Davy Fitz talks heart disease, family, SHC hopes and 850km round trip to Antrim

Let's get the ground covered out of the way first. Davy Fitzgerald will set out from his home in Sixmilebridge some time around 10am for a Tuesday evening training session and pick up Michael Collins, known as ‘Gazzy’, his long-time kitman and companion, and Conor Dolan, who is part of his wider coaching team. Both live locally. He’ll point his car for Limerick and head out the N18 before joining the M7 motorway, stopping off at the Midway Food Court in Portlaoise to meet with Pat Bennett, who has been his sage right-hand man for the majority of his managerial assignments over the years. And it’s there that we also join the travelling party, the five of us pulling out of Portlaoise just before midday. Between collecting and dropping, Fitzgerald reckons the round trip to Antrim’s training base in Dunsilly, north of Belfast, comes to about 850km. For Pat, coming from Ballysaggart in Waterford, it’s 970km. If Fitzgerald’s tank is full of diesel leaving the ‘Bridge, it’ll be empty when he...