FITZ LIKE A GLOVE..

Darragh: New schedule suits us

DARRAGH FITZGIBBON reckons this year’s Championship schedule offers an extra incentive for Cork to win the Munster title.

GAA chiefs have condensed the inter-county calendar, leaving just four weeks between today’s provincial final and an All-ireland semi-final.

It was five weeks last year and Fitzgibbon reckons the long wait affected Cork, who claimed a breakthrough Munster title before losing to Waterford at Croke Park.

The Rebels ace said: “I think it kind of hampered us a small bit last year when we won the Munster final, that we had such a long wait until the All-ireland semi-final.

“All you want to do is play games and you can lose a bit of momentum from game to game with the long wait. It leaves you with a lot of training.

“We’ve enjoyed the new format in Munster this year, there’s a lot more games and the shorter gap for whoever wins Munster is a positive too.”

Cork were cruising in the first-half of that semi-final against Waterford last year before caving in late on.

Fitzgibbon said: “It’s hard to win when you go down to 14 men in this game, the way it’s played. Waterford’s system is hard enough to play against when you have 15. They cut us open in our back line and just got the goals.

“Look, they were the better side on the day and we knew that we weren’t good enough that day to get to an All-ireland final.”

It’s an itch the 21-year-old would love to scratch this season but he can’t even consider an All-ireland semi-final yet with two huge provincial finals in front of him. First up is today’s senior decider and then on Wednesday evening he and eight other seniors will be on U21 duty for the Munster final clash with Tipperary at Pairc Ui Chaoimh.

The Charleville man said: “It’s difficult balancing both. We’ll try to get a pool session done after the senior final and try to meet up with all the other U21 lads, just get our food and rest right, all of that stuff. But it’s a good complaint to have, two Munster finals in the space of a few days.”

Fitzgibbon feels more at home with the seniors this season having been thrust in at the deep end in 2017 beside men he watched play in the 2013 All-ireland finals.

“Patrick Horgan (inset), Conor Lehane, Anthony Nash, all these players you were watching in an All-ireland final and then to have the opportunity to play with them is just a huge honour.”