'I'll play anywhere' - Mark Fitzgerald willing to fill any position for Waterford

THE PLASTER: Waterford's Mark Fitzgerald in attendance for the Munster GAA Senior Hurling and Football Championship launch. Pic: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile.

Robbing Peter. Paying Paul. Needs must, and all the rest of it.

In this instance, Peter is the Waterford half-back line. Paul is the Waterford full-back line. The needs are that of the Waterford collective.

Mark Fitzgerald will make his 14th championship start for the Waterford hurlers this weekend. Appearances six through 13 saw him placed in the half-back line. He’d become an indispensable member of said half-back line. He will not be in the half-back line at Ennis.

The 23-year-old Passage clubman was at left-half-back for Waterford’s opening two games of this year’s League. Business as usual. And then Conor Prunty went and pulled his quad.

A giant gaping wound in the middle of the Waterford full-back line was left. Fitzgerald was anointed the plaster. Back he trooped and there he operated for the defeats to Kilkenny, Galway, and Tipperary.

There aren’t too many who agree with the switch. Listeners of the Anthony Daly Examiner hurling podcast, or readers of his print column, will know his opposition to the temporary redeployment.

“With Clare in Ennis in their first championship match, do Waterford want Mark Fitz inside in the full-back line wrestling with Peter Duggan? They don’t,” he recently wrote.

Opposition to the move has less to do with Fitzgerald's capabilities in the No.3 shirt. It has far more to do with his known capabilities at wing-back and how Waterford have suffered for his absence there. They so miss his attacking dimension.

What of Fitzgerald himself, what has he made of his new residence?

“Everyone knows there is a lot of man-on-man in the full-back line, and it is very physical there. In the half-back line, there is more space and more free ball,” he said.

“When you are playing against the top players in the country, the one-on-one combat is definitely an exciting experience. Playing against and marking the best is only going to improve yourself.

“If you are on the field and you are making an impact on the team, I'll play anywhere.”

A three-time Fitzgibbon winner with UL, Fitzgerald was still a teenager when one of Liam Cahill’s last acts as Waterford boss was to throw him in for their final round-robin outing of the 2022 summer. Waterford were already eliminated. They lost that day in Ennis by 12.

The teenager stayed on the field for the entirety. He’s been on the field for every minute of every Munster championship game since. Three of those, in 2022, were as a corner-back. He’s never played a championship game outside of Munster. Fourth and fifth place finishes in the provincial round-robin have been his Waterford existence.

They opened their 2025 campaign with victory over Brian Lohan’s men. Same again, please, on Sunday.

“I think the whole circumstances are completely different every year. Any team can beat any team on their day when it comes to the first-round of Munster. Getting out of Munster is a huge nugget to be chased after. You get a bit of momentum behind you, anything can happen,” Fitzgerald remarked.

“We have dissected the League and taken bits out of it, but we wouldn't be happy the way the League went. We parked it two weeks ago and all our focus is now on Clare.”

The county’s failure to ever once finish in the top three across the six editions of the current format must surely be a sizable albatross around the Waterford neck.

No, replied the Project Management Masters student.

“Once you are enjoying hurling and once the group is enjoying their hurling, that is all that matters. There are prizes at the end of it that every team wants, of course. Getting out of Munster and winning is the big priority.”