A fresh chapter in the Waterford hurling story has been opened, with new manager Davy Fitzgerald set to re-introduce James Murray into the senior panel.
A fresh chapter in the Waterford hurling story has been opened, with new manager Davy Fitzgerald set to re-introduce James Murray into the senior panel.
Speaking to The Munster Express after taking his first training session with the Deisemen, Fitzgerald gave a ‘watch this space’ reply when asked about the possibility of the Tallow man’s return.
“Yeah,” offered the Sixmilebridge man, as his players hit the showers after Wednesday night’s session at an overcast Walsh Park. “You’ll find out more about that in the next few days so you will.”
In his ‘Star’ newspaper column that morning, Fitzgerald wrote: “There’s also a few players around the county that I want to get a look at, so I will be talking to my selectors to find out their opinions.
“Every member of this panel, from one to 30, will be given a fair crack of the whip and will be given an opportunity to show what they can do.”
At the end of a session which the players clearly enjoyed given their body language as they strode up the Walsh Park tunnel, the new manager was happy to have got down to work.
“It was good to get into it,” he said. “It’s good working with this group of players and I was just happy to start into it. I suppose they’ll just have to adapt to the way I do things, which may be a small bit different. I just hope it can be half as effective as what Justin did and that’s all I can do.”
With the July 5th All-Ireland qualifier against the losers of the Galway/Antrim tie looming, Fitzgerald realises that he has little time to get his game plan in place.
“It’s going to be very hard to impose the way I want to play on the team,” he said.
“I have to think of the short span and I’m going to thinking about that and work hard on it. I’m just willing to work hard and see what happens.
“I’ve a plan in my head; I’m going to keep it in my own head, what I want to do and what the story is in the short term. Obviously I would have liked more time but I haven’t yet I’m confident we’ll do an okay job with it.”
