Wexford v Waterford - GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Championship Quarter-Final
By John Harrington
Davy Fitzgerald believes RTE should commission a GAA tactical analysis programme along the lines of the Sky Sports’ critically acclaimed Monday Night Football.
The Wexford hurling manager is a big fan of the analysis carried out by former professional footballers like Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher.
He thinks there’s a demand in Ireland for a similar show featuring pundits who would break hurling and football matches down in the same forensic way using video technology.
“I love that (show), Gary Neville and them aren't cutting lads,” said Fitzgerald today at the launch of the M Donnelly All-Ireland Poc Fada Final in Croke Park.
“I love watching them because they're giving me information and I love information and seeing what's going on and what's different.
"Why do we want to cut?
“There are certain pundits and I will not read them. If I hear them say something I know they're only doing it to make headlines. I've no interest in that. I want the genuine stuff.
“And there are a lot of sports people out there that want to hear the real meat of the story.
“I am not right in everything, I know that. But I love to learn and I love to listen to stuff.
“I said it to someone high in RTE recently. I said, 'Will ye look at the whole thing of how we present it?'
“I want to learn. I want to know more stuff. I want to see what actually happened there. I look over DVDs and I'm seeing stuff.
“Like, Micheál Donoghue did stuff in the Leinster Final that was top notch. Top notch to go against what I did.
“Not one person analysed it on the Sunday Game. I know what it was. And it was fecking smart what he did in one particular thing.
“But I never saw one of them tell me what it was. I had a fair idea on the day what he was doing but couldn't change it on the day.
"Wouldn't ye love to know different bits and pieces like that?"
Kevin Moran, Davy Fitzgerald, Brendan Cummins, Anthony Nash, and James McInerney pictured with Martin Donnelly at Croke Park.
Fitzgerald believes the Sunday Game has retained the same format for many years for the same reason that many pundits are critical of sweeper in hurling – Irish people are naturally resistant to change.
“Man, it's the same,” said Fitzgerald. “We hate to do anything a small bit different. I'll give you an example. I've been with a number of clubs going back over the last 10 years. A lot of the clubs I've been with didn't win very much, but by tweaking and doing things differently we got over the line.
“And some of the clubs I've worked with wouldn't have dreamed of getting over the line, I can tell you that. When you change things up and do things different, you're throwing off the teams that are winning it non-stop. Isn't it great when you see that happening?
“But it isn't easy because when it doesn't work. If I'm back with Wexford next year and we lose a few games I'm going to get hammered. But I believe this is their best chance of winning something. I believe it suits the type of player.”
Fitzgerald has not yet decided whether to stay on as Wexford manager, but if he does he is confident the team has room for further improvement in the coming years.
He’s identified converting a greater percentage of the scoring chances they are creating as the most obvious area they can make gains in.
“We had 20 scores the other day. Between short and wides I think we had 38 scoring opportunities. So we had 18 half opportunities we didn't take.
"If I could stick another six of those onto our score we're going to be right there. 24 or 25 scores a game will roughly be there or thereabouts in any game. So we're close.”
