Savage belief in Clare cause

Ian O'Riordan gets an insight into why Clare's goalkeeper, Davy Fitzgerald , never doubted his side's ability to reach Sunday's final.

Any time you talk to Davy Fitzgerald there comes a stage when his inner voice takes over. It's a voice that starts coming from the heart with the sort of crazed enthusiasm and infectious spirit that has characterised his role in the Clare team for a decade now, and shows absolutely no sign of quietening.

These are the times Fitzgerald lives for, when hurling consumes everything: quiet evenings in Cusack Park before unleashing his raging obsession between the goalposts of Croke Park on All-Ireland Sunday.

So he finishes a few practice penalties that go off like pistol shots into the night and starts talking about Clare's return to the top.

Straight up he can't understand how people wrote them off so easily this year.

"We were 14 to 1 at the start of the season," he says. "Great odds if you wanted a punt on it. If you know what I mean. But I was sure this team had so much more in it than we'd given to date.

"Of course it was a big disappointment losing to Tipperary again but the one thing we talked about afterwards was that we had the winning of that game. On the day we just couldn't seem to take it, and I think a lot of the younger players maybe didn't believe we could win it. We just needed one tight win under out belt, which we got against Galway, and that gave us great confidence."

Maybe it was the easy option to write off Clare but we remind him nonetheless of the National League quarter-final last spring, when they lost 0-23 to 0-9 to a Limerick side that had played with 14 men for two-thirds of the game.

"Well to ye maybe things didn't look great then, and to everyone around the country. But I don't think we were too interested in that league quarter-final to be honest. I still had savage belief in the team."

Two nights later they met in the West County Hotel in Ennis. Every member of the team had to talk. It wasn't a crisis meeting, but they had to decide what they needed to do for the championship. There hadn't been any fight in the team in the league but Fitzgerald wasn't bothered. He'd been back training since October, the earliest in six years, and now was the time to make it count.

"We knew the centre of the team was still there. And the average age is still 25 or 26. This is not an old team. There are some great young lads in there that have worked so hard. I don't want to say who but one of them said to me when we were training in the crap last November that he was going to be there playing on the 19th of May, no matter what. And he was.

"I mean it's unreal some of the things Tony Griffin and Tony Carmody did to get on this team. The things they did personally are just incredible. Alan Markham has also battled so hard to get himself back into shape."

Even when they eventually got back to Croke Park there were worrying moments - against both Galway and Waterford - especially at the start. Fitzgerald can't repeat what he was saying to his defence then, especially when everything Waterford touched went over the bar, but he never thought they were going to be wiped clean.

"No, we won't be wiped by anyone. And not by Kilkenny because we're up for that challenge. But the one thing I will say about the final is that I have admired this Kilkenny team for a number of years. Especially their forwards. I mean any team that can leave Charlie Carter on the sideline, you know. And DJ is looking so sharp. Same with Andy Comerford, and his brother inside. They're looking really, really good and their appetite is up.

"But we will dog 'em, and fight 'em. And do whatever we have to do to win. I was out of the county last weekend and people were saying to me that we won't win the All-Ireland because we haven't got the forwards. And our backs won't withhold the pressure. But I won't comment on that until Sunday evening. We'll wait and see."

At 29 Fitzgerald has already given a lifetime's share to Clare hurling, with almost missionary intent. He's already taken his share of aggravation too, mostly surrounding the separation from his wife four years ago. He can always find solace at his home in Lahinch, or when his five-year old son Colm joins him for training in Ennis, but when the personal criticism starts coming down on the field he finds it hard to control himself.

"I'll tell you that's one thing I could do without in sport. I hate the way that people can take your private life outside of sport and judge you on it. The doing I've got from certain supporters outside the county is ridiculous. None of them know me, yet they'll go and judge me. That's totally unfair and I could do without that.

"People might think I'm arrogant. And that I show my emotion a lot on the field. But for years I went behind goals and watched Clare playing, and narrowly losing by a point or two. I'd feel gutted by it. It was indescribable. They were great Clare teams and they just couldn't get there.

"So when we made the breakthrough I said I never wanted to go back to that. Even if Clare aren't always winning I want them always competing. That we're still getting to All-Ireland finals. This county lives for hurling. I want Clare to stay at the top of hurling and the lads feel the same."

When you love hurling the way Fitzgerald does there is no such thing as sacrifice. He loves the coaching as much, and has got just as much buzz this summer by taking the Ennistymon junior team to the county final for the first time in 13 years. He also works with both the Sixmilebridge and Antrim under-21 teams.

Then there's the golf, and though he's got his handicap down as low as two, he's only been out on the course twice in the last seven weeks.

"Nah. Golf doesn't matter. Hurling is the only thing that matters. Winning the Liam McCarthy in September. When so many people have written us off, and saying we were gone, it would be even nicer than before.

"But we can't get away from the fact that we're playing a superb team. How many All-Ireland finals have they been in? Kilkenny are some team. But you can't beat heart. And character. We have it. The fellas that won two All-Irelands still have it, and no matter what happens on Sunday they've proven that."