Fitzhenry - Wexford's Model man
March 24, 2010
Wexford keeper Damien Fitzhenry
Dermot Flynn has been patient in recent years, serving as Fitzhenry's understudy, but he will now hope to create his own legacy after the Duffry Rovers legend confirmed that he is stepping aside.
The undoubted memory for Fitzhenry from an intercounty career that began in 1993 was that landmark All-Ireland success three years later, achieved under the watchful eye of Liam Griffin.
Fitzhenry reflected: "Every year, every county team has an aspiration to go the whole way and win the All-Ireland.
"1996 was a fantastic achievement; we came out of nowhere like Clare had the previous year.
"We took a leaf out of their book and we had some great games along the way. The Leinster final (against Offaly) was a big hurdle for us to get over because it had been 19 years since our previous Leinster title."
Griffin, a master motivator, then asked the Wexford players if they were happy with their lot.
Fitzhenry revealed: "Liam brought us together. He said we had done very well to win Leinster and if everybody was happy with that, we can head on, puck around and make up the numbers in the semi-final. The question he asked was; how many more All-Ireland semi-finals will you play in? "And the answer was that we could only be guaranteed one more
"Lads decided then to knuckle down and we reached the final, which was nip and tuck against Limerick. It could have went either way but luck, on the day, was with us."
Fitzhenry claimed another Leinster medal a year later but seven years would pass before he tasted provincial glory again.
In the meantime, a glorious opportunity to build on the 1996 success was lost as Kilkenny steamed ahead with a heavy emphasis on player development from the juvenile grades.
For too long, Wexford stood still but the presence of heroes such as Liam Dunne and Martin Storey in recent county underage management teams has provided fresh hope.
Fitzhenry, 35, added: "The thing about it is, if I asked you before the 1996 season started who would win the All-Ireland, Wexford were well down the list.
"But the right blend can come together in a year or two and that's what happened with us. It can happen in any county and I'd always be of the opinion that people love their hurling down here. When lads can work together and go the one way, the future will be okay for Wexford hurling."
Fitzhenry also rejects the suggestion that the recent success of the Wexford footballers has hampered the progress of the senior hurlers.
He said: "I take nothing away from the footballers for the year they had (2008) but if somebody is interested in playing hurling, they will go and play hurling. The same applies to football. I don't think there is a battle between the two, or ever was."
There was never any doubt in Fitzhenry's mind that he would choose hurling, despite a lack of success with Wexford in the underage ranks.
He reflected: "What happened was, I got a phone call from Christy Keogh asking me if I was interested in going in playing with the Wexford seniors in a match against Kilkenny in Enniscorthy. I had reservations because I was only 18 or 19 at the time and I said to him that I thought I was a bit young and that maybe I should play a year or two at U21 level first. He told me to come along anyway and that I'd be looked at for half a match. I was picked for the National League quarter-final against Westmeath a fortnight later and the rest is history."
Fitzhenry's longevity as an intercounty hurler is a rarity in the modern game, with goalkeepers seemingly an exception to the rule, and he said: "The older you get, the harder you have to work at it and you have to put in those extra sacrifices that other fellas are not willing to make. That's the way you have to look at it. To stay there, you have to give nobody a chance to take your position and if they take it, you have to work twice as hard to get it back.
"Every day I togged out and wore a Wexford jersey was a fantastic day and very enjoyable. The older you get, the more sacrifices you have to make and the harder you have to train.
"Obviously it's going to be a bit more difficult every year as you go on and while every other year I thought just go for it, I thought long and hard this time and it's the year to hang up the hurl.
"There has to be a want in you to get up and go. It's amazing too; a lot of people thought that I might give it another year but for the last three years, they were wondering when I was going to retire!
"You'd never know what people want but it's my own decision. I'm building a house at home, I have different things on and it's time to take a back seat from hurling and worry about other things."
Fitzhenry's contribution will never be forgotten and he was also a threat at the other end of the pitch, banging home a number of goals from penalties and 21-yard frees.
In the championship alone, there were two net busters in 1996 (one each against Dublin and Offaly), two against Limerick in a memorable All-Ireland quarter-final victory in 2001, another to sink Tipperary in 2007 and one against Clare last year.
Fitzhenry revealed: "I never used to practice them for any length of time. Cooling down after training, I'd take two or three of the boys and hit ten or twelve of them but it was just a case of hitting them as hard as you could. I took a penalty in the Leinster minor final in 1992. We were beating Kilkenny, two points up at the time and I went to put us five ahead but it hit the bar and came back out.
"They came back to beat us by two and thereafter, I was on the senior set up. I remember myself and John O'Connor took each other on one night in training and whoever scored the most ended up taking the penalties."
Following Fitzhenry's departure, Wexford demands a new era of hurling heroes to help bridge the gap between their current Division 2 status and the very top of the tree, where the Slaneysiders were once proudly perched.
Fitzhenry himself is optimistic about the future.
"A winning team can be very hard to beat if it builds momentum. I definitely think a team will come out of the blue in the next year or two. Kilkenny are a fantastic team and will be hard to beat for the five in a row but a team will pip them in the next year or two.
"People are talking about Tipp and they won't be 100 miles away but the team to look at might be Galway. They have talent, absolutely, but it's a matter of getting the blend together and making sure that everybody is working hard.
"Everybody knows the Joe Canning factor - he's an exceptional talent and if everybody can row in and give him help, that's exactly what is required. A good team will have two, three or four other forwards chipping in alongside Joe."
This interview is taken from the March edition of Hogan Stand magazine Tweet
