Fitzgerald and players striving to protect Philly Ryan’s legacy
By Shane Brophy
New Tipperary senior football manager Niall Fitzgerald admitted his ambition to be in the role one day but the circumstances in which he has taken it on following the passing of his friend and former team-mate Philly Ryan are extremely difficult.
“Genuinely, I was in a position of looking forward to stepping back for, at the very least a year, I have a young family and wanted to have that bit of freedom,” said the Moyle Rovers clubman who stepped down as under 20 manager after two years in the autumn.
“The circumstances, they are just dreadful. Philly was such a larger than life character, full of energy and craic. He has left a big hole, and it was very evident in the volume of tributes paid to him. Everyone had a story; he was just that type of character.
“He was a brilliant player to play with, a fantastic teammate, and had incredible passion. He was a very supportive teammate, but an absolute nightmare to play against, but when the game was over he would be the first man up to you.
“He is just a huge loss to everyone, none more so than his family.”
Fitzgerald’s name would have been towards the top of the list to fill the void considering his knowledge of the underage ranks with his under 20 teams developing to be the best of the rest in Munster, and challenging the likes of Kerry and Cork much more strongly.
“This is such a big task taking over Tipperary,” he continued.
“You are doing it at short notice. I knew it was going to be challenging in terms of trying to put a management team together.
“I am very lucky to have strength and conditioning coach Donnacha Mulcahy, Aldo Matassa and the rest of the backroom staff staying on is a huge help to me and the group to have that continuity.
“It was then about getting a management team together, which was tough.
“I was making phone-calls to put a management team together in November when you would be normally making those phone-calls in July.
“Luckily, we got Peter Tormey on board, I played Sigerson with Peter in UL. He has two years with the Roscommon seniors and one year with Clare. He has three years inter-county experience with division 1 & 2 teams.
“Conor McNally was with me with the under 20’s for two years, and we have added Barry Mullane from Ardfinnan, he has a lot of coaching experience with the Down senior hurlers, Cuala and Ardfinnan.
“I wanted a coaching team with everyone able to coach, to have constant energy in the set-up.”
Prior to his untimely death on October 18th last, Philly Ryan had a lot of groundwork done for the new campaign, including the addition of a sports psychologist, as well as a change in the analysis team, both of which Fitzgerald has retained.
A panel of 44 had also been selected, Fitzgerald increasing it to 45. The panel hasn’t been finalised as yet but he confirmed five players have stepped away from last years squad, Conor Fahey (Upperchurch/Drombane), Mikey O’Shea (CJ Kickhams, Mullinahone), Jason Madigan (Kilsheelan/Kilcash), Conor Horgan (Knockavilla-Donaskeigh Kickhams) and Jack O’Mahony (Ardfinnan).
The group are in their early stages of their preparations on the pitch with Fitzgerald pleased with the players commitment.
“The lads have been worked very hard and the attitude has been very good,” added the new Tipp boss.
“It’s early days, there are new players coming in with a whole new management team. From talking to the coaches, the one thing that has stood out is the application is excellent. There is nobody taking the soft option and hopefully we can hit the ground running when the league starts at the end of January.
He added: “It’s unprecedented, it’s a unique situation but we have a duty to the players, and a duty to Philly’s legacy to drive this on. We can’t sit with our hands in our pockets, we have to drive this on because at the end of the day the National League starts at the end of January and if you are behind the curve, you are in big trouble so we need to get a huge block of work done between now and the start of the league.
“Because of where Tipperary are at the moment, the National League has to be a priority. Where we are at the moment, looking at where we have been the last couple of years, the National League and the Tailteann Cup are our priorities, to build towards the Munster Championship as our priority,” he said after being drawn against Waterford in the Munster quarter final.
“We have twenty players under the age of 21 and under so we are extremely young and are trying to develop this group. Philly had started that with some under 20’s coming in at the end of last year and we are trying to build on that and develop this group going forward,” Fitzgerald concluded.