When Lee Chin first met Davy Fitzgerald, he knew straight away that his county had been taken over by a man simply obsessed with hurling.
Even coming in from a different set-up and past hurts, the new manager was breathing a fireball of energy into Wexford Park and the players he would deem lucky enough to inhabit it
“We met with him last week,” Chin described at the time.
“We had a meeting and the man’s passion and enthusiasm… I’ve never experienced that before. I’m really, really looking forward to working with him.”
Wexford have already had highs but, even after the first season ended prematurely in the championship, there’s optimism around the place again and, despite Fitzgerald looking for more time before they take the next step, despite him calling for the team to up their game, you can’t help but think that Wexford is rising.
Perhaps the fact that the manager publicly denounced their long odds for the All-Ireland is testament to the idea that he’s ready to demand more of them now.
Well, they saw off the league and championship champions on Saturday in Wexford Park but, ahead of the new group system in Leinster, Fitzgerald knows there are going to be tougher days ahead.
“Galway will be a different animal in the championship and we’re going to have to up our performance,” he said afterwards before drumming up excitement ahead of the game with the Cats in a way that only Davy Fitzgerald could.
“We’ve Kilkenny down here next week. I’d say there’ll probably only be two or three hundred here, like. There won’t be too many, you know.
“We’re in the league semi-final and, to us, that’s a big deal.”
"For today we'll enjoy it in Wexford Park and move on to next week"
Agallamh le bainisteoir @OfficialWexGAA Davy Fitzgerald.
Scór Deiridh i gCluiche Ceathrú Ceannais@OfficialWexGAA 1-23 @Galway_GAA 0-23
Wexford are through to the #AllianzLeagues semi-final.#GAABEO pic.twitter.com/0WdqGBLGzQ— Spórt TG4 (@SportTG4) March 24, 2018
