DAVY Fitzgerald has been around too long to get himself embroiled in the Antrim footballers’ ‘Corrigan Park or nowhere’ dispute.
The Clare native has his hands full with the hurlers and says he’ll back the Antrim County Board who controversially agreed to give up home advantage against Armagh in their April Ulster Championship meeting.
The Antrim hurlers were beaten by 15 points by Offaly in Tullamore on Sunday and Fitzgerald says his attention is firmly focussed on the caman code.
“Whatever Antrim County Board decide to do, I’ll back them 110 per cent,” he said.
“We’ve all got to come (together) for the one common thing and go with it. Whatever Antrim decide, I’m with them.
“I’ve got enough right now to make sure I stay focused on what I do. We’ll be backing them whatever they decide to do - I’ve enough trouble.”
Fitzgerald has also been around too long to have underestimated the challenge he was in for when he succeeded Darren Gleeson as Antrim manager. Three games into his tenure, he has been training his panel since early December and does expect to see improvement after a disappointing showing against Offaly.
With half-time approaching, Antrim closed the gap to two points but after the Faithful County netted their first goal, the Glensmen never looked like getting back in the game.
“There’s nothing different happening today that hasn’t been happening in the last few years,” said Fitzgerald, bemoaning Antrim’s poor away form.
“It’s the same thing that it (the level of performance) is good, or it’s really bad when we’re away.
“We’ve got to try and sort that out. I’m on the sideline a long time and I’m trying, anything I can try and do, I’m trying to do it. I just want them to believe in themselves a bit more (and improve) what they do at times when they go behind.
“They need to believe in themselves because they are really good lads.”
After a home win against Westmeath either side of heavy away defeats in Dublin and Offaly, Fitzgerald accepted that his side is already in the relegation mire. At least they have a couple of home games still to come - Antrim host Waterford on their native sod at Corrigan Park on Sunday week and, after travelling to Carlow, they welcome Laois to Ballycastle.
“I’ve said it from day one, it could get worse before it gets better,” cautioned Fitzgerald.
“I’ve said there are very few people who just come in and make it happen like that.
“I want to try everything I can, I am giving it a lot of time and a lot of effort and so are the lads in the coaching team, we’ve worked really hard on certain things.
“We’re training from December 7, that’s when we started. That’s probably the bones of seven or eight weeks. That’s where we’re at.”
Stressing that refereeing decisions had nothing to do with his team’s loss, Fitzgerald called for officials to avoid blowing their whistle whenever possible.
“I do think this time of year for a referee is a joke - they’re blowing everything,” he said.
“Will that be the same in the Championship? It won’t be the same in the Championship. You know it and I know it.
“They’re going to let the game flow. Had the referee any impact on us today? Zero impact on us. But I’d still like to see: Stop, just let the game flow a small bit more, that’s my only thing. It is not one way or an excuse, we have no excuses. It’s down to us today, we had a poor performance, didn’t fight hard enough.”
