A GAME WHERE SKILL TRUMPS PHYSICALITY
...but extra focus on strength and conditioning will destroy a brilliant product, says Fitzgerald
IT MAY not have felt like it at the time, but the slamming of one Cork football door in his face meant that another, far more rewarding one, opened. Ephie Fitzgerald returns to Croke Park today hoping to win a second All-Ireland ladies title in three years and he is aware that is something which would have been beyond his gift had the Cork County Board taken a different view when they were rooting around for a manager in 2015 to succeed Brian Cuthbert as men’s senior manager.
He looked the best qualified from a shallow pool – given a club record that had seem him lead Nemo to four county titles in a row and a coaching stint served under Colm Collins in Clare – but, as the board dragged its heels, the penny dropped, his face did not fit.
A blessing, then, given that, within a year, while the men floundered under Peadar Healy – losing to Tipperary for the first time in 72 years – his new Cork team were being crowned All-Ireland champions.
He is thankful for that twist of fate, but more for how it has opened up his eyes to a new experience rather than in the glory.
‘When I was offered this job people were telling me I was mad because they had won so much already,’ he explains.
‘But I was never genuinely in it for the winning; it was always about the development of people as footballers but also as individuals.
‘Anywhere I go, and in my job I deal with disadvantaged kids, I see different sides of life and this is a privilege,’ says Fitzgerald.
You could dismiss that as highminded notions but, while his focus today is on regaining the All-Ireland they were stripped off in last year’s semi-final, his world view goes far beyond the 70 minutes.
The ladies game has charmed him in many ways, in the skill levels, the commitment, preparation and attention to detail but inside three years alone the changes he has witnessed make him a little nervous for what the future holds.
Last year’s loss has demanded that he oversee a badly needed transition – four of Cork’s starting six defenders will be running out in their first final today – and that process has also opened his eyes to how significantly the game is altering. And it is not all for the better, he warns.
‘There has been a big change for me, even from the time I have started, in the strength and conditioning of the teams now.
‘The amount of time and effort that goes into that is ridiculous.
‘It is probably something we have to watch going forward because the ladies game is built on end-to-end stuff without too much physicality.
‘That is something I would worry about a little bit; that we would end up where girls will be crashing into each other and it will take away from the game as a spectacle as well as add to the injury element as girls get older.’
The sense is that the ladies codes are importing some of the worst, along with the best, of the men’s games.
In last weekend’s camogie final, Cork retained their title by beating Kilkenny for the second year in a row. It was a goalless decider, dominated by sweeper based defence systems and was hard to watch as a spectacle. ‘I hope we don’t go down that route. We go out to play,’ says Fitzgerald. ‘Yeah, we have systems for defence but, in terms of going forward we generally play off the cuff because the girls are good enough and we trust them to do that,’ he insists.
That trust has been well rewarded; Cork have bagged 25 goals in their six games on the way to today’s final – averaging 26 points a game.
Let there be no doubt, Fitzgerald’s Cork team can play, but their excellence comes at a cost.
Fitzgerald marvels at the commitment levels in the game, but he also argues that it must come under the GAA’s central funding umbrella to ensure the players’ welfare needs are taken care of as they should be. Today’s final is expected to come close to last year’s record attendance of 46,000, but one big day can’t sugar the impoverished daily reality that confronts ladies football.
‘Aine O’Sullivan drives 200 miles a night to train from Beara, Melissa Duggan is in Dublin and comes down on the Wednesday by train and travels back up the following morning – without any monetary recompense,’ he points out.
‘They would not be able to do that without their parents because a lot of our players are students. It is obviously not sustainable.
‘We have league matches where we have 150 people attending so you can’t sustain it, unless the games are played as double-headers with the men’s League games. Maybe that should be the case too in the Championship.
‘We had two good semi-finals and I would say there was no more than 1,000 people there.
‘The girls need to be looked after because they are out of pocket. And, if it is to be sustainable, it will have to affiliate in some shape or form with the GAA.’
That is, of course, a battle for another day and, for now, Fitzgerald has enough in his hands.
Cork travel today with the rarest of luxuries; where not even their recod of 11 All-Irelands in the last 13 years has softened the informed belief that Dublin will win.
‘While we are not favourites for the first time in a long time that does not really matter; the ball has no ears or eyes and we are very determined. ‘Dublin are the benchmark, they have set the bar and we have to reach and mark it.’
26 Cork have averaged 26 points a game on their way to the final and have racked up 25 goals in six games