DON’T LOOK BACK IN ANGER
Davy: I know some of them would look back and think, ‘That little shagger nearly ended my career...’
DAVY Fitzgerld has an answer for the naysayers who claim you should never go back: “I reckon that’s a load of bullshit.”
The interview is precisely three seconds in.
“Who came up with that saying or what the story is, I don’t know,” he says.
“I don’t buy it anyhow. That’s why I’m back.”
All-Ireland winning football manager Jack O’Connor is proof that going back can work out just fine.
This is O’Connor’s third stint with Kerry and the third time he’s won an All-Ireland in his first year, albeit in his own county, whereas Fitzgerald is returning to an outside county.
The Clare All-Ireland winning player and manager first took over as Waterford boss in 2008 after a heave against Justin McCarthy.
He led the county to the All-Ireland final that year, and on to a Munster title in 2010.
Back
“Jack O’Connor – yes, there’s been numerous different occasions where people have gone back,” says Fitzgerald. “You’re kind of going back but you’re not really going back to the same bunch. There is hardly any of the bunch I worked with here.
“When I met Seán (Michael O’Regan), the chairman first, and even before I chatted with the committee, it was very important to see our views and our alignments, see did we think the same.
“And we did. There’s a lot of this team fit into my philosophies. Do I fit into theirs? We do. I think this was a decent move on both our behalves, to tell you the truth.”
Fitzgerald (51) says he has matured with age from his opening salvo as an inter-county manager with Waterford.
“I hope that’s the case,” he says. “You have to remember the first time I came here, I was probably in my mid-thirties. I was just finished playing.
“Now, I had managed a lot of clubs and college and all of that, but my
first gig was coming in with some of the greats – be it Ken McGrath, Dan Shanahan, Tony Browne, John Mullane, Eoin Kelly.
“I walked into a fair array of players — Séamus Prendergast, Declan Prendergast, Clinton Hennessy, Eoin Murphy, Brick Walsh.
“So I was fairly thrown in at the deep end the last time. I went in in 2008 and I was going in for three months.
“I ended up there for three and a half years and with a team I remember certain people telling me they were gone: ‘You’ll get nothing out of them’.
“We still managed to get to three Munster finals, four semi-finals, an AllIreland final, so we didn’t do too bad.
“But when you think about it, it’s very hard to walk in and ask those players to think about the game differently.
“They had the way they liked things done and I totally get that.
“It was a privilege actually to be able to train them and I know some of them would look back and think, ‘That little shagger nearly ended my career’.
“It’s tough like, when you are coming to the end. It was a learning experience.
“I’d like to think I grew from that when I went to Clare. I grew from Clare going to Wexford and hopefully, I’ll have matured a bit more coming in here.”
Fitzgerald says he won’t be hanging around if he doesn’t get it right in two to three years.
Positive
“I have got a very positive reaction,” he continued. “You’ll always get that to your face anyway.
“I’m under no illusions that there are a certain amount of people in Waterford who will love me being back and there are a certain amount of people will think, ‘Why go back?’
“All I’ll say to them is, my record isn’t too bad normally with teams that are finding it hard to get over the line.
“If you really look back I think I have a pretty decent CV between clubs, colleges, county. It’s not too bad.
“I’m very hungry. I think the way I see the game isn’t bad.
“I believe anything is possible.
“The only thing I would say to the people that love me or mightn’t like me is, ‘Don’t judge — just give the man the two or three years and if he’s able to do something great and if he’s not, fine.’
“But I think we have to stop this thing and stop being like the Premier League, looking to get rid of lads straight away.
“I would just hope these people give me the two or three years to get this spot on and if I can’t, I won’t need to be hanging around myself.
“I know the story. I’m looking forward to the challenge and giving 110 percent.
“I love being back involved. All I can promise the Waterford people is I’ll give it everything I have.”
Fitzgerald says Waterford will be “very disappointed” by this year’s Championship.
“I was one of them who rated Waterford highly,” he continues.
“They’ll be honestly very disappointed in their Munster championship run over the last four or five years.
“Is it one out of 14 that they’ve won, if
I’m right? It’s roughly around that. They know that is not good enough, because they are better than that.
“But Munster is such a minefield. Munster is crazy. Anything can happen.”