Fionn Fitzgerald bringing science and experience to young GAA stars' developing story

The former Kingdom star is an expert in biobanding and biological maturation - because of research and a lived experience.

APPLIANCE OF SCIENCE: The former Kerry star is a lecturer in MTU Tralee’s department of health and leisure. Picture: Brendan Moran / SPORTSFILE

Last Friday, only a week out from the latest episode in a long-running rivalry which he played his own part in, Fionn Fitzgerald came up to Cork and not untypically of a Kerryman educated the natives and several others on some matters football.

As well as his day job as a lecturer in MTU Tralee’s department of health and leisure, Fitzgerald has undertaken a doctorate, and at the recent sports science conference in MTU Cork he gave a fascinating insight into some of what he is researching. Playing on that dismissive refrain of coaches and other supposed of judges of talent that a particular player ‘doesn’t have it’, Fitzgerald’s presentation was titled, ‘The eyes don’t have it: How a coach’s eye is not a valid method of estimating biological maturation’.