Fitzmaurice ready for final fling

Only a few months into his tenure as Kerry manager and Eamonn Fitzmaurice is ready to quit. No, not his new job, which he’s thoroughly enjoying, his playing career.

Eamonn’s club, Finuge, finally won the Kerry county intermediate title last year and on January 27 will meet Monasterevin in the All-Ireland semi-final. But, at 35, Kerry’s youngest ever senior football manager is beginning to feel the pinch on the playing field.

“I will play at the end of January and we’ll see where that takes us; if we make the All-Ireland final in February, that will be it then. I don’t think you could balance the two (managing Kerry, playing with Finuge) and anyway my body is starting to send me messages, that it’s had enough. I’m in bonus territory anyway, and the Intermediate Championship in Kerry was something that we (Finuge) were trying to win for a long time. We went close a couple of times so it was fantastic to win it last year — at 35.”