By Michael Devlin

Understandably, it took a few brief moments for Davy Fitzgerald to put his feelings into words in the wake of winning Wexford’s first Leinster SHC title for 15 years yesterday afternoon.

He’s experienced this joy many times before, steering teams to All-Ireland, National League and Munster title glory, and now completing a unique clean sweep with a Leinster crown.

“It’s hard to describe. I remember a lot of people told me when I was coming to Wexford, ‘Don’t bother going, you haven’t a chance of doing anything’. I loved when that final whistle went. There is nothing that can’t be achieved in life or nothing that can’t be done.

“The emotion, it feels the exact same for me as it felt every time I’ve achieved something, whether it be winning with Clare as a player or manager, winning with Waterford. I’m just so happy to see those boys so happy. If I told you half the stuff they said to me when the final whistle went, it makes it so worthwhile.”

Wexford and Kilkenny went at each other tooth and nail in a breath-taking contest that swung one way then the other all afternoon, until Mark Fanning’s penalty strike with five minutes of normal time remaining gave Wexford just enough room to go on and seal the deal.

Fitzgerald’s charges left nothing out on the field, and the outpouring of elation at the final whistle was evidence of the sheer effort the Clare native was able to extract out of his players in the white heat of Croke Park to secure the Bob O’Keeffe Cup.

It’s something Wexford have been able to conjure several times so far this season, an ability to hang in and go blow-for-blow in games that has preserved their status as the only unbeaten team in the 2019 Senior Hurling Championship so far.

“If you come down to our training, you’d know what it’s like,” said Fitzgerald. “They arrive an hour before and they’d be belting out tunes, we’d all sit down and chat for a while. I want to be an environment where they want to come, I want them to enjoy what they do.

“They have worked tirelessly to get here. People might say it’s a Leinster championship, but a Leinster championship means so much to this bunch and to the Wexford people, it’s incredible. I’m absolutely delighted for them.”

Aside from the typical attributes that symbolise any closely contested win - drive and passion, determination and perseverance – Fitzgerald also identified the strategical minutiae that was crucial to the 1-23 to 0-23 victory.

“That was a very tactical game, you would not believe what was going on out there. It was absolutely off the charts. We changed formation five times in the game to try and change up things and I know they were trying different things.

“They were leaving a lot of space to TJ Reid in the first half when we were trying to get that gap closed in front of Matthew [O’Hanlon]. They were hitting him two or three times in the first half and trying to isolate him, leaving things very hard for Matthew. But I thought Matthew was unreal in the second half. TJ was getting a lot of space in the first half, and that’s something Kilkenny had worked well on.”

Fanning’s goal was ultimately the score that handed Wexford victory, the result of Rory O’Connor’s rampaging run towards goal being ended by Liam Morrissey fouling the St. Martin's man in the box. Time and again Wexford had tried the same method of approach, but Kilkenny’s defence were well enough manned to prevent any such incursion on the goal. Eventually though, O’Connor broke through to draw out the defensive misdemeanour, and Wexford duly took their big chance.

“It’s something that we had been working on for a while, we had been trying to get that run, and we got blocked about six or seven times. We’d be pretty similar, we’d be trying to block the runs on the opposite side, but we got one, and that was the one that made the difference. We needed to hit the back of the net and we did.”

An All-Ireland semi-final is now awaiting Wexford, with Limerick also taking a spot in the final four after their impressive dismantling of Tipperary yesterday. With two rounds of fixtures yet to determine who joins the two provincial champions, Fitzgerald is content to park any chat about semi-finals for the time being.

“I’m going to enjoy the next two or three days, then I’m going to start thinking about a semi-final and we’ll see what the story is after that. It’s very hard to think about down the road.

“Personally I’m kind of one of these animals that lives day to day, and takes every day for what it is. I’ve been asked a few times about a semi-final, and I don’t want to talk about a semi-final. I just want to talk about today and enjoy, and see what it brings.”