Four nights in Wexford. Three nights in Sixmilebridge.
It’s a high paced, non-stop, flat to the mat routine but Davy Fitzgerald wouldn’t have it any other way. Hurling defines who that man is, and it would take something special to keep him for so long as a night away.
People talk about his commitment to Wexford. The four nights a week. The long drives and the late nights but Fitzgerald’s devotion to the game stretches far beyond the sunny south east.
Back in the day it was LIT’s Fitzgibbon team that kept the fire burning. Fitzgerald was immersed in the Moylish cause for sixteen successful years. Then you’d hear the stories of him showing up to do umpire at club games in Clare and you already know the sort of stuff this fella is made of.
Seadna Morey was on The GAA Hour this week when he told the story of Sixmilebridge’s year.
“We were struggling to get in a manager,” Morey says to Colm Parkinson, referring to the beginning of the 2019 season.
"We were struggling to get in a manager. To still train his club while training the county team, we hold him in such high regard, it just shows what a @SMBGAA man he is"
When his club needed a trainer, Davy Fitz obliged Tim Crowe's request and now he has them in a county final. pic.twitter.com/U7ZYDR32Mx
— The GAA Hour (@TheGAAHour) October 11, 2019
Tim Crowe came in and he managed to bring an ace card along with him. With his home club struggling to find a trainer, Davy didn’t think twice about giving back to the club that made him the man he is.
“Tim Crowe managed to talk Davy into it to come in with us…”
And that was the move that helped bring Sixmilebridge back to another county final. The Bridge take on Cratloe in Cusack Park live on TG4 this Sunday.
” To still train his club while training the county team, we hold him in such high regard for that, it just shows what a Bridge man he is to come back to train us,” said Morey.
“He’d be four nights away with Wexford and he’d spend the other three nights with Sixmilebridge. The players are all delighted, he’s been incredible. It shows the desire and passion he has for the game…”
“He committed to a Tuesday, a Thursday and then either a Saturday or Sunday morning. Like he got married there last Friday and he was training the Bridge team on Saturday, he’s absolutely incredible, the work he puts into it is insane…”
“People might worry would he have been able to answer to someone. But they have a great partnership. Davy takes all the training sessions and a good few members of the Wexford backroom team help us out too…I’m sure it releases a bit of pressure on him too…”
As for the Cratloe challenge, the neighbouring clubs have been there or thereabouts in every Clare club championship this decade, but this is their first final meeting. Morey is expecting a tough game.
“The parish of Cratloe ends right up into the village of Sixmilebridge. We’ve been fairly acquainted over the last number of years and we’ve tested each other’s limits. Both teams are going to be absolutely gunning for it. We would have grown up as good friends with the Cratloe lads, having gone to school together, but when it comes to the field, it’s all put aside and we go at each other to no-end.”
Bring on that one.
You can watch the Morey interview, the Galvin interview and rest of The GAA Hour show here.
