By John Harrington

Clare hurler Tony Kelly has praised former Banner County manager, Davy Fitzgerald, for the way he ensured his departure from the position didn’t become ‘messy’.

Fitzgerald asked Kelly and fellow Clare joint-captain, Cian Dillon, to poll the opinion of their team-mates about whether or not they wanted a change of management before deciding to step down after five years in charge.

And Kelly believes the ‘above board’ manner in which Fitzgerald handled the situation ensured there was no negative fall-out from it.

“That was the thing, he didn't want anything to get messy,” says Kelly. “He just laid out exactly, 'Ye got back to the players, talk to them, and when ye come back to me I'll go away and make a decision'. Everyone knew what was going on throughout the process.

“I suppose the precedent is that a lot of things have got messy in other counties but I suppose that was one thing he didn't want to have happen in Clare. Negativity or messiness to come out of the whole thing.

“Myself and Cian were involved in most of the process with him. He was talking to us and he was laying out his options of what he wanted to do and stuff like that.

“I suppose he wanted to talk to a few players and get their feed-back and then he probably wanted us to go the players then to talk to them to see just in case they were, let's say, more reluctant to tell him exactly how they felt.

“He wanted us to go to him and go to the players and get exactly how they felt. We relayed back then I suppose what the discussion was.

“To be fair to him, everything was above board. He came to us initially, then came to the players. He was telling us to go to them and come back to him and he'd make his decision then based on what we'd come back with from our meetings.

“Yeah, everything was spot on. There was no real drama out of it really, to be honest.”

Fitzgerald was appointed Wexford manager a month after stepping down as Clare manager. Kelly isn’t surprised his former mentor decided to dive straight back into the inter-county scene.

“Not really, no. He was quoted saying he was going to get involved in management again. That's the type of character he is, he loves hurling. He wasn't going to step away from it and just concentrate on just the LIT Fitzgibbon team.

“That's not his character, I think he wanted to get back into it. Probably a fresh, new challenge, and he's got that now with Wexford now as well. He'll bring something new to them. I wasn't really that surprised with it, he's that sort of a man.

“Even when he's finished with Wexford he gets straight back into it, he doesn't want to rest I suppose when it comes to hurling at all, really.”

Kelly believes Fitzgerald will have a positive impact on the Wexford team because his style of management is so ‘professional’.

“Yeah, I suppose he was the first senior inter-county management a lot of us had coming from minor, U-21. Yeah, he brings a level of professionalism that you wouldn't be used to. We're used to it now. But coming from an U-21 or minor set-up it was something you'd see on television with professional athletes, be it soccer or American sports like American Football.

“Everything was just down to a tee. You just got it. I think that's the big thing with him. Everything will be spot on, everything will be professional. It's all about buying into what he's trying to do. If Wexford do that I think he will bring them places.

“He won an All-Ireland with us and a League with us. I suppose a lot of people probably forget that as well. It hasn't been great over the last two or three years, but he still brought us to places where a lot of people probably wouldn't have brought us, you know?”