Underdog Davy Fitzgerald primed for biggest challenge yet

When Davy Fitzgerald stepped down as Waterford manager last July, the Clare native was at peace with time out of the inter-county spotlight.

A few weeks later he ventured to Croke Park solely as a punter with wife Sharon and two-year-old son Dáithí Óg to savour the Banner land Liam MacCarthy without Fitzgerald's involvement for just the second time in their history.

Decked in Clare colours the 53-year-old experienced the occasion without any manager's hat on. Any personal issues with some within the county were easily set aside on such a special day.

"There’s no great secret I mightn't get on with one or two people. That's fine, but that never comes across," he said at the Londis launch for the 12th season of Ireland’s Fittest Family. "I don't care how we won it, once they did it. That day was just brilliant."

A little over a month after a second Déise exit and the managerial hiatus was cut short when Fitzgerald was named as the latest man tasked with getting Antrim hurling to the top table.

"I genuinely thought I wouldn't be going back in," he says now with the Saffrons’ opening their 1B Allianz Hurling League account in Croke Park on Saturday week.

Fitzgerald’s ties to the county date back to 1997 when he undertook his first training sessions within the county.

Some of the relationships over the years have formed deep bonds. One in particular, who Fitzgerald doesn’t want to single out, has been there through thick and thin, making his approach on behalf of Antrim to succeed Darren Gleeson such a serious proposition.

"He has been very good to me for a long time, even when I was in trouble in various parts of my life, be it business or whatever," he says. "He puts his story and his side of things and convinces you that anything