Fitzy calls it a day
YOU’D never know from Kieran Fitzgerald’s demeanour that he has won so much . . . arguably the most decorated club footballer of all-time.
Oh, he was confident and knew he was good, but there was never a hint of brashness or arrogance about him. Fitzy had a knack of endearing himself to friend and foe alike without really having to try. He had it naturally.
He was a great ambassador for Corofin and Galway football, a man who could be counted on in the white heat of battle. His legacy on the playing fields will stand the test of time. He played hard; on the edge when he had to; but mostly relied on his skills set to survive.
Hitting 40 next January, Fitzgerald has now called time on a magnificent career which saw him collect every major honour in the game, headed by his All-Ireland senior final medal from 2001 when Padraic Joyce and Galway blitzed Meath in the second-half.
He also won an All-Star award that year in his first season as a regular on the Galway team and though four Connacht titles followed – added to the one he won as a substitute in 2000 – in 2002, ’03, ’05 and ’08, the Tribesmen didn’t really threaten to win another All-Ireland title during his inter-county career.
But Fitzy was more than to make up for it at club level. He lined out in a staggering 15 county finals for Corofin and won them all bar one . . . the 2010 decider against Killererin at Pearse Stadium.
“We had the players good enough to have won the game but didn’t perform. It was one that got away even though the three Joyces, Padraic, Tommie and Nicky, were in top form for Killererin.”
The upshot of it all is that Fitzy has 14 Galway senior club medals – surely a record unmatched at parish level – but when you also throw in seven Connacht and four All-Ireland championship triumphs, he stands apart from all his peers.
A member of the Garda Síochána based in Claremorris, Fitzy’s decision to finally hang up the boots has nothing to do with the Covid-19 outbreak. Instead, he knew that his warrior old legs had reached the end of their tether – a reality reinforced during his last few months in the Corofin jersey.
Having suffered a hamstring injury in their quarter-final victory over Mountbellew/Moylough last Autumn, Fitzgerald subsequently missed Corofin’s successful semi-joust with Salthill/Knocknacarra and the drawn decider with Tuam Stars.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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