One session with Davy Fitz was enough for Cork camogie stopper

Cork camogie goalkeeper Aoife Murray admitted she couldn’t face a second training session with Davy Fitzgerald after one gruelling morning with the Clare coach.

Murray recalled the intensity and pressure of a coaching clinic with the current Clare manager at his home in Sixmilebridge one Sunday morning.

“He’s a very different trainer to Ger Cunningham, who’s very calm, quiet and patient. Davy is there shouting the head off you,” she said.

“I promised myself I’d never go back because I couldn’t put myself through that training session again,” laughed Murray.

“It is one hundred percent all go.”

But Murray appreciated the guidance and said she went to Fitzgerald to learn more about the physical side of the game and to learn when, as a keeper, to leave her line as a forward approached.

“As a kid growing up I might get a bit excited when the ball got near and I might make a jolt out to get it when it was just too far away and I should just relax and hold back. That’s what I worked on with him.”

Murray was speaking at a seminar on leaders in women’s sports in UCC on Monday night. The Cloughduv native, who won six All-Ireland titles with Cork, spoke enthusiastically about the advances in goalkeeping training.

“I’ve seen all the training from the coach who just wants you to do laps. But I’ve seen a transition to something now that is so much more professional.”

Murray said training has advanced from a few shooting drills at the end of the night to a more structured regime for goalkeepers.

“I’ve seen trainings change from last-minute panic to proper drills. From footwork to speed work to angled work.

“To now, I’m in a position where I can tell a forward where to hit it. It’s such a joy when they do.”

Murray acknowledged that former goalkeepers can have a major impact on the development of a new crop of stoppers.

“Thankfully we’re at the stage now where ex-goalkeepers are training current goalkeepers.

“I’ve had Declan Powell in Dublin, Teddy Donovan on the Cork side. I’ve been up to Davy Fitz and Gerard Cunningham and from all these people you get to really figure out the position.

“You only figure out the position of a goalkeeper if you’ve played there.”