DAVY Fitzgerald will know where he wants to take Antrim and he’ll already be planning how he’s going to get there, says former Clare hurler Colin Ryan.
Deadeye free-taker Ryan was the top-scorer for Fitzgerald’s 2013 Liam MacCarthy Cup-winning Banner County side and he is confident the experienced hurling doyen will grind whatever grist the mill requires to bring success to Antrim.
Antrim last reached an All-Ireland final way back in 1989 and getting them back to that level is a daunting task even for Fitzgerald. However, Ryan does predict success for Antrim during the watch of ‘Davy Fitz’.
“He’ll go in with a big plan in terms of how he’s going to get them there,” he predicts.
“The players will see from the off that he has an awful lot organised for them. I’d imagine that he’ll be putting his team together now and there’ll be an awful lot of stuff that he’ll request from the county board that maybe other managers might have requested but got refused.
“Davy generally doesn’t take ‘no’ for an answer and if he doesn’t feel that the county board are going to be able to get the money for something then he’ll go looking for it, he’s that type of a character.
“He’ll go looking to see if he can raise the money, or can the players’ raise it, can they go off and do it… He’ll have that level of forward-thinking and he’ll put a belief into the players, he’ll put a belief into them that they can succeed and he’ll have a plan in place for them to buy into and if they don’t he’ll win them over with it.”
Antrim will be planning to challenge the likes of Dublin and Waterford in Division 1B of the National League next year and then Fitzgerald will look to build on last season’s wins over Wexford and Carlow in the Leinster Championship.
Ryan sees an All-Ireland quarter-final appearance (earned by finished in the top three in the Leinster round robin format) as a realistic target for the Glensmen.
“The Munster Championship is cut-throat now, but when you look at the Leinster Championship it’s not like that so much at the minute,” he said.
“If Antrim, Wexford and Dublin can get competitive against Galway and Kilkenny it’s going to make for more shocks and it’s also going to give those counties more belief in themselves that they can get to the All-Ireland quarter-final stage and make a mark on it.
“It needs everybody to rise to that level and Limerick have done that in Munster. They raised the standards and other counties realised that if they didn’t come up to meet them then they were in trouble. You can see now that Cork and Clare and Waterford at times have raised their game.
“Leinster needs Antrim, Wexford and Dublin going well - they need strong teams challenging Galway and Kilkenny. Antrim traditionally haven’t been a successful county so they need profile, they need people to get on board and give them all the help they can to make them competitive.
“A 10-team strong All-Ireland series will make for a great Championship.”
Ryan explained how Fitzgerald’s attention to detail and knowhow helped him to improve individually as he worked tirelessly to unite a group of talented players and inspire them to hurling’s ultimate prize 11 seasons ago.
“He helped me as a player,” he says.
“He helped me get better and he didn’t just say things – he put things in place for me to get better. He was always trying to improve and trying to get players on board.
“If you don’t have his trust you’ll get a bark back off him, that’s just part of his personality and I don’t think anyone’s going to change him now.”
