Fired up Fitzy still gunning for grand slams

Over 20 years on, Davy Fitzgerald still wants to win everything as badly as ever, writes Anthony Daly

When we went to Thailand with Clare on the team holiday after winning the All-Ireland in 1995, we spent a week in Pattaya. It was warm in Bangkok but the heat was something savage when we went further south. There were beads of sweat on my beads of sweat. All I was able for most days was to throw myself across a sun lounger.

A short stroll for a cold beer was an ordeal but, lo and behold, Davy Fitz and Jamesie O’Connor decided one afternoon to go playing tennis. It wasn’t just a few handy backhands and forehands across the net because it turned into a five-set epic. Neither of the two boys would back down. Both wanted to win. It was like Nadal and Federer before any of us knew who they were.

Fitzy and Jamesie were nearly the only teetotallers on that trip but even they took it too far. The two boys spent a couple of days in bed afterwards with heat-stroke and exhaustion. I nearly had to join them after just watching the match. I can’t remember who won but I’m sure Fitzy will tell you he did.

Watching Sunday Sport last weekend, there was a clip of Davy shown on the promo beforehand, and the man is almost having a fit after a refereeing decision, or something that he wasn’t happy with during the match. It’s still only January. Managers and teams aren’t as hung up on this league as they were in other years but, over 20 years on, Davy still wants to win everything as badly as ever.

He isn’t exactly the ideal case study to test a theory but Davy’s fanaticism is almost incongruous to the general attitude so far, which is what we expected all along. Nobody gets carried away anyway after the first round of the league but you’d usually detect that edge in managers after losing the first game, especially when there are only five regular rounds.

Last week though, there wasn’t a scintilla of that hanging in the air. Derek McGrath didn’t even bring on a substitute against Wexford. Even Brian Cody seemed unusually relaxed after the defeat to Cork. Mick Ryan said after the Clare defeat that it had been a good workout for Tipp. Of course you’re never going to reveal your innermost thoughts in public after a defeat but it looked like Mick meant what he said, because it was the bare truth; Tipp had come to town to try and win the game but they also came with the aim of blooding some new players, which they did, some of whom performed impressively.

It’s already clear that the stigma of relegation is no longer the stain it was. When I was with Dublin, it was always clear from the county board how important 1A was to Dublin, especially for the promotion of the game.

Even the double-headers with the footballers were far more appealing when one of the hurling big guns was providing the curtain-raiser.

Getting relegated in 2012 though, was a far bigger blow for far bigger reasons. At the time, the matches in Division 1A were deemed to be way more beneficial than 1B. With every respect to the other teams in 1B at the time, Limerick were the only real big shark in those waters. In effect, that was the game you targeted, especially when you knew it would end up being the promotion final, which it was.

Now though, especially with what’s coming in the summer, the attitude has completely changed towards 1B, especially with the last three winners having come from there. Galway didn’t even get promoted last year and it certainly didn’t do them any harm. In other years, Limerick-Offaly and Dublin-Antrim wouldn’t have held that much attraction to the outside public but they are spicy looking games this weekend. You’d fancy Limerick and Dublin but you certainly wouldn’t be putting your house on that double, especially with the performances of Offaly and Antrim last weekend.

The flipside is that Galway and Dublin were looking at the bigger picture last weekend, because all teams have to. Clare haven’t been back in Croke Park since the 2013 All-Ireland final replay. The lads look like they’re treating the league more seriously than other teams but if Clare can retain their 1A status, fine, but the priority has to be in getting back to Croke Park, with a minimum target of reaching an All-Ireland semi-final. That’s how most of the teams will be, or should be, thinking.

Tipp won’t want to suffer two defeats in succession. I think you will see a stronger team in Thurles this evening but I’m sure that is more a bow to public pressure than slowing down the search as Mick seeks to unearth more options for the summer.

Derek said last week that he wanted the 15 lads on the field to get 70-plus minutes of action under their belts before he gives more fellas a chance to audition tonight.

Of course Waterford will want to win but that approach doesn’t exactly seem like real intent to get points in the bag. In any case, Tipp seem to have more work done than Waterford to date, which should prove decisive.

If you think back to the results in Round 2 last year, some of them were haywire, the complete opposite to the form-lines shown in Round 1. Dublin, who had been annihilated by Tipperary, turned around seven days later and hammered Cork, who had clipped Clare in Round 1. Then Clare turned around and gave Kilkenny the mother and father of all beatings in Ennis.

That will surely be in the back of Kilkenny minds in Nowlan Park tomorrow but they will still need to perform to a high level to win. Cork didn’t seem to be going flat out (in the first half) last Saturday but Kilkenny had their foot pressed to the accelerator that bit more.

Clare will be looking to maintain the momentum from the Tipp win but they still have issues to iron out. They’re still trying to get the balance right in their defence.

They had to change freetakers again from Peter Duggan to David Reidy. Nowlan Park will be heavy too so the boys better be prepared to battle. They will and I expect Clare to get something from this game, even if that may be a draw.

In Wexford Park tomorrow, the locals will be welcoming home John Meyler, and I’m sure Davy will have a hot-and-heavy party planned for Meyler and the Cork lads. I think Wexford will have enough to win. I also expect Wexford to be near top of 1A by the final round.

Whether they will be good enough to go on and win the competition after that is unknown but they are the one team at the moment who look to be craving wins and momentum.

The crowd are craving it too. We all saw that last weekend when the hordes came across the border into Waterford and caused the match to be delayed. Some of the crowd are nearly watching Davy more than the game but you can’t underestimate the lift a huge support base can give to a squad not used to being in 1A, and who are desperate to win there.

Nobody will be more desperate than Davy. Some things haven’t changed. Maybe Davy and Jamesie should have packed up the hurling over 20 years ago and become tennis pros (they are both serious golfers).

Instead of Federer and Nadal battling it out, we could have been watching the two boys going head to head on the ATP tours, and fighting it out for Grand Slams.

Jadal-Fitzerer. It sounds good anyway!