If Galway’s senior footballers put in as flawless of a performance on Sunday as Fitzy has produced during his Love Island stint to-date, Pádraig Joyce’s men will be making that trip back to Croker with ease.
This is a performance akin to Shane Walsh in the 2022 All-Ireland final. It is borderline impossible to predict anyone’s next move in that villa - people are losing interest in their partners, trying to rekindle with former flames, throwing their toys out the pram at any given opportunity. The only guarantee is that Fitzy and Lola are cuddled up in a corner in their bubble of unproblematic bliss.
Fitzy hasn’t followed the Love Island playbook since he hit the Mallorca sun, and that does not look like changing. He went where no man has gone before when he went exclusive with Lola two weeks in. His most recent act has taken the biscuit.
For some lads, the ‘L bomb’ is the pinnacle. It can take months for us fellas to drop the guard and push that four-letter word beginning with L out into the universe.
Fitzy has told Lola he loves her. Three weeks after meeting her. He also gave a good stab at squeezing the most amount of ‘likes’ into a sentence in human history.
“But like, I do love you like. And I think you know that, like, it’s so obvious like,” revealed the Barna clubman.
Lola says she loves him too. Twilight and The Notebook eat your heart out.
In a week of wins for the Galway footballer, Lola also gave GAA its rightful seat at a very different table. In a game of ‘never have I ever’ around the firepit, the islanders were asked to take a drink if they had ever been with a celebrity.
Some of the girls put the lads under serious pressure as they admitted to getting comfy with NFL and Premier League players. But step forward Lola to place the GAA into conversations it truly belongs in as she beamed that she can include herself now as she is with a Gaelic footballer. Go on, Lola.
On Tuesday night’s episode, the famed heart rate challenge made its return. In the bluntest terms possible it’s an X-rated challenge in which the islanders pull off their best moves in an attempt to raise the heart rate of the opposite sex.
Fitzy remained resolute, refusing to look the girls in their eyes. Until Lola landed and blew the Barna man’s socks off.
Up to now, Fitzy has put in a 10/10 man-of-the-match performance. That’s not just on the cameras, islanders who have been kicked off the show speak about him in glowing terms and he seems to be well liked in there. If these two lovebirds do manage to go the distance, it could be one of Love Island’s greatest success stories.
But there is a long way to go still. Love Island is never plain sailing and there are always twists and turns. If you are a veteran of the show you will know that Casa Amor cannot be too far away. For those of you who are new to the show, Casa Amor presents the greatest test of them all.
Fitzy will have a decision to make when that day comes: does he want to maintain his angel status, or will he become the villa’s villain?
Many angels have turned villain before him on this show but if Fitzy has proved anything on his Love Island stint so far, it’s that he is not afraid to do things a little differently.
