National Forum

Davy Fitzgerald- New Antrim Manager.

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Davy just loves driving

WEXILE (Wexford) - Posts: 312 - 16/08/2024 14:23:43    2565459

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Replying To Doylerwex:  "I suppose what I'm saying is I'd have liked to see more of the minor team of 19 moved up. They're nearly lost now because they had to wait too long. Poor Egan had an impossible task.

Davy dogged the team that Liam Dunne built. I'm grateful to him, but lots of good players came and went without getting near Davy's golden circle.

He only gave two championship debuts in 5 years. Damien Reck and Rory o Connor who were too good to ignore.

Seamus Casey is around a long but he only played championship this year.

That said I do actually look to Clare for inspiration. We are similar enough. There's no reason we can't emulate your success.

You're all Ireland victory is a much needed tonic for the hurling world."
We would have similar greivances with Davy in how he handled the All Ireland winning team between 2014-2016, lads playing who werent performing, new guys not been given a fair chance and little panel building during the league. Duggan is a prime example whereby he was on the panel and played a handful of minutes in 2013, got little or no time to develop between 2014-2016 and won an All star in 2018, 2 years after Davy left.

Davy is a here and now man and wants instant success. I can see the merit to this, much like Sheedy gets blasted from time to time for holding onto the old Tipp brigade in 2019 but ultimately sometimes you have to make decisions that are in the longer term interest and may not align with your own immediate goals.

Lohan is a prime example of someone who has been building and while it took 5 years, he got his reward with a League and Championship. Thats why Lohan is so highly regarded as a manager in Clare and was so even up to this year. He was selflessly building the team in the manner that best served Clare GAA not Brian Lohan.

There is no bull with Brian, no sideshows or theatrics.

I'll never forget his interviews after we beat Wexford the 2 times (I think) while he was manager.

LohansRedHelmet (Clare) - Posts: 2679 - 16/08/2024 15:19:39    2565471

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Replying To Ban:  "From talking to people familiar with the goings on in Clare hurling, I can understand why some don't like him.
There no doubting his contribution to Clares success, but sometimes winning isn't everything. There's seems to be an edge to the lad that you avoid once your with him, but you bare the brunt if your not.
I think he'll do well with Antrim, provided expectations are managed."
If everyone here knew the grievances we have, there would be no surprise but we cant post those grievances it wont be allowed.

But for a poster to call us a spiteful county because some or many dont view Davy in a positive manner is ridiculous. I genuinely cannot think of any All Ireland winning hurler from Clare that isnt a hero but as mentioned what a player has contrubuted on the field or sideline doesnt given them a free pass. I would love to know KK fans thoughts on a certain "hero" of theirs....... but would I call them spiteful if they had a negative opinion, absolutely not.

LohansRedHelmet (Clare) - Posts: 2679 - 16/08/2024 15:25:57    2565472

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Replying To LohansRedHelmet:  "We would have similar greivances with Davy in how he handled the All Ireland winning team between 2014-2016, lads playing who werent performing, new guys not been given a fair chance and little panel building during the league. Duggan is a prime example whereby he was on the panel and played a handful of minutes in 2013, got little or no time to develop between 2014-2016 and won an All star in 2018, 2 years after Davy left.

Davy is a here and now man and wants instant success. I can see the merit to this, much like Sheedy gets blasted from time to time for holding onto the old Tipp brigade in 2019 but ultimately sometimes you have to make decisions that are in the longer term interest and may not align with your own immediate goals.

Lohan is a prime example of someone who has been building and while it took 5 years, he got his reward with a League and Championship. Thats why Lohan is so highly regarded as a manager in Clare and was so even up to this year. He was selflessly building the team in the manner that best served Clare GAA not Brian Lohan.

There is no bull with Brian, no sideshows or theatrics.

I'll never forget his interviews after we beat Wexford the 2 times (I think) while he was manager."
I meant I will never forget Davys interviews when we was Wexford manager v Clare. He did more talking about Clare and himself than his own team.

LohansRedHelmet (Clare) - Posts: 2679 - 16/08/2024 15:58:05    2565479

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Antrim's training facility is in a staunch unionist town. It is a town that I frequently shop in. There were sectarian and racism incidents there recently. Maybe I will bump into him in the donut aisle of Asda.

PattyONeill (Derry) - Posts: 248 - 16/08/2024 21:47:33    2565507

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Replying To WanPintWin:  "Galway have been in 10 of the 16 Leinster finals since joining the province. Kilkenny have been in 14 of them in the same time. Dublin have been in 6 and Wexford in 2. It's not a mad statement to say Galway are likely to make the final. It happens much more often than not."
You had a great team through the whole of the teens. Just unlucky other counties had great teams also, especially Kilkenny and Tipp. But to say that means you are likely to make the Leinster Final next year is a bit of a stretch. I wouldn't be surprised if you won Leinster next year, but equally I wouldn't be surprised if you finished 4th again. The team you have now isn't as good as the 1 you had the first 10 years you were in Leinster.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 14053 - 16/08/2024 22:23:12    2565510

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Replying To LohansRedHelmet:  "Im actually shocked to read that Wexford have only been in 2"
Not really that shocking. We were very poor the 1st few years Galway were in Leinster, and then in more recent years blew our chances of getting to Leinster finals because of poor panel development by Davy, or failing to beat middle tier counties since he left. Tbh while we reached plenty of finals in the noughties, nearly all of them, you have to go back to the 70s before we did that before. Both those decades the other Leinster counties apart from Kilkenny were weaker though.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 14053 - 16/08/2024 22:27:46    2565511

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Wishing him the best He certainly likes to stay on that merry go round. Or is it a gravy train ? I wonder what he will be shouting at those great Waterford players as he described them when they face each other in the league. They must not be that good as he hopped on the stage coach out of town despite having another year available. When he gets tired of this job he can say the trip up there killed him. Something like the Wexford and Waterford travel. Maybe them kilometres and miles going north are shorter LOL.
Anyway god be with him on his travels and hopefully our own guys are given a chance to succeed.

Canuck (Waterford) - Posts: 2882 - 17/08/2024 00:57:39    2565528

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Davy is a fantastic appointment.

We'd bite your hand off for him here. Instead of what we got

LockLeanGayl (Westmeath) - Posts: 257 - 17/08/2024 08:00:34    2565534

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Replying To Viking66:  "Galway haven't even made the AI series from 40% of the Leinster Round Robins played. Yet potentially are a last 4 county in it every year they make it. Mad."
Do the math!! I think they've made 60% to be precise, and you think they haven't made 40%. You're wrong. There was no round in covid seasons 2020 and 2021, and Galway are 3/5 'progressions' from the others.

Pope_Benedict (Galway) - Posts: 3889 - 17/08/2024 10:58:25    2565554

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Replying To LockLeanGayl:  "Davy is a fantastic appointment.

We'd bite your hand off for him here. Instead of what we got"
What was your verdict on Fortune? He's who i would like to see get the Dublin job.

BarneyGrant (Dublin) - Posts: 3197 - 17/08/2024 12:19:49    2565562

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Replying To Pope_Benedict:  "Do the math!! I think they've made 60% to be precise, and you think they haven't made 40%. You're wrong. There was no round in covid seasons 2020 and 2021, and Galway are 3/5 'progressions' from the others."
Think you read that post wrong lad

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 14053 - 17/08/2024 14:18:34    2565573

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Replying To Viking66:  "You had a great team through the whole of the teens. Just unlucky other counties had great teams also, especially Kilkenny and Tipp. But to say that means you are likely to make the Leinster Final next year is a bit of a stretch. I wouldn't be surprised if you won Leinster next year, but equally I wouldn't be surprised if you finished 4th again. The team you have now isn't as good as the 1 you had the first 10 years you were in Leinster."
We were stronger in the 10s, but this decade so far we've made 3 of 5 Leinster finals. 60% of the time compared to our overall percentage of 62.5% since joining Leinster. Not a massive difference. History and the bookmakers odds will have it as more likely than not, that we'll be in the Leinster final.
As you said, nothing would be surprise me however. We have a lot of catching up to do.

WanPintWin (Galway) - Posts: 2198 - 17/08/2024 14:45:50    2565579

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Replying To Viking66:  "Think you read that post wrong lad"
Yep, read it wrong, we have the same data, just different conclusions. Not remotely "mad". You only need to win one serious match to make the last 4 after the round robin. Win just one whole serious match, 'mad' that a team might be capable of that yeah!!

Pope_Benedict (Galway) - Posts: 3889 - 17/08/2024 17:33:11    2565596

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Replying To Pope_Benedict:  "Yep, read it wrong, we have the same data, just different conclusions. Not remotely "mad". You only need to win one serious match to make the last 4 after the round robin. Win just one whole serious match, 'mad' that a team might be capable of that yeah!!"
You only need to win 1 serious match to make it out of the Round Robin too sometimes.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 14053 - 17/08/2024 22:17:49    2565639

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Replying To Viking66:  "You only need to win 1 serious match to make it out of the Round Robin too sometimes."
Sometimes teams can draw their last game in the round robin as well, to the mutual benefit of both teams, and indeed throw the ball in 10-15mins later than advertised, due to ahhm.......traffic congestion......sometimes

Pope_Benedict (Galway) - Posts: 3889 - 18/08/2024 07:47:21    2565646

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Replying To Pope_Benedict:  "Sometimes teams can draw their last game in the round robin as well, to the mutual benefit of both teams, and indeed throw the ball in 10-15mins later than advertised, due to ahhm.......traffic congestion......sometimes"
Don't think there was any mutual benefit to a draw that year. It only benefitted us. Up or down ye only had to beat or draw with Dublin that year and ye were through. You weren't able to though.
And the game last year didn't decide anything for Kilkenny either. We knew we had to win to guarantee our safety. The delay to the game only increased the tension among our players, and disrupted our players warm up. Our slow start after that nearly cost us the game.
The big reason for us failing to get out of the Round Robin last year, and you failing the 2 times you didn't, is that on all 3 of those occasions we lost to Dublin. We havent beaten them in Championship since 2018. And you've only beaten them once since 2018. And if you had of let them win the one time you beat them since 2018 K8lkenny would've been out the Championship before the AI Series even started. There's....ahem...... smoke and mirrors for you....;-)

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 14053 - 18/08/2024 17:28:42    2565695

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Replying To Pope_Benedict:  "Yep, read it wrong, we have the same data, just different conclusions. Not remotely "mad". You only need to win one serious match to make the last 4 after the round robin. Win just one whole serious match, 'mad' that a team might be capable of that yeah!!"
You talking about the season we were the only unbeaten team in Ireland in the last four?

Doylerwex (Wexford) - Posts: 3199 - 18/08/2024 23:13:19    2565733

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Replying To Viking66:  "Not really that shocking. We were very poor the 1st few years Galway were in Leinster, and then in more recent years blew our chances of getting to Leinster finals because of poor panel development by Davy, or failing to beat middle tier counties since he left. Tbh while we reached plenty of finals in the noughties, nearly all of them, you have to go back to the 70s before we did that before. Both those decades the other Leinster counties apart from Kilkenny were weaker though."
Wexford made plenty of Leinster finals in the noughties because Galway were not in Leinster yet and Dublin hurling was at a very poor level until Anthony Daly came in.

From 2009 onwards the landscape completely changed for Wexford hurling with some very bleak years until Davy came in and brought them to new heights in 2019.

Past hurler (None) - Posts: 828 - 19/08/2024 07:36:19    2565752

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Replying To Viking66:  "Don't think there was any mutual benefit to a draw that year. It only benefitted us. Up or down ye only had to beat or draw with Dublin that year and ye were through. You weren't able to though.
And the game last year didn't decide anything for Kilkenny either. We knew we had to win to guarantee our safety. The delay to the game only increased the tension among our players, and disrupted our players warm up. Our slow start after that nearly cost us the game.
The big reason for us failing to get out of the Round Robin last year, and you failing the 2 times you didn't, is that on all 3 of those occasions we lost to Dublin. We havent beaten them in Championship since 2018. And you've only beaten them once since 2018. And if you had of let them win the one time you beat them since 2018 K8lkenny would've been out the Championship before the AI Series even started. There's....ahem...... smoke and mirrors for you....;-)"
We possibly were able in 2019 actually, McAllister delivering quite 'the helping hand' on the night imo. Dubs bet us fair and square in 2021 & 2024 alright. We weren't at all hard to beat in 2024, as you saw in Wexford.

Pope_Benedict (Galway) - Posts: 3889 - 19/08/2024 08:45:38    2565758

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