keeping possession and counter attack in numbers are more common to football than hurling but the Wexford team are becoming adept at all of these things. The constant presence of a sweeper gives our backs the confidence and freedom to attack the ball with their man and drive forward when the team is in possession, this to me is a definite tactic which must be a nightmare for opposing forwards who are forced to track back long distances and brings them away from where they can cause the most damage.

The style of play would not be for the traditionalists (whoever they are?) but I think it’s refreshing to see a team do things ‘their way’ and not make apologies for it. For instance you might notice at times in games either Padraig Foley or Matthew O’Hanlon are placed in the half forwards underneath our puckouts, this certainly does not happen by accident and is another example of Davys bold approach and his willingness to try things to help his team gain an advantage and to keep the opposition thinking.

“Not The Finished Article”

Don’t get me wrong there are things that personally I would not be perfectly happy with in our play and I’m sure Davy knows that we are not the finished article by any means. For me even though we have seven backs I still think we struggle a little defensively. At times our defending is a bit loose and I don’t think we have improved that much since last year when Waterford and especially Galway exposed us in championship. Time will tell if we have improved or not when the cut and thrust of summer hurling comes.

A strength of the team right now is the ability of our half backs and midfielders to score (16 points vs Galway) but on the other hand can we depend on this every day? I would like to see the short passing support play style that we play mixed up at times with direct accurate balls played to our inside line who are often starved of possession but who have the ability to stretch the opposition if given the ball at the right time and into the right areas.

To Sunday’s Game

This Wexford team believe they can win and unusually for a Wexford Kilkenny game we are expected to win. Lets call a spade a spade Kilkenny are not the same team of old and are in a period of transition with new players being slotted in, so from our point of view there is a big opportunity to stamp our authority over them and keep the positivity going within the county. This is much easier said than done and a performance on Sunday is the only thing that will make it a reality. The big clash for both of these teams will come in June ,which I expect to be a direct shootout for a Leinster final place, but Sunday will also mean a hell of a lot to both teams. So expect fireworks.

For Wexford it’s a huge opportunity to reach our first national league final since 1993 and for Kilkenny it’s a chance for their new players to lay down a marker by reaching a national final and to strike a psychological blow against Wexford that they can take them on and beat them even without some of their heavy hitters.

Wexford Park is becoming a bit of a fortress and it seems to suit the Wexford style of play, it is quite a big pitch but when Wexford play there these days space for opposing forwards is at a premium with tackles coming from all angles. The home pitch and the vocal Wexford crowd is definitely worth a few points.

“The Match Ups Will Be Very Interesting”

Will both teams put their cards on the table from the off and put players on their likely opponents for June’s championship encounter?

For Wexford who is going to mark TJ Reid. Last year he struggled to affect the League Quarter and Leinster semi final when faced with James Breen who got in his face from the off and was prepared to sacrifice his own game to stop the Cats danger man. This is how you must play on the Ballyhale man, who, if faced with a player who also wants to hurl himself, has the ability to single handedly drag his team over the line. The Wexford management team will have to think long and hard about Reid, who if kept relatively quiet will go a long way to deciding the result. Matt O’Hanlon is currently our most suited defender for this role, however under Davy he has generally picked up and done well on Walter Walsh so it will b interesting to see what our tactic is.

Midfield on Sunday is a key battle ground. In the earlier league game in Nowlan Park Richie Leahy from Kilkenny dominated that area and was a big factor in the Kilkenny victory. Do Wexford deploy the same midfield pairing they did against Galway of Rory O’Connor and Kevin Foley, who both are more in the creative scoring mode than being a midfielder who nullifies the type of player Leahy is. Foley is averaging a few points every game and gives the team great energy and workrate but also a creative influence that provides the Wexford team with a new dimension this year. O Connor has great qualities as a hurler he is very athletic, can take scores off both sides and he thrives in the open spaces of the middle third but for me I would probably not deploy either of them to play on Leahy. On Sunday I would push O Connor forward to the number 11 position and bring in Aidan Nolan to midfield, which would mean David Dunne dropping to the bench and becoming an impact sub when the Kilkenny defenders are tiring. Nolan is the type of player who can mix it with Leahy and it would free Foley to play his normal roving role while O Connor would give the team extra firepower which will help to stretch a Kilkenny back line that can be put under pressure if we play fast and with our head up.

In a strange sort of way this is the most pressurised game of the year for Wexford. Last week people went hoping we would beat Galway, this week the crowd is going expecting to make arrangements for a National league final next weekend which adds a different dynamic to the game. Now rather than being the chaser we are the ones who are being chased. At the end of the day Kilkenny are Kilkenny and a Brian Cody team are not going to roll over and let us walk all over them, they have players of the highest calibre who have experience of winning the biggest games. This will make the game tight and we will have to play well to win. 

Be Patient

The crowd on Sunday must be patient, the players must do the simple things well, play as a team and focus on getting their own individual performance right. If they can do this I’m backing Davy and his troops to come out on top . At this moment in time the Wexford team is more balanced, are playing with almost our full team while Kilkenny are not, and the momentum gained over the course of this campaign should be enough to get us over the line.