Joe Canning: Like 4am runs in Lisdoonvarna, Davy Fitz must find something different for Waterford’s do-or-die clash

When I arrived in LIT in 2006 Davy Fitzgerald was in charge of hurling in the college. The team environment I walked into was like nothing I had experienced. I quickly realised that for matches all I needed to bring was my hurley, my helmet and my boots. Everything else was laid out and waiting for us in the dressingroom: socks, togs, jerseys, towels, shampoo – even a wet top if it was raining.

I joined the Galway senior panel while I was in LIT and the set-up there wasn’t as professional as the one we had in college. We used to do sessions at six o’clock in the morning, which would often just be ball work, but sometimes we would be taken out to Cratloe Woods on a bus. There was a track through the forest that came to about a mile and we used to do time trials on that loop.

Davy also used take us to the hill in Shannon where Clare famously trained under Ger Loughnane. We used to run up and down that hill all night, carrying fellas on our backs. It was brutal stuff.

For the hellish stuff there was no shortage of variety. He had access to a horse training facility in Broadford as well where we used to do our running on sand gallops. Most of it was on the flat, but some of it was up this massive hill. We might only have done the hill run three or four times in a session but it always felt like much more.

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Another time we went on a midwinter training camp to Lisdoonvarna, where we stayed in holiday homes. At four o’clock in the morning there was a knock on our doors and we were all dragged out of bed for a run through the village. Gavin O’Mahony, who was playing for Limerick at the time, pretended not to hear the knock and refused to get out of bed. The rest of us took off through this deserted holiday village in the dead of night.

There must have been some benefit to our physical fitness in doing all of this stuff, but really it was done to harden our minds and bring us closer as a group. Did it work? The only two Fitzgibbon Cups that LIT have won in their history were during Davy’s time in charge, and all the time that I was there we were contenders.

The point about Davy was that he was prepared to push boundaries and be different. There was no other Fitzgibbon Cup team training the way we were. He brought an intercounty mentality to a colleges competition and got fellas to buy into it. I’m still great friends with some of the guys I played with in LIT and for all I know that bond might have started on a sand gallop in Broadford.

I stayed in touch with Davy after college and we’re still in touch now. I’d have good time for him. People see his antics on the sideline and how he reacts to different situations and they form a certain view from a distance. I think Davy is quite happy to play up to the perception that he’s a bit mad.

But when you meet him and get to know him you see a completely different side to him. Do I agree with everything he does? Probably not. One of the Wexford players told me that they had 17 different puck-out variations when Davy was in charge of them and that’s just excessive.

But what I always admired about him was that he wasn’t afraid to try different ideas. They don’t always come off, but he’s prepared to try.

He’s facing a tough challenge with Waterford now. If they lose to Clare on Saturday they have no mathematical chance of qualifying. If it’s a draw, they would need to beat Tipp in their last game, and hope that a sequence of other results go their way. In terms of survival, beating Clare is their best chance of finding a way out.

The performance they produced against Cork wouldn’t be nearly good enough in Thurles tomorrow. It was very unlike one of Davy’s teams. They were badly beaten on puck-outs and they left a lot of space for Cork to exploit. The rules for playing against Cork have been the same as long as I can remember: if you give them space, they’ll hurt you, if you get physical with them, they’re not so dangerous.

Jack Fagan was asked to play sweeper and he seemed lost. I don’t blame him for that. It’s a very specialised role and it didn’t look like he had much experience of playing there. Tadgh de Burca, the guy he was replacing, has probably been the best sweeper in hurling since that position was invented. They really missed him.

[ Davy Fitzgerald on having to beat Clare, losing Tadhg de Búrca and the absence of Fergal Horgan ]

At least Waterford have had a couple of weeks to clear their heads. I suspect the Cork game came far too soon for them after their massive performance against Limerick and they just didn’t have enough time to move on. The one good thing they can take from the Cork game was how many goal chances they created after half-time. Clare have conceded seven goals in their two championship games so far, and Waterford are going to need goals on Saturday.

It will be interesting to see what they do with Austin Gleeson. He wasn’t fit enough to start against Limerick and Cork, but he came on in both games, and he made a real difference against Limerick. At this stage I think he needs a specific role rather than be given licence to float around.

I would play him at centre forward and use him as the focal point of the attack. He’s strong in the air, he’s a powerful runner with the ball and he’s never afraid to shoot. Any ball he picked up in that position would make him an immediate threat. The Waterford attack has been depending too much on Stephen Bennett and Dessie Hutchinson. Gleeson would change that dynamic and give Clare another problem.

Waterford desperately need to come up with something. That has been Davy’s speciality for as long as I know him.