Hi all, you're welcome to hurling's version of A Feud Between A Manager And A Sunday Game Pundit.
We've already seen football's version, as Pat Spillane and Jim Gavin waged verbal war over the Diarmuid Connolly incident, and it somehow continues to burble along. Last week, Charlie Redmond found hit back at what Jim McGuinness said about what Jim Gavin said about what Pat Spillane said about Diarmuid Connolly.
Now it's hurling's turn. Davy Fitzgerald took aim at Michael Duignan and Henry Shefflin for their criticism of Wexford's tactics, and employing of a sweeper system. Fitzgerald focused mainly on Duignan:
It’s great for the likes of Michael Duignan, he should have had an opinion on something recently and he didn’t have it, when he should have stood up. It’s time now Michael Duignan stopped this messing.
The job Derek McGrath has done and the stick he has taken is totally unwarranted. What he has done for Waterford and bringing them back to the top is incredible and I am backing him 110%.
You tell me that’s a bad game of hurling, some of the scores? Short and long ball, every sort of ball or do we just play the long ball and hit it and that’s it? I don’t agree with that and I think they are totally out of order.
I think RTÉ should go and have a look at themselves and get analysts who have been on the sideline and who know what the story is about. That’s how I feel strongly about it. Easy, easy to knock people.
I’d like to see their track records when it comes to it, when it comes to managing. It’s a lot different to playing. I can promise you that.
Both Duignan and Shefflin had tweeted their dismay at the game's tactics:
Sweepers should be outlawed! Not the game I love. Coach players to tackle & to use their heads instead of using extra backs to compensate!
— Michael Duignan (@DuignanMichael) July 23, 2017
Who is marking who in this game ? One would hate to be playing in the full forward line - or be a forward full stop 😱#WatvWex
— Henry Shefflin (@ShefflinHenry) July 23, 2017
Writing in his column in the Irish Daily Mail, Duignan has responded, calling on Fitzgerald to "grow up". Duignan says he is "shocked" that Davy would take a pop at him, and told him to get his facts straight on the notion that Duignan had not "been on the sideline".
I can tell Davy that I did manage Meath for a couple of years, and I coached Offaly in 2004, alongside then manager Mike McNamara.
I felt I made a fairly positive contribution too but I took a back seat after that for a long number of reasons. I was asked to manage the Offaly team on a number of occasions but my wife Edel lost her battle with cancer and the kids were so small at the time. It just wasn't feasible to take up the Offaly role, although I would have felt I had something to offer.
I'd also point out that I've been involved for the last 13 years in coaching kids....
...And so, I'd totally refute Davy's comments and I'd encourage him to grow up at this stage.
You can read the full column in the Irish Daily Mail today.
See Also: The Draw For The All-Ireland Hurling Semi-Finals Has Been Made
