Davy Fitzgerald has revealed he hasn’t made his mind up on his Clare future and admitted taking charge of another team is a possibility.
Fitzgerald’s fifth year at the Banner helm came to a disappointing end when they fell to a 2-17 to 0-17 defeat to Galway in the All-Ireland quarter-finals: the third successive year they've failed to make it to Croke Park for the business end of the season.
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The Sixmilebridge man led his native county to Liam MacCarthy success in 2013 but the Banner have struggled to replicate that winning form since that memorable day in Croke Park three years ago.
The Banner did however secure promotion from 1B before claiming early season silverware in the League replay win over Waterford.
In RTÉ Radio’s Documentary on One, the 45-year-old admitted in the week after the Championship exit that he didn’t know what the future held for him.
“I honestly don’t know what I want to do,” he told documentary maker Máire Treasa Ní Cheallaigh. “Last year I knew 100% what I wanted to do.
“I could stay with Clare, I could take a year out. I could see myself managing someone else because I love hurling so much and want to do something different and help someone different.
“I’m a bit confused at the moment,” he said in the aftermath of the defeat.
In the documentary, Fitzgerald charts his year, including the highs of promotion and League success, followed by Championship losses to Waterford, and finally Galway in Thurles.
Defeat to neighbours Galway was a bitter pill to swallow and he refuted suggestions that his team peaked too early in the season.
“Peak? No, we were in great shape for the last month or two. We had to get out of 1B. It was a must for us.
“We had no choice but to go out as best we could and perform as early as we could.
“Out of the 17 competitive games we had, to only lose two wasn’t too bad.”
Davy records the Clare hurling year, beginning with the appointment of Dónal Óg Cusack to the coaching set-up, to their first game in January against Cork, all to way to the high of winning the National League, to being knocked out of the championship in July by Galway, days after Fitzgerald is admitted to hospital with heart trouble.
