CLARE HAVE GONE for a former Limerick senior trainer and Cork minor boss to train their senior footballers next season.
Manager Colm Collins, who steered Cratloe to last Sunday’s Clare senior football title, has appointed Ephie Fitzgerald to the position which has been vacant since Cork 2010 All-Ireland senior winner Paudie Kissane departed recently.
Cork native Fitzgerald has an impressive managerial CV. He guided Nemo Rangers to four successive county senior titles between 2005 and 2008. Then in 2011 he trained the Limerick senior side alongside manager Maurice Horan and helped them contest the All-Ireland quarter-final that year against Kerry.
In 2012 he was in charge of the Cork minor footballers and since then Fitzgerald has returned to the club game, steering Limerick’s Ballylanders to the county senior football crown last Sunday.
Intriguingly Fitzgerald could now come up against Clare boss Collins in the AIB Munster senior club football championship. Ballylanders play the Waterford champions, either Stradbally or The Nire, at then quarter-final stage with the winners playing Clare’s Cratloe in the semi-final.
“It’d be a bit ironic alright if that pairing happens,” admits Fitzgerald. “But we’ve a big task ahead of us first against formidable opponents from Waterford. It was a great win last Sunday and it’s a role with Ballylanders that I’ve really enjoyed last year.
“I’m really looking forward to getting back in to the inter-county scene though. The approach from Clare came out of the blue, I met Colm last week. I wouldn’t have known him but would have been aware of what he’d done with Cratloe and Clare.
“We’d a chat and I was really interested in their potential. They’re a young, vibrant team that want to progress. They got league promotion this year and also pushed Kerry and Kildare close.
“I’m delighted to have been invited to join them and hopefully we can make progress. It’s challenge I’m really looking forward to now.”
