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 is possible here.
"It's very hard to say no."
The other motivating tool is an obvious one; to bring glory to a county starved of success.
Between 1988 and 1991 the Saffrons were competitive in the All-Ireland series, reaching the '89 decider and pushing Kilkenny to two points at the penultimate stage in 1991.
There have been occasional results to raise eyebrows, but they have been operating between the lower end of Tier 1 and the upper echelons of the second tier for quite some time.
Gleeson leaves a solid body of work for Fitzgerald to build on. Joe McDonagh Cup victories in 2020 and 2022, as well as keeping them in the Liam MacCarthy Cup in 2023 and 2024 were no small achievements.
Fitzgerald insists that year one is about consolidation – maintaining 1B status and operating in the Liam MacCarthy, but progress must follow from there.
His pedigree would suggest it’s more than a fanciful thought.
LIT’s only Fitzgibbon titles (2005 and 2007) came with the Sixmilebridge man at the helm – Fitzgerald enjoyed a win rate of more than 70% during his 16 years in charge – while his first inter-county gig saw him lead Waterford to a first All-Ireland final since 1963.
His sole All-Ireland as manager came in 2013 with his native county, while he led Wexford to a first Leinster title in 15 years, where the vast majority of the 51,000 spectators were decked in purple and gold.
What is about the underdog that resonates so much?
"That's the way it's been all the time for me all the way up along," he says. "I wasn't meant to make it as a player because I was too small.
"An average goalkeeper, I had to work really hard. Most of the teams I've had in management, if you look at my club record and probably college record, it came from teams that haven't won.
"I love that.
"The biggest thing I get out of the sport, it isn't actually winning cups, it's seeing the reactions of people. If you can make a difference it’s unbelievable. I know everyone thinks I'm probably off my head, going up the Antrim and doing what I'm trying to do.
"I don't know if I can make a difference, but imagine if you could do something in two or three years' time, if you could get them to a place where we could get to a final or get to a quarter-final or semi-final. Imagine if you could."
The logistical concerns – it’s an eight-hour round trip to training – have been eased with the help of his family. Fitzgerald travels up every Friday and stays overnight, with Sharon and Dáithí Óg making the journey every second weekend, his youngest son already beginning to make his voice heard on the sidelines.
"I'm enjoying that side of it and the fact that I am getting to include him a bit in that as well."
Fitzgerald has enjoyed the team bonding outings as he gets to know his latest group of players. On a wider issue of player welfare, he is positive work regarding the work of the GAA's Healthy Club initiative to promote wellbeing outside the playing environment, but believes more can be done.
"It's bigger than hurling or football for me," he says. "Our kids need every bit of help that we can give them. Maybe we bring somebody in for a talk every now and again be it on alcohol, drugs, gambling to show them the pitfalls. I’m not saying we can change it but (create) awareness."
Fitzgerald has had little time to impress upon his panel his ideas, only returning to collective training in December and without the usual pre-season competitions to experiment.
He has pored over the last two years of their games and identified "four or five" key areas to work on. The group had two weeks together before Christmas, and now it’s challenge games wherever he can get them.
The fitness isn’t where he wants it to be, but the enthusiasm and endeavour is shining through.
Are the players getting up to speed in what he wants from them?
Any manager and coach, in my opinion, should never influence the player on what they have to do
"It's nearly like teaching someone how to walk again. You have to go back and take your time. I would hope after a number of months or whatever, that will become natural to them.
"I've often heard it said about me that, 'he's very rigid, you have to play this way'. Part of our makeup is that when they're on the ball, that they would have a number of decisions to make. I'm very much that way.
"Whether I play the plus one or a sitting six, whatever I decide to do, having decisions to make is very important to me. Do I give a shot? Do I dink it in over the top? Do I cross field it? Do I hit it in long? Do I have a shot?
"Any manager and coach, in my opinion, should never influence the player on what they have to do. A lot of people would have been thinking I'd be the exact opposite."
With trips to Dublin and Offaly among the 1B journeys, Fitzgerald has some tricky assignments to arrest the team’s poor away form.
Looking further ahead, a Leinster campaign may well be defined by how they bookend their campaign with trips to Wexford Park and O’Connor Park.
The eternal optimist sees green shoots everywhere, but is nothing if not a realist. Moral victories and ad-hoc incremental progress is no longer good enough.
"It all depends on results," he insists. "We need to put a few wins on the board," he says of a 1B group campaign that concludes with a home tie against Laois on 9 March.
"There’s no point looking for excuses and saying I’m only in there a few weeks or a few months or whatever.
"I’m still going to have to try and get results. I want to stay in that division. I really don’t want to go down to another division."
