By John Harrington

Wexford hurling manager Davy Fitzgerald admits two bouts of heart surgery have changed his perspective on hurling and life.

The Sixmilebridge man had two stents inserted in 2009 due to a blocked artery and then had another heart issue last year that required the insertion of two more stents.

He remains as much in love with hurling now as ever, but those health scares have made him realise what’s really important in life.

“You definitely value things way more,” said Fitzgerald yesterday at the Allianz Hurling League launch in Croke Park.

“Your health is everything, like. I don't think you realise that until someone close to you or yourself gets a rattle. You have all of these ideas and plans, you want to do x, y, and z, but you've got to be healthy and right to do them.

“So my attitude, definitely, it's all about people, it's all about being healthy, so it is. Do I take things to heart at times? I still take things to heart.

“When you get beaten, when you put so much into it and there is abuse coming you feel it and it's tough. I try not to let it get to me as much. Just say there's a lot of people out there and just forget about it.

“Before it used to bother me an awful lot worse. People had a perception. My thing is always that you should sit down and spend a bit of time with someone.

“I can remember an incident that happened two years ago that absolutely hurt me unreal. And I was accused of being an x, y and z. I knew it was the furthest thing from the truth. I could do nothing only take it. And it's hard, because I'd like to think that I would be a good person.

“Do I do everything right? No. I'll make mistakes the same as any other guy. I'll make them on the field, I'll probably make them off the field. But I'd like to think if someone wants you to do something you'd do it for them.”

It’s no surprise to hear Fitzgerald say that in the past he’s taken criticism to heart and let it hurt him too much.

He might be fiery and feisty on the sideline, but that match-day character is just one dimension of his personality. 

“I kind of would be soft enough when it comes to people in general,” he says. “You'd always be looking to make sure lads are okay when they're with you.

“How they're getting on outside of hurling. Because that impacts on them as well. If work isn't going well or they're having a problem with their relationship, and, trust me, I would have had a good bit of it in Clare.

“At times lads would come under pressure and I'd ring them and talk to them and see if I could help them. I think that's very important.

“Do you have to be tough at times? Of course you have to be tough at times in order to just keep that balance. But I'd like to think that you'd be there to help someone if you could. Because you never know yourself when you'll need a helping hand.

“We're all that way, guys. There's none of us...I thought for a long time I was invincible, but that's fecking not the way. Not the way.”

Fitzgerald has given an unbroken service to senior inter-county hurling since he joined the Clare panel as a young goalkeeper in 1989.

When his own playing career ended he immediately went into management with Waterford and then went from there to Clare, and now from Clare to Wexford without taking a break.

He might have a healthier perspective on the game and life in general now than he did in the past, but he admits he’s still very much a work in progress.

“I've made a few changes and I've got to make more,” he says. “Like, I could even be healthier than I am. I've identified a few things over the last month or two that I know I have to work on even health-wise.

“Like, I've had challenges like that myself going forward. I have to get healthier myself, I want to be around in a number of years time. I have to listen to my body.

“Probably my doctor wouldn't have been the happiest that I got involved with Wexford. He probably said a year or two out would do me no harm.

“When you get that little challenge you say, 'fair enough'. I don't know, am I going in and am I worried? A lot of people say to me you've it done, you've won everything.

“I still wouldn't be happy with that. I still want to win more. And help this crowd go on. You still want to try to do that.

“It's the start of a new challenge you've to go again you've to fight like anything. I like that, so I do. But probably for the first time in a long time I have to think of myself as well. I have to make sure that I'm good. I have to be good for the lads to get the best out of me.

“I have to be healthy, I have to be buzzing. And I know that will rub off on the lads as well. That's something I'm probably a lot more conscious of and I have work to do myself on that to get myself right.

“Because I like being involved. As I say, you have family and friends, and you want to be around as long as you possibly can. That's the most important thing, more than anything.”

Hurling remains a passion too, though. He’s trying to dampen down expectations in Wexford, but it’s clear he’s excited about where this journey might take him and his new charges.

They’re a young team with a lot of potential, and he sees similarities between them and the Clare panel he took over in 2011.

“I can, without a shadow of a doubt,” he says. “I’d love if I could get the same result! I think I’d retire ASAP! As quick as I could!

“I can see it with them, they’re only dying to win something. They really, really want to.

“I remember talking to a lad, we had to cut the panel and I cut it and there was two or three that was on the border line and there was one very good one who was on the border line and I said to him ‘you’re pushing yourself too hard. Will you chill back and relax and just hurl?’

“I could actually tell…you know where you get to a place where every word I was saying he was taking it in? I said ‘Don’t panic. Go out and do your own thing’. Because I felt there was more in him.”

“And that's what I want from these guys, we'll do our few bits and pieces, take in the few bits but my ultimate way that I like to see hurlers play is to go out with a freedom and express yourself.

“Because there's enough of things in life (that are negative) and you know yourselves I've had a health scare, that's something to worry about, feckin' going out playing these games is nothing to worry about.

“We'll all take a bit of abuse afterwards, we'll get over it, get out there and express yourselves and that's what I want Wexford to play like.

“I want them to go out there and just let go, anything that comes in front of you tackle it and take it off him and bate him! And we'll see where we go from there.”

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