Stepping out from the shadows of a legend

HOW do you replace a legend? For well over a decade Davy Fitzgerald stood between the posts for Clare as the Banner finally took its place at hurling’s top table.

Last year, failing to see eye to eye with manager Tony Considine, Fitzgerald walked away from the Clare setup and was replaced by his understudy of the previous two years, an unknown youngster from Tulla called Philip Brennan.

That should have been it, end of story, but it wasn’t, and soon the controversy began to rage. As Brennan’s Munster championship debut approached, a tough game against hot favourites Cork in prospect, the airwaves around Ennis were thick with accusation and counter-accusation.

The local press was in the thick of it as the calls went out for Fitzgerald to be reinstated.

Not the best atmosphere then in which to make your debut, and yet, against Cork, Brennan played like a veteran, no sign of nerves, unflappable. A few minutes in his company and you understand why – this guy is coolness personified.

“There’s pressure if you let it become pressure but I never thought about it that way. None of the stuff that was going on affected me, I didn’t pay much heed to it to be honest. There was enough going on in my own head, I was focused on that, I wouldn’t allow anything else get in the way.

“A lot of things were said but I had no interest in any of it. Even if there is no such thing as replacing a legend there was going to be the fact that you were playing your first championship game. He is a legend but just because I was the man stepping in didn’t put me under added pressure, none that I felt anyway.

“If you got bogged down in that you were in trouble; It was just a case of having my head right, being properly focused. I knew I had my work done, I had the basics right, I was happy.”

Much of that work was done with another man who had understudied Fitzgerald, journalist and author Christy O’Connor, now also a specialist goalkeeping coach, and it’s work that Brennan credits for where he is today.

“I started working with Christy last year; every couple of weeks myself and Seánie Hawes from Cratloe, the sub-goalie last year (intermediate keeper for Clare this Sunday), did a lot of work.

“Great sessions, they made a huge difference to my game, brought me to a totally different level. He helped me big-time with my footwork but there’s also a lot of handling, catching balls, an awful lot of stuff where if you make a save you get up as quickly as possible, make the clearance.

“There’s no such thing as 20 balls flying at you from different angles, because you’re never going to have that happen; it’s all about replicating what’s likely to happen in match situations, improving all your individual skills in those situations, and that’s where I feel I have really improved, using those specialised drills.”

That’s something that’s coming more and more into hurling, as the GAA catches up with other sports in the area of specialised coaching, but it’s of particular relevance to goalkeepers, reckons Brennan.

“The keeper has very different skill needs to the outfield players, and footwork is vital, as is ball-handling. It was good to have someone like Christy around for my debut, someone as specialised and as professional as him; knowing I had the work done, I was a lot more prepared, a lot more settled.”

That was last year, and all season Brennan hardly put a foot wrong, to such an extent that even when Fitzgerald returned to the fold this year he couldn’t dislodge the man from Tulla.

A big man, well over six feet, nearly 14 stone, built in the mould of Brendan Cummins, Brennan is a commanding figure around the box, takes complete and confident charge of the high ball dropping around crossbar height and is competent on the low shot.

It wasn’t always like that, however, but then when it came to goalkeeping, and even before he met Christy O’Connor, Brennan went to a good school.

“I didn’t grow ‘til I was 17, didn’t make any Clare teams at underage, but I went to WIT (he’s an architect, working with Siobhan Mulcahy’s office in Tulla), played Fitzgibbon Cup, and that made a huge difference.

“My first year in college I broke onto the Fitzgibbon panel and that same couple of weeks I broke onto the Clare 21’s, the first Clare team I ever made.

‘‘With WIT I was sub-goalie in ‘03 to Damien Young of Tipp when we won the final but I was in goals then after that; I won one as a sub and two as a player.”

There, surrounded as he was by Kilkenny hurlers, he learned up close about the true art of defence.

“We won the Fitzgibbon ‘03, ‘04 and ‘06, and in ‘04 we had 13 lads out of 30 from Kilkenny – they were very strong, fantastic defenders. In the final of ‘04, against UCC, it was an all-Kilkenny full-back line, Chris O’Neill, Ken Coogan and JJ Delaney. They were awesome, I think I touched the ball once during the whole game. Even the whole campaign, I had very little to do.”

On to 2008 now, and so far this year also, Brennan hasn’t had an awful lot to do. No goals conceded in the first round win over Waterford (2-26 to 0-23 win for Clare), though he was called on a couple of times to make good saves, once in each half.

The same now tomorrow in Semple Stadium against Limerick, another clean sheet, and Clare will have a good chance of reaching their first Munster final since 1999.