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*David Fitzgerald. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
AS HE had done all season for his club, David Fitzgerald was a towering figure in their success and burst into life when Inagh/Kilnamona needed him as they kicked on to a maiden Clare SHC title.
Bursting through challenges and carrying the sliotar forward with power, pace and purpose, Fitzgerald shot three points in the final quarter, two of them coming within sixty eight seconds giving them a two point advantage on fifty one minutes which was their biggest lead by that stage of the game and there was no looking back from here.
Across the course of their title winning season, David chipped in with a personal tally of 0-23 in six games, all from play.
Getting over the line to lift the Canon Hamilton is no more than the club deserved, Fitzy told The Clare Echo. “It is pure elation, it is what the group deserved. We brought in Mattie Shannon this year, Eugene came back and from day one they have driven standards and workrate, particularly today when things weren’t going as they should have been but lads kept grinding away and we reaped the rewards so I’m buzzing”.
Offering a renewed lease of life to the thirty year old in the club colours has been the addition of their All-Ireland and Munster U20 winners. “We have so many lads, you saw them with the U20s this year the likes of Fred, James, Conor Rynne, Seán Rynne was U21 last year, Shane Woods, the energy those guys they bring, the attitude and application to drive the standards which makes everything that bit easier, they give energy to aul fellas like myself so it is a pleasure to play with those guys and thankfully we got across the line”.
Their success can inspire the next generation of hurlers for Inamona, he believed. “There’s generations that have put in tireless work, the likes of Johnny O’Rourke started off with us, Paddy McGuane in Kilnamona, Flan Barry, the schools, piece by piece kept chipping away and we have finally got the reward, hopefully it will drive on another generation of kids to keep going”.
Within the Inagh/Kilnamona camp they were determined to outwork Kilmaley in the county final. “There was a narrative out there that we got to the final based on hurling and they got to the final based on workrate, that was a stick used to beat us for the last two weeks that Kilmaley were going to outwork us so I thought in the last twenty five minutes the work from our lads all across the pitch was unbelievable, hooks, blocks and breaking ball, it was really good and it was drilled into us over the last few weeks”.
Also adding motivation was the way the club had been viewed within the county, he told the podcast Smaller Fish, “It is more relief than anything else, it is probably the local media has put a stigma on us for a of years in the sense that it was a combination coming together and people always tried to build us up so we would fall, today we finally got over the line so it definitely means a lot”.
An All Star in 2022 and 2024, David described the Inamona breakthrough as “huge”. He stated, “We’ve had so many near-misses, I know people keep referencing 2021 when we came so close but didn’t get across the line, today we did and it is super”. He continued, “It has been a long time coming, we’ve had years upon years of hard luck, no different to any other club”.
Reflecting on the game itself, Fitzy admitted it wasn’t a classic for the neutrals. “Even when we got a bit of breathing room, you were still conscious there was only a puck of the ball in it. By and large it was probably a poor game, really scrappy, but we don’t mind. We got across the line”. He added, “it was probably a terrible game to watch, very scrappy, it was a battle but no much fluidity to it, we managed to chip away with a few scores”.
For the past eight weeks, he has been commuting to Inagh and Kilnamona via the United States with his role as VP Corporate Finance with Stratos. The trips over and back “has been tough,” he said. A return to the States is due this Wednesday but may be postponed to savour the celebrations a bit more. “We’ll enjoy the next few days, someone mentioned a Munster campaign and I haven’t talked about it, we will figure it out as things go on”.
