Éamonn Fitzmaurice outlines his ambitions with Galway

2014 All-Ireland winning Kerry boss appointed on a three-year term

IT'S the most high-profile story of the GAA inter-county off-season and Éamonn Fitzmaurice was officially unveiled as the new Galway senior football manager at the Lough Rea Hotel on Saturday morning.

Padraic Joyce stepped down on October 3 after seven seasons at the helm. Exactly one month later, his successor is Kerry's 2014 All-Ireland winning boss and a three-time Celtic Cross medallist as a player.

“It moved fast," Fitzmaurice said of the appointment process. "There were probably three big things I had to consider. First of all, my family and the logistical side of things with my day job as a principal in Dingle (Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne).

"I felt I could organise that side of things and the Kerry side of things was obviously a big consideration for me because I would never, even up to a couple of weeks ago, I wouldn't have ever thought that I would end up managing against Kerry. But I will be, so I had to get through that part. The final part then was the football project side of it and that was very exciting from the off.

“I've seen a lot of Galway over the last couple of years. I've been at a lot of their games in working with the media and I had a good bit of time for them, and I think there's a good bit of potential there. So that side of it was exciting for me from the off and it was probably the thing that pulled me hardest towards it.

“There were other things then. I suppose the age that I am now, I'll be 50 next July and these kind of opportunities, particularly at the top level of the game, won't keep coming and I feel I'm young enough and I have enough energy to go at it. My kids [Faye and Rian] are a good age now and so here I am and looking forward to getting stuck into it now."

POTENTIAL

Galway were in possession of the Nestor Cup between 2022 and '25 and came up just short of capturing the ultimate prize, falling short against Kerry in 2022 and Armagh in '24.

"We all know they've been very close over the last couple of years," said Fitzmaurice. "They won four Connacht titles in-a-row, they were in two All-Ireland finals, lost both of them very narrowly. They've been knocking on the door. You have a leadership cohort and maybe a few of the lads in their 30s. You have a lot of the squad in their prime and then you have an emerging group coming as well.

"So, there's huge talent in the county and I'm sure even outside of the squad and the lads that I'd have been looking at over the last couple of years, there's more players there. Galway has a huge tradition as a football county - and a hurling county, obviously - and to get to work with that group of players and in that kind of a traditional football county is exciting."

Fitzmaurice has been out of inter-county management since his departure as Kingdom boss in 2018. He has enjoyed success in the interim with Fossa, the home club of David and Paudie Clifford, and more recently his native Finuge. He has also been a leading pundit, most notably on The Sunday Game, and was a core member of the Football Review Committee (FRC) which revolutionised the sport with its new suite of rules.

"I really enjoyed my time in the media, I really enjoyed that work and I felt that I had the best of all worlds because I was getting to go to games all over the country and getting to enjoy them while at the same time not having the commitment or the pressures of being involved with an inter-county team.

"Then I was still coaching away in Kerry. I'd been involved with Fossa for four years and I'd been involved with my own gang in Finuge for the last couple of years and I'd been involved in the school teams. I felt that I was almost sating the obsession by being involved at that level but at the same time then I was getting to go to the big, high-profile games as well.

"I didn't have a huge ambition to get back into it, but whatever kind of synergy was there with Paul [Bellew, Galway GAA chairman] from the off, I felt good about it. I didn't know it at the time but I've heard since, he's a very good persuader apparently and a good man to persuade. He certainly persuaded me!"

FRESH VOICE

What will Fitzmaurice bring to Galway football? “I'm going to be a fresh voice," the 49-year-old responded. "I think in fairness to Padraic Joyce, he did a great job. When he took over, he was very clear about what he wanted to achieve and he was almost scoffed at back then when he took over when he mentioned that he wanted to win an All-Ireland with Galway and that was the ambition. He got them really, really close and with a small bit of luck, they would have got over the line.

"But I know myself from my stint in Kerry that when you're there for an extended period of time, regardless of the respect or the meas the players have for you, a fresh voice and a fresh approach and a fresh challenge, just a different challenge for the players, can be a very good thing.

"So, I hope I'll bring that freshness and energy and ideas. I'm just looking forward to getting to know the lads and getting to work with them. I've seen a lot of them, I know a lot of their footballing characteristics but getting to know the people behind it and what makes them tick and that kind of thing, that's exciting for me.

"So freshness and ideas and hopefully a bit of experience as well. When I was appointed to Kerry manager, I was only 35 that time, I was very young. I felt myself I was too young at the time but the advice I would have been given is that's not an opportunity that comes around that often. You have to take it and I did, but I feel in the meantime, both through my experience with Kerry and just life experiences in general, I've learned an awful lot in the job.

"This is my ninth year as principal in Pobalscol Chorca Dhuibhne. I've learned a lot in that role. A lot about life in that role. Since I've taken over Kerry, my father passed away. Tina my wife's mother, passed away. We had two kids. I've probably matured a lot in the meantime. I've learned a lot about myself and about life in general. I just feel now that I'm probably at a good age and good life experience to be able to hopefully lead a group and get the best out of them."

AMBITION WITH GALWAY

What represents success as Galway bainisteoir? "I knew coming up, I'd be asked that question," Fitzmaurice replied with a smile. "I said, what is the best way to answer this now? It kind of gone out of my head again and I didn't really come back to it. Sure, yeah, of course, that's the goal. Absolutely. Silverware is the goal.

“I think in any kind of high-performance environment, what you're trying to do is you're trying to create an environment where the players can get the absolute best out of themselves. If I can get the best out of those players, they'll be well in the mix. They'll be in that conversation.

"Look, at the end, I suppose the All-Ireland is the outcome. If you can get them playing at such a high level that they're competing at that level, we'll be in a good place. Let's see, can we do it. That the hope and the ambition. Just by saying that, it doesn't mean anything really.

“To be fair to Padraic, he has put Galway in that conversation. Galway are in that conversation, so it is no shock for me to be saying that.

"I'm sure what went on over the county bounds [in Mayo] and what is going on over the county bounds at the moment as well, it will be a huge motivation for every Galway person.

"Sometimes you can't underestimate the impact something like that can have. Seeing the likes of Mayo, not just Galway, Mayo doing what they did this year, it will have energised a whole host of counties. The whole motto that the Louth lads have, 'Why not us?' I think there's a lot of people thinking that way after this year."

* See this week's Tuam Herald for an extended version of Saturday's interview with new Galway senior football manager Éamonn Fitzmaurice.