David Fitzgerald is keeping his fingers crossed so that the “unmarkable” Tony Kelly maintains his current form.
Kelly was outstanding as Clare dug out a three-point win away to Wexford on Sunday in the Allianz Hurling League despite playing the majority of the game with 14 men after captain John Conlon’s first half red card.
Having started the League with a 0-12 tally against Carlow as Clare scored a comfortable opening round win in Ennis, Kelly matched that haul at Chadwicks Wexford Park, accounting for two-third of his side’s total.
While all but two of his scores were from frees, it was still an exhibition of striking from the Ballyea man with many of the placed balls coming from inside his own half, while his two points from play were struck into a strong breeze.
“Outstanding,” said Fitzgerald. “At times, fans don’t realise how good he is. The way Tony is performing at the minute, every day in training he’s unmarkable.
“You can see that, the way he’s hurling.
“Long may it continue for him. It’s great.”
Kelly has played the bulk of his hurling for Clare at centre-forward though he has reverted to midfield for both League games in this campaign with Fitzgerald occupying the number 11 jersey instead, despite being better known as a half-back at that level.
But he’s made his presence felt in attack and chipped in with 0-3 on Sunday.
“I was lucky,” he said modestly. “A few balls thrown out to me, that kind of thing. We won’t get too carried away. It’s still a learning curve.”
Clare looked to be heading for certain defeat after Wexford whittled their eight-point lead down to the minimum with 15 minutes of normal time remaining but they held firm against a wasteful home side.
“We expected that after half-time,” Fitzgerald acknowledged. “We had that cushion but we knew they had the wind at their backs and would come right back at us. And they did claw us back.
“There were times during that second half, a 15-minute period, when we struggled to get our hands on the ball,” he acknowledged. “We were clinging on. A lot of bodies in the middle third. Were lucky that we got a few breaks to go our way, a few points to hold on.”
The build-up to Sunday’s game was dominated by the rift between the rival managers and former Clare teammates Brian Lohan and Davy Fitzgerald.
The pair had a spat in 2014 when managing college sides UL and LIT respectively and their relationship soured further when Lohan called for an independent review into Clare hurling in 2015 at a time when Fitzgerald was still managing his native county.
There was no surprise that the pair didn’t seek each other out for a handshake in the aftermath of Sunday’s game, while Davy Fitzgerald warmed to the notion of the counties meeting each other later in the year when speaking after the game.
When asked if the backdrop added an extra edge to Sunday’s game, David Fitzgerald replied: “It does and it doesn’t. He (Davy) knows all of us inside out. We’d have worked with him. What he has done with Wexford has been outstanding.
“They were very unlucky not to get to an All-Ireland final last year. They’ll be there or thereabouts again this year for Championship.”
