Opinion: 'Late Garrett Fitzgerald leaves legacy to be proud of'

ONE Friday night a few seasons back, in the aftermath of a Munster home fixture at Thomond Park, I bumped into Garrett Fitzgerald on my way to the post-match press conference.

The former Munster CEO, who passed away on Friday night last was pleasant company, as always as we made our way downstairs.

In the course of our chat, Garrett pointed out that he had read my weekend All-Ireland League match predictions after picking up a copy of the Limerick Leader.

He revealed he agreed with the majority of my predictions, but there were two of them he didn’t agree with.

I was holding steadfast to my view of those two games and Garett chuckled as we parted ways when the lift door opened at Thomond Park. A true rugby man.

Last December was the final time I met or interviewed Garrett Fitzgerald. The occasion was the conferring of an honorary doctorate on him at the University of Limerick.

Garrett Fitzgerald retired in June of last year as Munster Rugby CEO, a position he held for almost 20 years. He was the first CEO appointed to the province and was the longest-serving provincial chief executive in Irish rugby.

During those 20 years, he spearheaded the province’s remarkable rise in the professional era and oversaw some of the club’s greatest achievements, both on and off the field. 

One quote from the late Garrett Fitzgerald from that day at UL summed him up well. “For me to receive this honour today is, I was thinking, from being a young fella going to national school in Knockraha in Co Cork that no one ever heard of, with a pudding basin haircut as they called it and to be here receiving this, it is a huge transformation and growth period in my own life.”

Garrett Fitzgerald may have retired from the role of Munster CEO last June, but his passion and enthusiasm for rugby burned bright.

And it wasn’t just for the professional game. Far from it indeed. 

The late Garrett Fitzgerald continued to have a huge interest in the club and school’s game too. 

During the course of our interview two months ago, Fitzgerald said he believed the biggest challenge facing Munster right now is population size when it comes to attempting to produce home grown players.

Fitzgerald also pointed out that in a much-changed society, many talented young sports people are finding it hard to accept just how hard they have to work to be successful and in some cases are opting not to pursue their ambition of becoming a professional player.

“The secret for us going forward will be to produce our own players and not try and compete on the world market with people where we don't have the funds to do that,” he pointed out.

“An awful lot depends too on what the young players themselves want, how ambitious they are, do they want instant success, do they want their photograph on the paper, that is a challenge for every walk of life today.

“The society we are developing and creating today is a totally different society to that of 10 years ago.

“Everything is at the push of a button, everything is at the push of a button on their computer, they find it hard to accept how hard they have to work to be successful and that is all a changing environment, a challenge to producing rugby players, hockey players, hurlers, footballers, everything else in the province itself.”

He was right, you know. As for the Limerick Leader match predictions about those two All-Ireland League games from all those seasons ago, he was right about one of those too.

We had a chuckle over that. Rest in peace, Garrett.

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