Steeped in green and gold culture

Talisman: "Someone with magical or protective powers." You could have fooled Maurice Fitzgerald. It's a Saturday afternoon, eight days before the All-Ireland football final, and this injury-prone icon, this so-called talisman, of Kerry football stands in the middle of the training ground still unsure about his exact role. Will it be as the super-sub to end all super-subs, again? Or a place in the starting 15? The inspiration in the attack?

Four times this summer, he has been sprung from the Kerry bench. On each occasion, he has had a part to play in Kerry's survival; most tellingly in the drawn All-Ireland semi-final with Armagh. The wonder is that Fitzgerald is available at all. In the past year, he has broken two bones in his leg and the battle back to fitness has involved much physical work away from the public glare. Private work with weights, diligently following his own personal training programme with just one goal: to attain full fitness.

What drove him on? "The dream of going back there (to Croke Park). It's a great honour." But of his injury, he remarks: "It is all relative. There are people with more serious problems than I have . . . if it is just a leg injury that you're going to come around from, then it is not really a big problem in the general sense. I had moments obviously when you'd have to wonder whether you're going to keep at it but I suppose I never had any doubts I was going to try to make an impact. I'm delighted to be back."

Oh, Fitzgerald can weave magic all right. We've known that for years - and, each time in the 2000 campaign, his introduction as substitute has resulted in an increase in the decibel level. When Maurice Fitzgerald takes to the field, people expect. But then, so does Maurice Fitzgerald expect. When talking to him, nobody, no other Kerryman, mentions the "green and gold" with as much regularity. The culture of Kerry football is ingrained in him, all six feet two inches of his tall, pencil-slim figure; it's part of his body and soul.

You ask about the frustration, the disappointment, of being kept on the bench. And you expect this quiet volcano to erupt. There is no explosion, just a simple explanation in measured tones about "enjoying the occasion and being involved".

"Within this group," he says, "there is a very special bond and a very good atmosphere, a nice blend of youth and experience. Any time you're involved in the green and gold jersey, there's not much frustration. I've been focused on the long-term goal which has been to be fit enough to be part of it all."

Tonight, the Kerry team will be selected and Fitzgerald believes he is ready to start a match. "I'm quite happy now to be in a state that I'm fit enough to be considered for the whole occasion, happy that I'm fit to play," he insists. "I got very tired towards the finish of the Armagh match, but I'm not any different to a lot of players in that respect. It was a very hard pace and fitness in the modern game has moved on a bit. I was delighted with extra-time, when we had the right result, because it was probably good for me to get that extra half-an-hour's football as opposed to 20-odd minutes. It brought me on a bit more and the longer you get games in the championship the better you're going to be."

This time round, things are different in many ways from the 1997 experience when Fitzgerald shouldered much of the attacking responsibility in Kerry's march to the title. Although he has impacted in each game upon his introduction as substitute, much of the attacking focus has come through Michael Frank Russell. Fitzgerald, for one, is not surprised by Russell's mushrooming season.

"He was doing it when he started in '97 and, to be perfectly honest, even at that stage it was frightening the things he was capable of doing and the pace and the skills that he brought to the game," states Fitzgerald. "He was unfortunate in that he suffered a bit of an injury but, like any player who plays in the green and gold, he went away and he quietly did what he had to do . . . he's done all that, and now he is reaping the rewards. He's playing top-class football and we're delighted."

Whether Fitzgerald gets his wish of a place in the starting team will be decided tonight, but he knows that whoever Kerry put out to start the match can expect a tough encounter. "Galway are probably the top team in the country over the past two or three years. They're certainly the team a lot of people and the country look up to because of their style of football . . . it seems to be attractive and we'd certainly look to it as being attractive and we'd like to emulate that type of football with long ball and quick movement," he says.

Of course, some of the talk is of the psychological pre-match bluster variety, but there is no doubting the genuine respect that Fitzgerald holds for Galway. "We'll be going up to this game well focused for the job that's in hand," he insists, adding: "So often it comes down to something happens on the day, or somebody turns in a special performance. You never know where it is going to come from. There is a huge unknown factor, but that's the beauty of it . . . seeing what will unfold." And you just know that Fitzgerald wouldn't object to being the one to produce that little something special . . . if he gets the chance!