Fitzgerald, the back seat driver with the Bridge

THE club that has brought Clare to the verge of a first club All Ireland started the season quite like the county - unfancied in the wider scheme of things. As a team in transition, Sixmilebridge weren't thought likely to win the county let alone prolong interest this far.

Manager Jim Faul, reputed to be so enthusiastic that he can be heard two miles from the training pitch, doesn't have much to offer in the way of explanation. Raking over the trivia of a successful season, he remembers back to September when the county brought back the All Ireland for the first time in 81 years.

"A small thing happened after Clare coming back. The four boys (county panellists) came into the field up there one evening and the other players presented them with a token of the achievement and asked them to say a few words. They all said the same thing, about the county championship. A small thing but everyone got the meaning."

Among the four was David Fitzgerald. At the age of eight he played under 12 for the club. More significantly he started in goal, not as one of those precocious talents that have to be protected between the posts until old enough to move out the field, but already as a specialist.

The speciality led him to an All Ireland last year and a players All Star. His reputation hasn't dimmed in the more prosaic world of club hurling. Quicksilver reflexes and a prodigious puck out are complemented by a sergeant major's disposition in dealings with his full back line.

"David is a kind of a character, he'd drive a full back line," says Jim Faul. "He wouldn't stand there and just block shots, he'd motivate the full back line and keep them on their toes. It's one great addition to David's talents that he can get his three backs all working together. He's a brilliant character, a great clubman. David wouldn't miss a training session for Sixmilebridge, he's fierce loyal."

Along the way Fitzgerald has picked up a couple of Harty Cup medals and an All Ireland Colleges medal with St Flannan's, the celebrated Ennis hurling academy. Now he looks forward to another chance of an All Ireland.

"It's very special," he says. "The club is where you started hurling. It means a lot. People say, have you the same appetite as in the All Ireland? I have Zevery bit as much. There's a lot of pride at stake."

As one of two members of Clare's team and among four panellists, Fitzgerald might feel under pressure but the team is ideally constituted to counter that. Many others have represented Clare and some are retired from inter county but remain very influential in club terms. This season, the older hurlers have excelled in the Bridge's progress.

"One good thing about the Bridge is that we might be playing with the county but there are a lot more leading figures with the team. Gerry McInerney, Flan Quilligan, John O'Connell I'd look up to them - but in general we're evenly balanced with no prima donnas."

McInerney in particular has been outstanding, taking important goals and featuring in crucial switches when matches have been in the balance.

"Gerry McInerney has been the man this year," says Fitzgerald. "Every one in the Bridge would say that. He's very intelligent and every ball, he uses it. I've never seen him just hit a ball away for the sake of hitting it. Every ball has a purpose.

"He's the player I'd have looked up to since I started hurling from day one. It's great to be playing with him. He's the best forward in the county at the moment. Any game we're in trouble, like the county final, he came out centrefield and won the game for us."

Facing Antrim champions Dunloy tomorrow, Fitzgerald is studiously respectful of the opposition whom he would have seen at far from their best in last year's All Ireland final replay against Birr which preceded the Railway Cup final in which Fitzgerald kept goal for Munster.

"Dunloy showed great character after being beaten in a replay to come back. They're a really good side. I read the papers after their semi final and Dunloy seemed confident that they wouldn't be caught a second year.

"I'm concerned that Dunloy have been there (Croke Park) twice last year and a semi final this year. We've fellas who have never hit a ball there and I'm worried how they react. It's a different place, different to Thurles with stands all around you.

After the long arduous season with Clare, Fitzgerald has been feeling the effects of switching to non stop training with the club.

"Last year Clare had a lot of pressure games you had to perform in. Eight or nine games to be at your peak for.

I was back the Wednesday night after the All Ireland with the club. I didn't really feel like going back because the appetite wasn't the same but the other lads had been training the whole time so you just couldn't stay out. I'd have liked to take a break for two weeks but there was no way you could do it.

"Coming into the Munster club final, I found it especially tough. I was very run down, couldn't wait to get it over and have the few weeks off."

Having achieved what he did in 1995, Fitzgerald is still haunted by Offaly's first goal in the All Ireland final where he fumbled the ball into the net in a dramatic counterpoint to his otherwise excellent summer. The experience was instructive.

"Last year was one of best years I ever had but still people are talking about the goal I let in in the All Ireland. After the Munster final, people were coming up to me and saying you're this and chat. I said I got the breaks, things went right for me and they did. I got in a save that day. It was a good save - it was a reflex - but it went up, hit the post and came back out and that was a break. It could have gone up into the corner of the net.

"The day of the All Ireland, there was nothing between killing that ball dead on my hurley and lamping it 100 yards down the field. I wasn't nervous but that took more out of me for the 35 minutes after.

"I said at half time you can go two ways now drop down and flop or get out and show them you want the ball. I did it. I went out and got two or three tough balls and dealt well with them. I was very happy because if I'd messed up a second time, my hurling career was finished."