FITZGERALD EYEING ONE LAST SHOT AT GLORY
MEET the All-Ireland winner and All-Star who doesn’t even claim to be the best full-back in his own house.
Tune in to TG4 on Sunday and Kieran Fitzgerald will be easily recognisable in defence for Corofin, still chasing the dream with his club after a long and storied career with Galway that yielded an All-Ireland in 2001 and an All-Star the same year. Yet that hardly even earns him the bragging rights within the four walls of his own home, courtesy of his wife Emer, named on the TG4 Ladies Football Team of the Decade.
‘My wife is Galway ladies captain. She plays with a junior club, Tuam Cortoon. She plays fullback too. They won the Connacht junior championship and lost the All-Ireland semi-final to Aghada there last weekend. Aghada were a lot stronger. She has an All-Ireland senior medal and two AllStars so I can’t say much.’
That’s one more All-Star than he has. Fitzgerald though is also part of that elite bracket who have club and county All-Irelands, being a key figure on the Corofin team that reached the summit in 2015.
It was a first title for the club since 1998. Remarkably, Fitzgerald, who turns 37 on New Year’s Day, linked up with the senior squad the following season.
The memories haven’t faded with time of a signature day, as Galway football shed its underachievers tag. ‘It was unbelievable. At that stage, it has been 32 years since Galway won the All-Ireland. There had been so much heartache for Galway teams going to Croke Park. It would have been the same thing with the club.
‘I remember Connacht teams going up, Salthill, Knockmore, and Castlebar, and always being beaten. It was really new territory for Corofin, for all of us. It gave belief that a Galway team could go to Croke Park and win.’
Six months after lifting the Andy Merrigan Cup on St Patrick’s Day, Corofin captain Ray Silke repeated the trick — this time with the Sam Maguire Cup and Galway. The club breakthrough was the catalyst for a Galway revolution.
‘It was. A few months later, Galway won the All-Ireland. We were back in 2000. Beaten after a replay. Won again in 2001. Caltra and Salthill won club All-Irelands after that. It gave teams that extra bit of belief that we weren’t inferior to other provinces.’
While age is catching up on him — he’s had keyhole surgery on various ankle, groin and hip injuries and readily admits he’s the oldest in the squad ‘by a bit of a distance’ — Corofin’s status as perennial contenders makes it hard to walk away.
‘Whenever my season finishes, I’ll look at things and see how I am and see if the hunger is there to go again. Since leaving the inter-county scene, I’ve been relatively lucky with my club. It has been successful. It is hard to leave a good thing there.
‘I joined the Galway panel in 2000. I joined the Corofin panel just out of minor. You’re still in your thirties, but there is still an awful lot of mileage up. A lot of running done and a lot of football played. It is a cumulative thing. It is almost 20 years of playing with club and county. You pick up knocks along the way.’ Corofin have a history of ageless veterans playing their part. In the 1998 final, 39-year-old Gerry Burke, the father of current dual player and Galway All-Star Daithí, kicked three points from midfield and scooped the Manof-the-Match award. ‘Some of the lads from 2015, their dads won in 1998,’ explains Fitzgerald. ‘Ronan Steed’s father, Eddie was full-forward. I don’t know about going til 40, we’ll see.’
Stephen Rochford’s journey to Mayo manager was guided by his lead role in managing Corofin to All-Ireland club success in 2015. In the two years since, he has brought Mayo to consecutive finals, just coming up short once more against Dublin this September.
Fitzgerald sees Rochford, and Mayo, bouncing back. ‘I don’t think it’ll faze him, I don’t think what happened in September will derail him that much.
‘There was obviously huge disappointment. I think they’ll come back just as strong again. They might have to tweak a few things or add a few players. They will be a force again. They are relentless.’
And it’s Mayo opposition in the shape of Castlebar Mitchels that Corofin face this weekend.
Galway’s failure to add an AllIreland to that last success in 2001 has been another source of eternal wonder, the county only winning a competitive match for the first time at Croke Park in this year’s Division 2 League final.
‘It is amazing. Winning the AllIreland in 2001 and if someone said you weren’t going to win another game there up until now, it is an amazing stat. That is the way things go.
‘For myself and Joe Bergin to get in on that team, we jumped on that bandwagon. We were lucky enough to win an All-Ireland.
‘We won an All-Ireland Under 21 title the year after against Dublin and things were looking good. We were thinking if we could combine that Under 21 team and the existing senior team, but we never really got close again.
‘We got to a few quarter-finals, but got pipped by Cork, Kerry and Donegal along the way. We just never got there.’
That’s why he’s determined to see this journey with Corofin out to the end.