Fitzmaurice gives it one final fling with Finuge

Before he filled any one of the myriad of roles he has played for Kerry these past five years, Eamonn Fitzmaurice was a club footballer.

Amid those seemingly ever-changing moves, that fact never altered. Throughout his metamorphosis from current to retired inter-county player, from Kerry selector to ex-selector, from returning selector to recently-made manager, Finuge has been his constant, his North star.

And it still is, albeit a dying one. For what he anticipates should be his last club game in Kerry, the 35-year-old tomorrow goes in search of an intermediate championship title he concedes has been the club’s Holy Grail.

Against Spa, a team he can’t ever recall beating in either league or championship, it is understandable that plenty outside the North Kerry village are discounting them.

But this is a club that has developed a bank of motivation founded on its fair share of hard luck stories in the competition, narrowly losing finals, not to mention agonising semi-finals.

Fitzmaurice can’t say he’s taken solace from any of those defeats but ever since he retired from Kerry in 2007 Finuge has got his undivided attention.

It’s part of the reason why he, a defender, has been operating at full-forward these last couple of seasons (more of than anon).

Five years ago and aged just 29, Fitzmaurice called a halt to his inter-county career after Kerry’s National League campaign. Not content to be a bench warmer (for what turned out to be an All-Ireland winning year), he assessed his options and hit the road.

The way it turned out, he feels he was fortunate. “I had said in January (2007) I was going to give it everything to get back into the team because I hadn’t the year before and I had found it frustrating.

“I thought I had a good chance of playing at centre-back and if I wasn’t going to get in, then it was time to think again.

“By the end of the league in 2007, I wasn’t going to be part of Pat O’Shea’s plans and I was only going to be a sub again so I figured at that stage that it was better for everybody (to retire).

“Going back to the club I was lucky, definitely. A lot of Kerry players when they finish up their inter-county careers are only barely stuck together and can’t go back and give the club a whole lot.

“I was in okay shape and I was able to make a contribution and I’ve enjoyed being back with the lads. I got the best of both worlds.

“I was involved with Kerry for nine or 10 years and then I got a good four or five years out of the club as well. I regard myself as lucky to have had that.”

All the while, Fitzmaurice has been able to keep himself in decent nick. As a selector to Jack O’Connor, he worked out with trainer Alan O’Sullivan and was active in training when he wasn’t with Finuge.

“Whenever there was an extra body needed for football I was able to fit in to make up the numbers the odd night in training.

“I didn’t do as much this year because the nature of the qualifiers dictated it wasn’t worthwhile training that hard at that time of year.

“I was still tipping away with Finuge but in the past it worked fine for me because I could get to Finuge on nights Kerry were off. I was able to balance it fine in that regard.”

He didn’t hurl with Lixnaw this year but reckons he’s only about four or five pounds up on his weight when he parted ways with Kerry five years ago.

As manager, Páidí Ó Sé had always made a conscious effort to look the part marshalling the Kerry sideline at least come Championship-time but it has never been that for the man in position now.

“It’s not something I’ve really thought about. I’ve been trying to keep in some shape for playing a bit of football with the club but it’s not something I’ve given any cause to.

“But they say a fit body is a fit mind and with all the challenges that go with management in Kerry you’re probably better off being fit than not being fit.

“It’s a coincidence, really. Next year, when I’m not playing I’ll have to work a bit harder to keep in some bit of shape.”

Tomorrow he will be the focal point of the Finuge attack, the big man on the edge of the square. While it’s an indication he’s in the autumn of his playing days, it’s also a testament to his relevancy to the team.

“Before last year, we lacked a bit of direction up front and overplayed the ball a bit out the field because we’d a lot of good footballers there.

“It was a case of one of us going into the full-forward line and in the past Paul (Galvin, Fitzmaurice’s brother-in-law) would have played inside there but the problem was it was better suited to someone who was around for all the games to develop a bit of a pattern whereas Paul was playing with Kerry and away. It’s worked reasonably well and I enjoyed it last year. When you go towards the full-forward line the next step is out the door but it’s been a new and fresh challenge.”

If laws of averages applied to Gaelic football, Fitzmaurice will be celebrating a winning end to his football career on Kerry soil and looking forward to a foray in the Munster IFC. He’s been around long enough to know it doesn’t work that way. “There are no handouts. We’ve never quite gotten over the line, we’ve never been quite good enough so it’s a big motivation. We are the underdogs, we’re up against it but it’s a great position for us to be in.”