IF THE SCRAP FITZ...
Clare manager’s antics have done him no favours, but his biggest battle now is on May 24
GOOD DAYS can appear as interruptions in the war between the world and Davy Fitzgerald. An All-Ireland final win is merely a shortlived armistice in the tussle between the Clare manager and everybody else, but the past month must have sapped even his appetite for combat.
Fitzgerald’s image on Ireland’s sporting Rushmore would capture him with wide eyes and grinding teeth, but relief should have stolen across his features this week.
The return of Nicky O’Connell will not settle Clare’s playing fortunes for good or ill this season, but the nature of it is a public validation of how the manager conducts himself and treats his players.
That is of enormous importance to Fitzgerald, given how much of his life is consumed by the game.
Davy O’Halloran presumably stands by the story with which he went public last month and pitched Fitzgerald into this latest battle. But after the powerful public support of the squad statement issued days after those claims emerged, the manager is strengthened even further by O’Connell rejoining the panel – after apologising to his teammates.
He needed that lift. Clare’s season is now concentrated down to 70 minutes in Semple Stadium on May 24. Five weeks today they play Limerick with the winners meeting Tipperary in the Munster semi-final.
The 2013 champions will be favoured to beat their neighbours, because their relegation from Division 1A was suffered in the game of the season so far. Kilkenny are weakened and cannot summon the strength of fiercer days, but Clare met them in Nowlan Park enfeebled by their own poor form and the days of controversy broken by the claims of O’Halloran.
Two vulnerable teams fought with abandon and, if Clare lost, they did so in a way that left them with enough solace to feed hope for other days. Shane O’Donnell and the marvellous Tony Kelly are in rousing form and there were signs of the fluidity and certainty in Clare’s play that brought an All-Ireland two seasons ago.
But the Limerick match is crucial. Promise and spirit and unity and loyalty will be nothing but brittle words wasted on the wind should Clare lose.
Results will be the final judges of Fitzgerald’s management. Should they lose to Limerick, the recent controversy will be resurrected and people will swear blind that there is still trouble in the camp.
IT IS the fate of losing teams; every conspiracy and rumour about them is legal tender after a defeat, and gossip is busily exchanged. Despite his successes at Fitzgibbon and senior level, and the resuscitation he provided to Waterford’s summer in 2008, Fitzgerald has never faced a more important match as a manager.
Given the damage done to his reputation by the claims of the last month, it may be the biggest of his entire career, because victory would make tangible the support he has received from his squad. Nothing would speak to Clare’s unity more eloquently than a first Championship win since the 2013 final.
There are distasteful sides to the behaviour of Davy Fitzgerald on a sideline, and he has been criticised previously for it here. However, in the aftermath of the O’Halloran story Fitzgerald also became entangled in the determined crusade by some to depict the modern GAA player’s life as one of misery.
Controversialists in search of attention are claiming a separation between what they think the games should stand for and what they say they have become. The Clare story was a godsend and enthusiastic criticism followed.
By some accounts, one may have supposed Fitzgerald was running a North Korean prison camp franchise out of Ennis. The claims of one player, disputed by his teammates in a public statement made in support of the management, were enough for some critics to claim the Clare hurling squad was a distillation of many of the problems in modern Gaelic games.
Do not expect back-tracking or admissions of error from those sources with O’Connell’s return.
Fitzgerald’s misfortune was for this crisis to hit his squad at a time when the very meaning of the games is being discussed. It is a good argument to have, but allegations of a penal code of conduct in the Clare panel were used as further proof of the drift away from what the GAA once stood for.
The administration in Croke Park is spooked by the noise coming from its loudest knockers.
That was proved earlier this week with a needless statement clarifying comments by Páraic Duffy about the likelihood of the Croke Park naming rights ever being sold.
Many are sensitive to accusations that inter-county managers are now wielding far too much power, and so the Clare story was stirred into a deeper stew about what hurling and football should mean.
It all must have made for a traumatic month for Fitzgerald. Relegation heightened the pressure but the statement of support from his players was made flesh by the vigour of their performance against Kilkenny in the relegation decider.
THERE WAS substance behind the words, and the return of Nicky O’Connell proved as much. But the battle is not even half won.
Fitzgerald’s eyes will grow wide throughout the coming month. Imagine how many times he will ball his fists and tighten his mouth during preparations for Limerick.
He loses the run of himself during games and his behaviour towards match officials can be objectionable. But mounting evidence proves that he is not cruel or wicked.
He has to prove now that he is still the scrapper ready to take on the world.