By Michael McMullan

NEW Antrim senior hurling manager Davy Fitzgerald has the energy and knowledge of Antrim hurling says Rossa boss Christopher McDonnell.

An All-Ireland winner with Clare as both goalkeeper and manager, Fitzgerald took over from manager Darren Gleeson who had raised the standards during his tenure.

Speaking ahead of Rossa’s game with St John’s, McDonnell recalls Fitzgerald coming across to chat with the Rossa management as they concluded their debrief following defeat to Dunloy.

“Davy has brought an energy,” McDonnell said of the feeling in the county since his appointment.

“He was up at the (Rossa) game. We had a talk with him for 10 minutes afterwards briefly on the game.

“His knowledge of Antrim hurling was spot on and you know the energy and the bite that he’s going to bring to it.

“He’s obviously ambitious to kick it to the next level so I think definitely everybody’s excited just for that wee freshen up within the county and I think he’s the man to bring it.”

The other school of thought across Antrim and beyond was how Gleeson’s shoes would be big ones to fill.

The former Tipperary goalkeeper stepped down and has recently been appointed as the manager of Laois. He was popular among the Saffron squad and McDonnell had an extra interest with Jim Close, who is in with Rossa, part of Gleeson’s management team with Antrim.

“Darren Gleeson did a great job,” McDonnell said. “A lot of realistic Antrim fans maybe feel maybe that is the ceiling because Darren has done a great job in the four or five years.

“He’s won the John McDonagh Cup twice, there was the (Leinster Championship) win against Wexford.

“There is loads of evidence there he was going in the right direction. If somebody else was going to come in, it had to be a big personality to kick it on.”

McDonnell points to Fitzgerald’s All-Ireland success as a player and manager, as well as his CV from being involved in hurling at the very top level.

“The guy has been there and done that and he knows Antrim well,” McDonnell explains. “With (his club) Sixmilebridge, in the nineties, he’s been up and down and saw the Dunloy teams of the past.

“It was a brief conversation I had with him but his knowledge of the players at Antrim took me by surprise.

“He had new strengths and weaknesses and he’s talking about tweaks for some of the players

“He’s a guy coming in here ready, he’s come up here, to run his eye over, he’s obviously looking out to find something to bring a wee bit extra to it, an extra layer to it.”