Darragh Fitzgibbon: ‘You have to enjoy it as these are the things you dream of as a kid’

The 27-year-old fully intends embracing the experience, this being his second All-Ireland final and only Cork’s third in 19 seasons, excluding the 2013 replay.

Tue, 09 Jul, 2024 - 06:29

John Fogarty

Sticking to routines will be key to Cork ensuring don’t get carried away with their epic All-Ireland semi-final win over Limerick, says Darragh Fitzgibbon.

That there are only 12 days now until the final against Clare should work in the group’s favour too, but the midfielder knows they can’t get swept up in the expectation around the county.

“We can’t as players especially with the quick turnaround. It took a lot of effort to get where we are from where we were at the start of the year. You have to celebrate those things without getting ahead of yourselves. We’ll knuckle down now. We do a gym and a review session after games and that’s what we’ll be sticking to.”

Mental coach Gary Keegan was namechecked by Pat Ryan after Sunday’s win. Going back to 2016 and ’17 when he first worked with Cork before he returned in ‘22, his expertise has long been regarded by the players.

Fitzgibbon agrees the Irish men’s senior rugby team’s performance coach’s role will be vital in focusing minds in the days ahead.

“I think he’s the best in the world at what he does and we’re so lucky to have him because he’s involved in so many professional set-ups. We’re just delighted to have him.

“We lost him a couple of years ago and it was one of our things we drove as players to get him back. He always hits the spot with us and I’ve no doubt he will do the same next week.”

That chastening experience of the 2021 All-Ireland final will be returned to this week as well as April’s defeat to Clare in SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

“We’ll definitely look back on the Clare game and we’ll definitely look back on the final as well to see what things worked well for us and what things didn’t,” remarks Fitzgibbon.

“When you go into a final, you want to look at things outside of the final to make sure that we’re prepared to the best of our abilities. So, we’ll look at the mistakes we made, the things we did right and take them all into consideration. It’s a totally new final, a new final, a new management, it’s great.”

The 27-year-old fully intends embracing the experience, this being his second All-Ireland final and only Cork’s third in 19 seasons, excluding the 2013 replay. “You have to enjoy these things. You can take the moment as high pressure but you have to enjoy it because these are the things you dream of as a kid and everyone else dreams and aspires to these things as well.”

Sunday was particularly sweet for the Charleville man who, living and working on the Limerick border, would have heard plenty from their supporters over the last four years.

“It’s a great rivalry. Everybody knows Limerick have been fantastic champions the last couple of years. There’s been banter but it hasn’t been easy to take either obviously, seeing how successful they were. They were gracious in victory and there were gracious in defeat and they wished us the best of luck.”