Fitzpatrick acknowledges the element of luck

GAELIC GAMES:AN EVENTFUL few weeks for Peter Fitzpatrick came to a dramatic but successful conclusion at the weekend.

The Louth manager, who shot to prominence last summer when his team were robbed of a first Leinster title in 53 years by an awful refereeing error and who was elected a Fine Gael TD for the county constituency in February, watched as his team closed the deal on promotion to Division Two.

It looked an unlikely outcome at the start of the day with Louth lying fourth two points behind the leaders Wexford and Offaly after a disastrous few weeks had seen them fall out of the promotion places.

As late as the second half in Dungarvan, Fitzpatrick’s team were finding the going tough, trailing by four points against a Waterford side that had proved very competitive on its first season in Division Three. “We were very lucky,” he said yesterday, “but when we lost three games (to Limerick, Offaly and Cavan) we were a bit unlucky. We needed a bit of luck with Shane Lennon out injured and the three boys in Australia.”

Mick Fanning, Brian White and John O’Brien, key players last summer, had to emigrate in the autumn. Fitzpatrick featured on last Friday’s Late Late Show item on unemployment amongst elite footballers and hurlers.

“There’s 50,000 people from Ireland emigrating every year and 3,000 of them are sportsmen and sportswomen. You have to create jobs. In fairness to the GAA we’d 10 players in Louth with no jobs after the Leinster championship and we were able to accommodate seven but that left the three lads who went to Australia.”

Now looking forward to the Division Three final against Westmeath at Croke Park, Fitzpatrick says the demands of running a county team and serving in the Dáil have left him unfazed. “I love pressure. It was my ambition for a long time to manage the county team. I’ve a real passion for the game and my wife Anne loves Gaelic football and if you’re going to give a lot of time to the GAA you need to have your family with you.” The combined duties are demanding. “Twenty four-seven. The phone’s on all the time.”