By David Fitzgerald’s admission, one of his main assets may be his versatility. First called into the Clare hurling panel as a forward, he made his debut as a defender, in 2016, won an All Star at midfield in 2022, before re-establishing himself now as one of their leading forwards.
Once Fitzgerald gets that Clare jersey, as they all say, he doesn’t mind where ends up playing.
What can be a little more pressing at times is his availability. Named PwC GAA/GPA hurler of the month for March, between Fitzgerald’s recent run of games with Clare, and his work commitments away from hurling, it’s the second Tuesday of May before he’s found time to accept it.
Clare are the only one of the five Munster teams enjoying a full three-week break between matches; after their opening round loss to Limerick on April 21st, then their second round win over Cork on April 28th, they’re not out next until Sunday week (May 19th) at home to Waterford, before finishing up away to Tipperary on May 26th.
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“If you progress in the league, then with the new championship structure, you’re almost on week on week, since early February,” says Fitzgerald, who maintained his impressive scoring streak by adding another goal in Clare’s hurling final win over Kilkenny last month, only their fifth title in all.
“In hindsight, it did work out well. It [the league] is never really the priority starting out, but once you start progressing, you’d like to win it, so it worked out well in that regard.
“We had to play our hand a bit with some injuries, Ryan Taylor and Tony Kelly out, Shane O’Donnell only coming back, as he does. But Mark Rodgers has been outstanding for us.
“And I know a lot of players say it, and I’m just going to reiterate it, but that’s what players want. Compared to when I started, back in 2016, when you might have one championship game, then six weeks off in between. So way better from a player point of view.”
After that opening-round loss to Limerick in Ennis (3-15 to 1-18), Clare bounced back seven days later to beat Cork (3-26 to 3-24), with Fitzgerald scoring 1-1. Eight years after making his debut, essentially sent on as an emergency wing back in Clare’s league quarter-final win over Tipperary, it’s hard to see him moving back there now.
“It’s funny all right when I was brought in first, back in 2016, it was more as an attacker,” he says. “Then we’d a bit of an injury crisis, that league campaign, so I ended finding myself at wing back for a few years.
“Then when Brian [Lohan] came in, he kind of pushed me further forward, and that’s where I’ve been at recent years. I do enjoy being further forward, to be honest, but as long as you’re making the starting 15, as a player, that’s your number one focus.
“There was a year or two I was coming in off the bench, didn’t make the 26 at other stages, so getting back into the starting 15 was obviously my goal.”
When University of Limerick won the Fitzgibbon Cup, in 2018, Fitzgerald was the man of the match in the final; in 2022 and 2023 he was named on the Sunday Game team of the year, even though Clare hadn’t featured in either All-Ireland final.
Now 28, Fitzgerald has a busy role away from hurling now with Stratos, the commercial aircraft investment specialists. With offices in Dublin, London, Monaco and Tokyo, Fitzgerald works mostly out of their hub in Shannon but travels elsewhere.
Should Cork lose to Limerick this Sunday, that would likely end their Munster challenge. After losing the last two Munster finals to Limerick, and still seeking a first title since 1998, Clare’s target speaks for itself.
“Yeah, that’s quite a long time and the fact Brian Lohan is over us now probably adds a bit more to that, one of the last players to have been there and done that.
“And I know I keep harping on about it, but I love the fact we’ve games so frequently. If a game doesn’t go well, you can park it, and say right I’m going to improve things the following week. And it’s predominately just recovery in between.
“Limerick are obviously still the dominant force, the standard bearers, every other team are trying to catch them. But in fairness, most games are quite competitive. The game is in a really good place at the minute.”
“We feel we’re making progress and maintaining consistency. But you’re always trying to build on the previous year, and I think we’ve greater squad depth, that’s a positive too. With round-robin, it’s all about how you manage games and if you don’t win a game, there’s no time to dwell.”
