This article is from page 60 of the 2011-10-18 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 60 JPG
“NO man is an island” was John Donne’s line, but it was also Davy Fitzgerald line at Tuesday night as he made his inaugural address as manager of the Clare senior hurling team.
In a wide-ranging speech to club delegates from around the county, Fitzgerald called for everyone in the Clare GAA family to work on the “same wavelength” as the county bid to scale the hurling ladder once more.
Fitzgerald was quick to rubbish the notion that he was going “to try and run this team and that team” and pointed out there should be “communication between all teams” in the county.
“I would never tell a 21 manager or minor manager how to run his team. That’s his job. I think it’s good that we all have communication and that we’re all on the same wavelength about what we do. That’s the one thing I’m asked for, that we’re all working together.
“There is no one man who is going to make Clare a success. It is going to take a team that’s working together and a team working in different areas. We will work very hard. Anything I can do for Clare to make them successful, I going to try and do to get back up to where we need to be. That’s all I can promise on that.
“The one thing I will say, if any club has anything they want to talk to me about, anything with regard to their players, my phone is there. They’ll be able to get my number. I am willing to talk to anyone.
“I don’t believe in talking behind people’s backs or anything like that. I would prefer a situation if a club has a problem with something they would come and sit down face to face. I’ll have my opinion, you’ll have yours and we’ll come to a compromise.
“I’d ask ye to have a bit of patience. There will be no grudges, no any thing, no reaction to any media criticism I get, or anything. I’m going to do my job to the best of my ability and all I’d ask for is ye’re support as much as possible.
“All of us working together, that’s the most important thing. Thanks very much for having the faith in me.
“I will do my absolute to make you as proud as possible going forward and we will work very hard,” he added.