Fitzmaurice aiming to bring 'freshness, energy and ideas'

New Galway senior football manager appointed on a three-year term

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

Padraic Joyce stepped down in early October after seven seasons at the helm, winning four Connacht titles and taking Galway to two All-Ireland finals during his time in charge. His successor is Kerry's 2014 All-Ireland winning boss and a three-time Celtic Cross medallist as a player who returns to top-level management for the first time since 2018.

APPOINTMENT PROCESS

In his first interview since his appointment on a three-year term, Fitzmaurice outlined that initial contact was made by Paul Bellew, Galway GAA chairman, after Joyce departed.

"I’ve had these calls over the last couple years, but it has never gone beyond a phone call. My head was turned this time, and I decided, out of curiosity, I’d explore it," Fitzmaurice said.

"I had met Paul a few times. We spoke a good few times and there was a good bit of balancing to be done on my side of the house to see if I could make it happen. I sat down and interviewed with the selection committee and it went from there then."

The appointment marks quite a coup for Bellew, currently in the final few months of his five-year tenure, and Galway GAA as a whole.

“I have great trust and confidence from my primary officers and the management committee of the county board," Bellew told Herald Sport. “You need to keep the circle pretty small at the start and you gauge the level of interest from the candidates selected,

“I've been lucky enough over the years to build up relationships with all of these people, so it was just a simple reach out to him by text on the weekend after Padraic stepped down to see if he'd be up for a chat one of the evenings. He came back and said, 'Always good to have a chat' and it took off from there.

“I would initially chat on the phone and I would have met him privately myself. These are huge decisions that need to be informed by information that's relevant, and that would include what the logistics are for himself, plus he wants the background on how Galway works logistically, facilities-wise, resource-wise, personnel-wise, and that all informs the decision. So, that's what takes time, there's a lot of contact hours with him and with any other candidates in a process like this.

“The formal interview process then, once you're at a point where the candidate is good to go and has made up their mind that they want this, we convened an interview panel that was made up of myself as chair, Sean O'Connor, our finance and operations manager; Micheál Geraghty, our Football Committee chairperson; Padraic Kelly, our Football Committee secretary; Tom Greaney, chairperson of Corofin and the clubs' nominee to the management committee; and Daragh Sheridan, high-performance lead for Galway GAA," concluded Bellew.

“It moved fast," said Fitzmaurice. "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 secondary school]. I felt I could organise that side of things.

"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 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. 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, so here I am looking forward to getting stuck into it."

GALWAY POTENTIAL

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

"We all know they've been very close over the last couple of years," Fitzmaurice said of the team. "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. A lot of the squad are 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."

RETURN TO MANAGEMENT

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 playing 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] from the off, I felt good about it. I didn't know it at the time, but I've heard since, he's a 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, 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 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."

AMBITIONS IN ROLE

What represents success as Galway bainisteoir? "I knew coming up, that I'd be asked that question," Fitzmaurice replied with a smile. "I said, what's the best way to answer this now? It'd kind of go 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 and 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. Of course, that's 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 the 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."

BACKROOM TEAM

Fitzmaurice admitted to making progress but was not in a position to reveal the composition of his wider backroom just yet. He has watched the Galway Senior Football Championship quarter-finals and admitted that the local representation in his management will play a significant role in terms of assessing and identifying players.

“When we get the management team in place and, obviously, the Galway presence in that is going to be hugely important in seeing who the lads think would be worth having a look at. There's obviously an established squad that's been there for the last couple of years. You'd be hoping to freshen that and get a couple of newer players in and maybe some left field choices that might bring something different.

“I've a very open mind as regards the squad and where we go from there. We'll keep an eye on the county championship over the next couple of weekends and start to get a squad in place."

FACING KERRY

How much did Fitzmaurice have to wrestle with the idea of managing against his native Kerry and the many current Kingdom players he gave inter-county debuts to and worked with.

“I wrestled with it a lot," he replied. “The Kerry side of it was one thing. It was probably more the personalities than Kerry when it came down to it. There is a cohort that I would have had at school, that we would have won a good bit of stuff at school and that I would have taught. You obviously have a bond with those lads.

“There's a host of the lads that are still playing that I would have given them their first start. Again, you always have a special bond with the manager that gives you your first Kerry jersey. I had it with Páidí [Ó Sé]. I was in Fossa for four years working with David and Paudie [Clifford]. I obviously got on very well with the lads and thoroughly enjoyed my experience over there.

“There was plenty of thinking about that side of it. But I got past it. Would it ever sit 100 per cent? I don't know. I think the league game will be fine. The ultimate picture I have to paint - and I had to say it to my two kids, Faye and Rian - that Kerry are playing Galway in the All-Ireland semi-final or an All-Ireland final, and I'm above in Croke Park with a Galway top. Can ye accept that?

“I was talking to Dara Ó Cinnéide [former Kerry teammate] and he told me to be ready for that week, that I'll be getting plenty of stick in Kerry. I'm ready for that. I'm not the first person from Kerry [to manage against them].

“Christy O'Connor had a great piece in the Examiner this morning going back as far as Dick Fitzgerald training the Clare footballers before the 1917 All-Ireland. From Micko [O'Dwyer] to Páidí [Ó Sé] to Micky Ned [O'Sullivan] to Jack [O'Connor] himself to Peter Keane. A lot of former Kerry managers have gone beyond the county bounds. I'm not the first one, I suppose, which gives me a bit of comfort.

“To be fair to all the lads, they were welcomed back into the county afterwards. I might not be flavour of the month for the next couple of years, but I think people know me well enough in Kerry to accept the decision as well.”

LENGTHY COMMUTE

From Fitzmaurice's place of work in Dingle to Galway GAA's base in Loughgeorge, it's a 250km or a three-hours and 20-minute commute just one way. From his home near Tralee, it's a 400km, five-hour round-trip. Those demands are manageable in his view, however.

“The commute has been the most asked question so far. I'm sure some of you saw the AI things that were flying around. Pardon the pun I suppose,” Fitzmaurice said with a smile when asked about the lengthy journey.

“The kids in school were saying to me on Thursday that it is way easier now to doctor up these things with AI rather than when you were in charge of Kerry.

“The commute will be fine. I used to do a lot of driving with my media work anyway and when I was in the FRC I did an awful lot of driving, especially the first year in ‘24. So that won't bother me really, to be honest. There is a bit of organisation in it, obviously.

“We have a half-day on Fridays in the school. The school is closed a half-day on Fridays, so that will make it a bit easier. I have a very understanding deputy principal in Elaine and she'll support me as well. Ironically, she is Brian Ó Beaglaoich's mum [Kerry defender]. I've great support in the school. That's ever before taking up this role.

“That'll all be fine, I'll make sure I'm not dropping any balls at work or in Loughgeorge. Look, it's going to be busy. That's part of the decision but I feel I've the energy for it and feel I'll be able to manage it.”