DAVY FITZGERALD WANTS his underage stars to prepare for their dream All-Ireland final by doubling down with the Banner’s U21s.
David McInerney, Colm Galvin, Tony Kelly and Podge Collins continued their starring roles in a fairytale summer as Clare beat Limerick and set up a meeting with Cork on 8 September.
In all 14 U21 players have juggled their time and trained with the senior squad this season while also staying involved in the defence of Clare’s underage Munster and All-Ireland crowns.
Next Saturday they meet Galway as part of a double-header in Semple Stadium, with Wexford playing Antrim in the other semi-final.
Rather than wrap them in cotton wool, Fitzgerald wants all of those players to train exclusively with U21s this week and realise that Saturday’s game should be their only focus for now.
“I want them to go out and I want them to do their very best,” he said after yesterday’s win in Croke Park. “The U21s deserve a fair crack of the whip and that was our approach after the quarter-final.
“We’ll be releasing them to the U21s straight away this week. They’ll work with the U21s all week, they will not come near us, that’s the way it’s going to be.
“They deserve to play in their own age group, that’s my belief and that’s my feeling. I’ll be asking them to focus completely on that because I think they have to focus on that.
“We actually have 14 of them training with us since last November so our one thing is to make them focus on the U21s and do their very best. I hope they don’t be thinking of 8 September because that’s their age group.
“Will it be hard? It is hard to mix at all. You’re playing a quarter-final, a [U21] Munster final, an All-Ireland semi-final and an U21 All-Ireland semi-final. It’s a lot of big games.
“Is it a big ask? It is. Is it a disadvantage going in to an All-Ireland final? It’s not the easiest. We just have to be careful with how we manage it so we don’t push the lads too hard.”
