Daly: ‘Savage’ Fitz the right man for the Banner

Anthony Daly believes that former team-mate Davy Fitzgerald is the right man to bring the good times back to Clare hurling.

Livewire Fitzgerald is set to be confirmed as the successor to Ger O’Loughlin at a county board meeting next month after Clare officials confirmed that the former Waterford boss was the only candidate going forward for the role.

It had originally been planned that a sub-committee would interview Fitzgerald and other potential candidates, but the lack of said candidates and the volume of support for Fitzgerald within the county saved the need for administrative dithering before a successor was announced.

Fitzgerald’s candidacy has received support from current Dublin manager and ex-Clare manager and captain Anthony Daly, who soldiered alongside Fitzgerald in the good years in the late 90s.

Daly said Fitzgerald was the ‘obvious candidate’ for the job due to his success as a manager with Waterford and Limerick IT and paid particular tribute to the passion and organisation that Fitzgerald would bring to the role, saying that he would be ‘savage’ in both respects.

"He was the obvious candidate once he said he was interested," Daly told the Irish Examiner.

"He has worked with Waterford for four years, won a Munster championship, been in four All-Ireland semi-finals, an All-Ireland final; he has two Fitzgibbons won. He can't win much more to be fair.

"He would be savage well organised, has savage passion and he'd know the players well having worked at colleges level the last few years. The experience he brings from Waterford is huge I think because it's a different level of management. You have to have a bit of know-how about what makes fellas tick.

"All I know is at the end of my three years at Clare, I'd like to think I was a lot better than I was at the start. You learn about man-management and I'd say he's learned loads in Waterford."

Fitzgerald, of course, has plenty to work with in the county, as the underage system in Clare has been functioning smoothly for the past number of years. The Clare minors have won the last two Munster hurling titles, the under-21s won the All-Ireland in 2009 and many of those players have already graduated to the senior team.

Daly feels that if Fitzgerald can get his backroom team right, that success could well be on its way back to Clare.

"That would be the belief, talking to people, with two good minor teams, could've won this year's All-Ireland minor, and the U21s are moving on,” Daly added.

“But the first thing he'll have to do is get his backroom team sorted. There's talk about Louis Mulqueen, Brian Lohan and Mike Deegan, the Cratloe manager. That sounds like a good combination but I don't know if these people have even been approached."