WHENEVER THE SUBJECT of Limerick hurling came up, Darragh Fitzgibbon had a built-in protective reaction.
Be polite. Say the right things. Don’t twist their tail.
The geography of Charleville is tricky enough, a jut upwards along the Cork border leading into Limerick territory. Within spitting distance of Kilmallock, he also had the added complication of family connections of his cousin, Richie English of Doon who retired last January after nine transformative years with the Treaty.
Limerick players, including his cousin Richie English, celebrate a turnover on Darragh Fitzgibbon. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
So when he stood over that free to tie up the game against Limerick in Supervalu Pairc Ui Chaoimh on 1 February, there was an immense pressure, the clock having long since gone beyond the red and into last play territory. He nailed it.
Cork preserved their recent record and the sense that for Limerick, the Rebels have become the stone in their shoe.
That Fitzgibbon ended up on frees was a mixture of circumstance and faith. Declan Dalton was dismissed with a straight red card in the first league game for a tangle with Wexford’s Rory O’Connor.
Against Limerick, Patrick Horgan came onto the pitch after 17 minutes after Pádraig Power suffered an horrendous dislocated shoulder. And yet, manager Pat Ryan left Fitzgibbon with the free-taking duties. He finished with ten points, 0-9 from the dead ball.
It’s easy to say these things when they all work out of course, but it felt like an example of Ryan saying to Fitzgibbon that he is one of the very front line players now.
Earning a Hurler of the Year nomination last year pushes one into that kind of role. As Steve Martin said, be that good, they can’t ignore you.
From his very early days, he was mapped out. Tom Kingston took the UCC hurlers in Fitzgibbon Cup campaigns around the turn of the decade. He knew all about the lad with the same name as the cup from his time as a Cork minor alongside his own nephew, Shane. If the rules were different, he would have been playing Fitzgibbon Cup hurling in 2018, but as a fresher, he couldn’t.
“I had him spotted a long way off with the Cork minors. And I knew I had to go along and watch the Freshers for UCC to get a closer look,” says Kingston now.
“There was a semi-final that year against UL and I was there at it. He was the standout player. There were a bunch of good young lads coming through at that time and he was bang in the middle of all of them.”
And to stand up the folly of that rule, he went on to win an All Star a few months later over the summer of 2018.
A few months after that, he was on the UCC Fitzgibbon Cup team. That group included Mark Coleman, Shane Kingston and Robbie O’Flynn. They won it. And they won the next one also.
They would have been attempting the Three-Peat in 2021, only for Covid. Kingston estimates he had still 90% of the previous year’s panel available to him. There are no sure things in sport, but that comes close.
Around that time, Ben O’Connor had come into Charleville and starting whipping them into shape. When he arrived, he found a club that was simply oozing young talent, waiting to be pushed in the right direction.
He brought them to the 2018 intermediate championship title, beating Courcey Rovers on a replay, 0-15 to 0-14. This was the follow up to a few years hence when they had won the intermediate ‘A’ championship, beating Dripsey in the final.
But now they were locked and loaded with a host of young talent.
‘With Charleville, we would have been asking ourselves questions. We knew we had the potential to win a county. That was the most pleasing thing,’ said Fitzgibbon as they prepared for the subsequent All-Ireland final, a game he was hampered in with a medial ligament injury as they lost to Galway’s Oranmore-Maree.
‘It’s incredible, I think we’ve eight U21s, the same age as me, on the team,” Fitzgibbon explained.
“We started hurling at eight years of age together and to be going out now in a club final at Croke Park is a massive thing to be looking forward to.”
On he went and won two Fitzgibbon Cups in succession. In 2020, they were playing Carlow IT in the final and he fastened on a ball that was in nowhere territory. He took on the responsibility to run 50 metres and put the ball over with no time left for the opponents to fashion a response. Rocky stuff.
“He’s an outstanding player. I think he has immense talent and over the last two seasons he’s been playing the hurling of his life. He’s now become a leader in that Cork team,” says Kingston.
“I suppose when you look at it, young fellas of 18, 19, 20, few of them would be near the physical side of what intercounty takes. It takes years to build up that physical strength.
“But he is there now. He’s as big and as powerful as any of them.
“He’s got strength, he has serious mobility. But on top of that he’s a fantastic hurler. A brilliant stick player. It flows for him, off either side. Sometimes you can try and try to coach that but some have the balance that it doesn’t matter. Darragh’s lucky that he has it and it makes him a top player.”
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James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
His performances when the pressure was at its’ greatest marked him out as a man who relished the big challenge. The numbers last year back that up with 0-5 against Limerick in the epic Munster clash and 0-3 from play in the All-Ireland semi-final.
Those performances had him as the Hurler of The Year in the eyes of many. But Clare’s Cathal Malone managed to curtail him enough that he tailed off.
He travels to Semple Stadium this Saturday night for the RTÉ featured game against Tipperary. Premier manager Liam Cahill will have spent this week throwing it in the facesof his players about the 18-point margin between these two the last time Cork came to Tom’s field in last year’s Munster championship.
Privately, he might also be cursing how that was the day the Tipperary crowd completely abandoned their team and the stadium was awash with red and white.
But he’s registered his complaints on that score. The only way to win them back is by winning.
Wins over Cork – national league or not – can have significance. Fitzgibbon needs to be ready. That’s not been a problem.
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'He’s a fantastic hurler, a brilliant stick player' - the making of Darragh Fitzgibbon
WHENEVER THE SUBJECT of Limerick hurling came up, Darragh Fitzgibbon had a built-in protective reaction.
Be polite. Say the right things. Don’t twist their tail.
The geography of Charleville is tricky enough, a jut upwards along the Cork border leading into Limerick territory. Within spitting distance of Kilmallock, he also had the added complication of family connections of his cousin, Richie English of Doon who retired last January after nine transformative years with the Treaty.
So when he stood over that free to tie up the game against Limerick in Supervalu Pairc Ui Chaoimh on 1 February, there was an immense pressure, the clock having long since gone beyond the red and into last play territory. He nailed it.
Cork preserved their recent record and the sense that for Limerick, the Rebels have become the stone in their shoe.
That Fitzgibbon ended up on frees was a mixture of circumstance and faith. Declan Dalton was dismissed with a straight red card in the first league game for a tangle with Wexford’s Rory O’Connor.
Against Limerick, Patrick Horgan came onto the pitch after 17 minutes after Pádraig Power suffered an horrendous dislocated shoulder. And yet, manager Pat Ryan left Fitzgibbon with the free-taking duties. He finished with ten points, 0-9 from the dead ball.
It’s easy to say these things when they all work out of course, but it felt like an example of Ryan saying to Fitzgibbon that he is one of the very front line players now.
Earning a Hurler of the Year nomination last year pushes one into that kind of role. As Steve Martin said, be that good, they can’t ignore you.
From his very early days, he was mapped out. Tom Kingston took the UCC hurlers in Fitzgibbon Cup campaigns around the turn of the decade. He knew all about the lad with the same name as the cup from his time as a Cork minor alongside his own nephew, Shane. If the rules were different, he would have been playing Fitzgibbon Cup hurling in 2018, but as a fresher, he couldn’t.
“There was a semi-final that year against UL and I was there at it. He was the standout player. There were a bunch of good young lads coming through at that time and he was bang in the middle of all of them.”
And to stand up the folly of that rule, he went on to win an All Star a few months later over the summer of 2018.
A few months after that, he was on the UCC Fitzgibbon Cup team. That group included Mark Coleman, Shane Kingston and Robbie O’Flynn. They won it. And they won the next one also.
They would have been attempting the Three-Peat in 2021, only for Covid. Kingston estimates he had still 90% of the previous year’s panel available to him. There are no sure things in sport, but that comes close.
Around that time, Ben O’Connor had come into Charleville and starting whipping them into shape. When he arrived, he found a club that was simply oozing young talent, waiting to be pushed in the right direction.
He brought them to the 2018 intermediate championship title, beating Courcey Rovers on a replay, 0-15 to 0-14. This was the follow up to a few years hence when they had won the intermediate ‘A’ championship, beating Dripsey in the final.
But now they were locked and loaded with a host of young talent.
‘With Charleville, we would have been asking ourselves questions. We knew we had the potential to win a county. That was the most pleasing thing,’ said Fitzgibbon as they prepared for the subsequent All-Ireland final, a game he was hampered in with a medial ligament injury as they lost to Galway’s Oranmore-Maree.
‘It’s incredible, I think we’ve eight U21s, the same age as me, on the team,” Fitzgibbon explained.
“We started hurling at eight years of age together and to be going out now in a club final at Croke Park is a massive thing to be looking forward to.”
On he went and won two Fitzgibbon Cups in succession. In 2020, they were playing Carlow IT in the final and he fastened on a ball that was in nowhere territory. He took on the responsibility to run 50 metres and put the ball over with no time left for the opponents to fashion a response. Rocky stuff.
“He’s an outstanding player. I think he has immense talent and over the last two seasons he’s been playing the hurling of his life. He’s now become a leader in that Cork team,” says Kingston.
“I suppose when you look at it, young fellas of 18, 19, 20, few of them would be near the physical side of what intercounty takes. It takes years to build up that physical strength.
“But he is there now. He’s as big and as powerful as any of them.
“He’s got strength, he has serious mobility. But on top of that he’s a fantastic hurler. A brilliant stick player. It flows for him, off either side. Sometimes you can try and try to coach that but some have the balance that it doesn’t matter. Darragh’s lucky that he has it and it makes him a top player.”
His performances when the pressure was at its’ greatest marked him out as a man who relished the big challenge. The numbers last year back that up with 0-5 against Limerick in the epic Munster clash and 0-3 from play in the All-Ireland semi-final.
Those performances had him as the Hurler of The Year in the eyes of many. But Clare’s Cathal Malone managed to curtail him enough that he tailed off.
He travels to Semple Stadium this Saturday night for the RTÉ featured game against Tipperary. Premier manager Liam Cahill will have spent this week throwing it in the facesof his players about the 18-point margin between these two the last time Cork came to Tom’s field in last year’s Munster championship.
Privately, he might also be cursing how that was the day the Tipperary crowd completely abandoned their team and the stadium was awash with red and white.
But he’s registered his complaints on that score. The only way to win them back is by winning.
Wins over Cork – national league or not – can have significance. Fitzgibbon needs to be ready. That’s not been a problem.
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