Madden Raparees and Loughmacrory winning their first ever county titles in Armagh and Tyrone respectively, on the same day, might have been reason enough for both clubs to meet up and have a few pints together this week. In two of the most fiercely-contested championships in the country, they had managed to do something truly historic.
They could rightly say the only other people going through the same rollercoaster of emotions and joy they were feeling were under an hour away across the Tyrone-Armagh border. But that wasn’t the only reason they ended up singing “we are county champions” at each other across a bar in Tyrone on Tuesday night.
Because the Grimley family from Madden – with Liam, and intercounty star Niall as their spiritual leader – had a brother, Ryan, playing for Loughmacrory in that Tyrone final. That three brothers would win two separate, maiden county titles on the same day is astonishing.
How Ryan Grimley ended up throwing in his lot with Loughmacrory is a tale as old as time. He married a girl from there, they built a house, he went up and down the road for five years after that to play with Madden, before he eventually joined his local club in Tyrone at the age of 34, three years ago.
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In the angst-filled world of the GAA transfer, this is about as guilt-free as you can get. This is how it’s supposed to work ... if you are inclined to think that it ever works (I’ve been through a couple myself).
Time after time over the course of the last few weeks, we saw people lining out for clubs that weren’t originally their own. In the Kilkenny hurling final, Kerry’s best hurler Fionán Mackessy was full forward for O’Loughlin Gaels as they lost to Ballyhale Shamrocks.
In the Cork hurling final, Killian McDermott of Clarecastle was wing forward for Midleton, while Shane O’Regan came on for the last 10 minutes for Sarsfields. O’Regan’s move from Watergrasshill, another club in Cork, was initially turned down by the Cork County Board, but he was a key figure in Sars’ win in the Munster club championship final against Ballygunner last year.
After a dispute between them and their old club Derrygonnelly in Fermanagh, the three Jones brothers – Ryan, Garvan and Conall – transferred to Leitrim Gaels across the border. A week after they won their new club’s first ever county title, their old club lost the Fermanagh final in a replay. The Joneses were midfield, centre forward and full forward for Leitrim Gaels, and were hugely influential throughout. If that row hadn’t happened, there would surely be different champions in both counties.
Johnny Maloney is a former Offaly captain who played wing forward in Moycullen’s win over Salthill-Knocknacarra in the Galway football final last Saturday night. He lives and works as a civil engineer in Galway, has a young family, and had trained with Moycullen for years before eventually deciding to join them in 2023.
These are all examples from outside the capital, where the reality of club transfers is usually far more pronounced. Both Dublin county finals were tight games – the Galway intercounty man Céin Darcy got the vital goal for Ballyboden St Enda’s in the football final, while former Limerick hurler Brian Ryan hit five points from play for Na Fianna in the hurling.
That’s a far-from-exhaustive list just from the last couple of weeks. But taken together it paints a picture of just how different each transfer can be. If you couldn’t possibly have a problem with Ryan Grimley, then you probably shouldn’t have a problem with Fionán Mackessy, or indeed have an issue with him declaring for and playing with the Kilkenny senior hurlers. But they’re different, in subtle ways.
Céin Darcy got back on the Galway senior football team in large part because of his exceptional performances for Ballyboden – not, it feels important to stress, the other way around. No one in Galway has a problem with Maloney lining out with Moycullen.
Ryan Jones has a pharmacy in Drumshanbo, and has been living in the Leitrim Gaels catchment area for years. But the arrival of his two brothers to the club, and their subsequent march to their first ever county final, has been greeted with some disquiet in Leitrim. Everyone should have been roaring on the county’s newest club last week against Ballinamore, the team with the most wins in the county’s history, but that’s not how it was. Clare man Killian McDermott took a lot less flak for his move to Midleton than Shane O’Regan took for his move to Sars.
In entities as tight and interdependent as GAA clubs, personality clashes are unavoidable. When those clashes happen in the workplace or in a sports club, or in life generally, it is inevitable that one side might walk away and find a new home elsewhere. The GAA still frowns on that solution. Even players leaving after a lifetime of service to play for the club team where they now live are not always met with unanimous support.
None of that is news to anyone even remotely connected with a GAA club. Life has a way of expanding beyond your home place and it’s obvious that it’s the hardest sporting decision a lot of these players will ever make, no matter how old you are when you decide to up sticks.
The hope is that as you walk out the door of a club, for any reason, it doesn’t slam shut behind you. That hope can sometimes be forlorn.
