EXPRESSIONS like 'sporting great' and 'legend of the game' can be vastly overused and thrown around flippantly by commentators and fans alike. But they're the sort of accolades that rightfully reflect the impact Damien Fitzhenry had on Wexford hurling, a man who richly deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as heroes of old like Nickey Rackard, Tony Doran and Dan Quigley.

The netminder, who called it a day from the inter-county scene last week, spent 17 years in the purple and gold of Wexford, serving the county with great dinstinction and unquestionably always gave his all when he crossed the white line into battle.

Growing up in Kiltealy in the shadow of the Blackstairs mountains, the young Fitzhenry had GAA running through his veins. In fact, the Fitzhenrys could have fielded their own team, with Damien being the youngest of 15, ten boys and five girls, and all their lives were entwined in Gaelic games.

The name Fitzhenry is synonymous with the Duffry Rovers club and the team was backboned by the clan when they went on their glorious run of winning eight Senior football titles in nine years between 1986 and 1994, including a remarkable seven-in-a-row.

Damien, also a talented footballer, won four of those county titles with the club, but it's with the small ball and camán that Fitzy made his mark on the wider scale, and he's regarded as one of, if not the best, goalkeepers in the country over the past 20 years.

Given his upbringing, Fitzhenry says the GAA was always going to play a leading role in his life.

'I grew up not knowing anything different. I've nine brothers and five sisters, and they all at some stage would have played. Obviously all of them with the Duffry Rovers and six or seven of them with Wexford, both hurling and football and camogie. Tina, my sister, played in two All-Ireland camogie finals. I didn't miss out on any GAA anyway and obviously because I was the youngest I was going to have to get working on what all of the rest of them had done before me.'

Damien says his love of Gaelic games was nurtured by his parents, Mark and Nancy, and names them as one of the biggest influences on his career.

'None of this would have come about without the help of our parents at home and all of my brothers and sisters will row in behind me on that one. They have travelled thousands and thousands of miles, not only in Wexford but all over Ireland, bringing us to matches and following us to matches, and a lot of what happened to us is down to my mother and father,' he said.

The Duffry Rovers man made his debut for the Wexford Senior side in the National Hurling League quarter-final against Laois in 1993 after graduating straight from the Minor side, and has been the Wexford number one ever since, until announcing his retirement last week.

In his first year with the Senior team the Slaneysiders, under the late Christy Keogh, were showing promise, and eventually went down to Cork in the league final after a mammoth three matches. The seeds were being sown for Fitzy's biggest day in 1996 when Wexford captured the holy grail, the All-Ireland title.

'A lot of the credit for '96 would have to reach back as far as Christy Keogh. He brought a great blend of youth and experience together in '93 and '94. Then Liam Griffin came in and just tweaked a few things, got everyone going the one way and what happened then was '96.'

Fitzhenry's retirement from inter-county hurling has severed the final link with Wexford's last All-Ireland winning team and, unsurprisingly, Damien names that triumph in 1996 as his finest hour.

Being a relative spring chicken to the setup, Fitzy admits that he was lucky that success came to him quite quickly and wouldn't have believed at the time if someone had told him it would be his last All-Ireland win.

'The likes of George O'Connor were nearly coming to an end when I was starting out. Him and fellas like Billy Byrne and Tom Dempsey had toiled, worked so hard for Wexford for years to get something, so for them to get it near the end of their careers and for me to get it at the start of my career was a complete contrast. It was a fantastic thing for the lads but from my point of view I was thinking "this is great, I'm only here three years and we're after winning an All-Ireland". It was the first in 28 years but unfortunately we're half way there again now at 14 years.' In addition to an All-Ireland, Fitzhenry also won three Leinster medals, as well as All Star awards in 1997 and 2004, with many pundits and fans alike believing he deserved more, but the modest goalkeeper isn't concerned about personal plaudits.

'Individual awards don't really bother me. At the end of the day it was fantastic to get two All Stars but what would have been more important to me would be to win. In 2004 I got an All Star but what was more special for me was that the 30 in the panel got a Leinster medal that year. There was an article last year on a player who won an All Star and he was asked what was his highlight of the year and what was he hoping for next year and the first thing he said was that he was hoping to win another All Star next year. I couldn't understand that – for me it's more important to be a team player than to win individual awards,' he said.

Fitzhenry, who spends a few hours a week coaching children in primary schools, says Liam Griffin was the best manager he worked under with Wexford but believes Rory Kinsella and Seamus Barron also deserve great credit for the 1996 success, and said Kinsella seamlessly continued the work when he took over at the helm in '97, when Wexford retained their Leinster crown.

Fitzhenry also singled out another manager for praise, saying that John Meyler is the best he's worked under since the heady days of the

mid-Nineties. He was devastated when the Tacumshane man became another high-profile victim of so-called player power.

'That man put hours and hours into it, from driving from Cork to training, to being on the phone, to helping lads behind the scenes. The way he was treated was an absolute scandal and an absolute disaster. I came out in favour of John Meyler at the time, it was absolutely nothing to do with me, the way he was treated was absolutely scandalous,' he said.

'Probably the biggest regret I would have over the years I played for Wexford was the way John Meyler was dealt with. To see a man that was so interested in the game to be dealt with in that way – that would be the lowest point in my hurling career with Wexford.'

For the past few years, Fitzhenry has been the elder statesman of the team, like George O'Connor and Billy Byrne were when he started out in the early Nineties, but he says seniority isn't always respected in the dressingroom.

'There's a certain breed of player that would listen to you and take on board what you're saying, but there's also a breed of player that think we don't really have to listen to this man, we know he's been there but we don't have to listen to him. That has to be worked on, the players have to go in there for one sole purpose – and that's Wexford hurling.

'The sooner the better that we get everybody working, and putting the shoulder behind the wheel in the one direction to get Wexford hurling back where it should be and where it was a few years ago. Until that happens we're not going to bear any results for a while.'

So does he see any light at the end of the tunnel for Wexford hurling?

'There's no doubt that it's going to pick up but it's going to take time, and that is no disrespect to the players there at the minute. I have worked hard with those lads for the last few years but I think it's going to take a few years to get the blend back right again. There are a few Minor teams coming up so they'd need two or three years to get back there, but if the work is put in, in two or three years Wexford will be back where they should be.' The 35-year-old painstakingly thought about continuing his voyage with Wexford for one more year but in the end decided that he couldn't give the commitment and dedication needed for the job.

'I was thinking to myself – will I give it another year? But if I had I'd still have to give up next year. It has to happen some time.

'I thought long and hard about it, probably for two or three months. It was an unbelievably hard decision. If you take in the Minor I've been hurling since 1991 for Wexford. I suppose I've given unparallelled service to Wexford. Everything else in my life took a back seat over those 20 years and that's what's expected. That's what I thought was expected of me and that's what I gave for as long as I could give it.

'Unfortunately this year I didn't think I was going to be able to give the full 100 per cent commitment. With 90 per cent commitment you won't reap any rewards and that's the way it is, that's what it takes,' he said.

After making 57 championship appearances, the Wexford shot-stopper was only three short of joining Christy Ring and Davy Fitzgerald in breaking the 60 barrier, but Fitzhenry says things like that wouldn't even cross his mind.

'If you're interested in breaking records and doing these things your focus on the main objective, which is Wexford hurling, has left. If you're thinking I'll go for another year and maybe get three or four games and be up near Christy Ring, that's not the way I work or the person that I am.' EXPRESSIONS like 'sporting great' and 'legend of the game' can be vastly overused and thrown around flippantly by commentators and fans alike. But they're the sort of accolades that rightfully reflect the impact Damien Fitzhenry had on Wexford hurling, a man who richly deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as heroes of old like Nickey Rackard, Tony Doran and Dan Quigley.

The netminder, who called it a day from the inter-county scene last week, spent 17 years in the purple and gold of Wexford, serving the county with great dinstinction and unquestionably always gave his all when he crossed the white line into battle.

Growing up in Kiltealy in the shadow of the Blackstairs mountains, the young Fitzhenry had GAA running through his veins. In fact, the Fitzhenrys could have fielded their own team, with Damien being the youngest of 15, ten boys and five girls, and all their lives were entwined in Gaelic games.

The name Fitzhenry is synonymous with the Duffry Rovers club and the team was backboned by the clan when they went on their glorious run of winning eight Senior football titles in nine years between 1986 and 1994, including a remarkable seven-in-a-row.

Damien, also a talented footballer, won four of those county titles with the club, but it's with the small ball and camán that Fitzy made his mark on the wider scale, and he's regarded as one of, if not the best, goalkeepers in the country over the past 20 years.

Given his upbringing, Fitzhenry says the GAA was always going to play a leading role in his life.

'I grew up not knowing anything different. I've nine brothers and five sisters, and they all at some stage would have played. Obviously all of them with the Duffry Rovers and six or seven of them with Wexford, both hurling and football and camogie. Tina, my sister, played in two All-Ireland camogie finals. I didn't miss out on any GAA anyway and obviously because I was the youngest I was going to have to get working on what all of the rest of them had done before me.'

Damien says his love of Gaelic games was nurtured by his parents, Mark and Nancy, and names them as one of the biggest influences on his career.

'None of this would have come about without the help of our parents at home and all of my brothers and sisters will row in behind me on that one. They have travelled thousands and thousands of miles, not only in Wexford but all over Ireland, bringing us to matches and following us to matches, and a lot of what happened to us is down to my mother and father,' he said.

The Duffry Rovers man made his debut for the Wexford Senior side in the National Hurling League quarter-final against Laois in 1993 after graduating straight from the Minor side, and has been the Wexford number one ever since, until announcing his retirement last week.

In his first year with the Senior team the Slaneysiders, under the late Christy Keogh, were showing promise, and eventually went down to Cork in the league final after a mammoth three matches. The seeds were being sown for Fitzy's biggest day in 1996 when Wexford captured the holy grail, the All-Ireland title.

'A lot of the credit for '96 would have to reach back as far as Christy Keogh. He brought a great blend of youth and experience together in '93 and '94. Then Liam Griffin came in and just tweaked a few things, got everyone going the one way and what happened then was '96.'

Fitzhenry's retirement from inter-county hurling has severed the final link with Wexford's last All-Ireland winning team and, unsurprisingly, Damien names that triumph in 1996 as his finest hour.

Being a relative spring chicken to the setup, Fitzy admits that he was lucky that success came to him quite quickly and wouldn't have believed at the time if someone had told him it would be his last All-Ireland win.

'The likes of George O'Connor were nearly coming to an end when I was starting out. Him and fellas like Billy Byrne and Tom Dempsey had toiled, worked so hard for Wexford for years to get something, so for them to get it near the end of their careers and for me to get it at the start of my career was a complete contrast. It was a fantastic thing for the lads but from my point of view I was thinking "this is great, I'm only here three years and we're after winning an All-Ireland". It was the first in 28 years but unfortunately we're half way there again now at 14 years.' In addition to an All-Ireland, Fitzhenry also won three Leinster medals, as well as All Star awards in 1997 and 2004, with many pundits and fans alike believing he deserved more, but the modest goalkeeper isn't concerned about personal plaudits.

'Individual awards don't really bother me. At the end of the day it was fantastic to get two All Stars but what would have been more important to me would be to win. In 2004 I got an All Star but what was more special for me was that the 30 in the panel got a Leinster medal that year. There was an article last year on a player who won an All Star and he was asked what was his highlight of the year and what was he hoping for next year and the first thing he said was that he was hoping to win another All Star next year. I couldn't understand that – for me it's more important to be a team player than to win individual awards,' he said.

Fitzhenry, who spends a few hours a week coaching children in primary schools, says Liam Griffin was the best manager he worked under with Wexford but believes Rory Kinsella and Seamus Barron also deserve great credit for the 1996 success, and said Kinsella seamlessly continued the work when he took over at the helm in '97, when Wexford retained their Leinster crown.

Fitzhenry also singled out another manager for praise, saying that John Meyler is the best he's worked under since the heady days of the

mid-Nineties. He was devastated when the Tacumshane man became another high-profile victim of so-called player power.

'That man put hours and hours into it, from driving from Cork to training, to being on the phone, to helping lads behind the scenes. The way he was treated was an absolute scandal and an absolute disaster. I came out in favour of John Meyler at the time, it was absolutely nothing to do with me, the way he was treated was absolutely scandalous,' he said.

'Probably the biggest regret I would have over the years I played for Wexford was the way John Meyler was dealt with. To see a man that was so interested in the game to be dealt with in that way – that would be the lowest point in my hurling career with Wexford.'

For the past few years, Fitzhenry has been the elder statesman of the team, like George O'Connor and Billy Byrne were when he started out in the early Nineties, but he says seniority isn't always respected in the dressingroom.

'There's a certain breed of player that would listen to you and take on board what you're saying, but there's also a breed of player that think we don't really have to listen to this man, we know he's been there but we don't have to listen to him. That has to be worked on, the players have to go in there for one sole purpose – and that's Wexford hurling.

'The sooner the better that we get everybody working, and putting the shoulder behind the wheel in the one direction to get Wexford hurling back where it should be and where it was a few years ago. Until that happens we're not going to bear any results for a while.'

So does he see any light at the end of the tunnel for Wexford hurling?

'There's no doubt that it's going to pick up but it's going to take time, and that is no disrespect to the players there at the minute. I have worked hard with those lads for the last few years but I think it's going to take a few years to get the blend back right again. There are a few Minor teams coming up so they'd need two or three years to get back there, but if the work is put in, in two or three years Wexford will be back where they should be.' The 35-year-old painstakingly thought about continuing his voyage with Wexford for one more year but in the end decided that he couldn't give the commitment and dedication needed for the job.

'I was thinking to myself – will I give it another year? But if I had I'd still have to give up next year. It has to happen some time.

'I thought long and hard about it, probably for two or three months. It was an unbelievably hard decision. If you take in the Minor I've been hurling since 1991 for Wexford. I suppose I've given unparallelled service to Wexford. Everything else in my life took a back seat over those 20 years and that's what's expected. That's what I thought was expected of me and that's what I gave for as long as I could give it.

'Unfortunately this year I didn't think I was going to be able to give the full 100 per cent commitment. With 90 per cent commitment you won't reap any rewards and that's the way it is, that's what it takes,' he said.

After making 57 championship appearances, the Wexford shot-stopper was only three short of joining Christy Ring and Davy Fitzgerald in breaking the 60 barrier, but Fitzhenry says things like that wouldn't even cross his mind.

'If you're interested in breaking records and doing these things your focus on the main objective, which is Wexford hurling, has left. If you're thinking I'll go for another year and maybe get three or four games and be up near Christy Ring, that's not the way I work or the person that I am.'