A few weeks ago, in the build-up to the Limerick county final, Darragh O’Donovan spoke about the culture in Doon, his club. Derek McGrath, the former Waterford manager, had come on board a year before, and among those who reached out to him were Doon’s intercounty contingent, including O’Donovan. What they weren’t looking for, though, was a pastiche of an inter county set-up. All parties were clear on this distinction.
“Derek hasn’t come in and brought this intercounty mantra,” said O’Donovan, “and this nonsense that I see that has gone on previously in our club and probably goes on in other clubs around the country. It’s absolute nonsense. We enjoy ourselves, we train hard when we have to train, and we have fun.”
All over the country clubs are dicing with this chemical equation, trying not to create Frankenstein. In the pursuit of an edge, or just to keep up with the neighbours, clubs are rummaging through the intercounty scene for transferable practices and people who can deliver them.
In sync, the club scene at elite level has become increasingly attractive to coaches and managers with intercounty experience because the gap in attitudes between ambitious club players and intercounty players has never been smaller. That gap, though, has become a battleground: how far can clubs advance into this no man’s land before they lose something of their essence.
RM Block
All over the country now, clubs who reach the business end of county championships are managed by familiar names from the intercounty game. Some of them, such as Henry Shefflin in Ballyhale, Shane O’Neill in Na Piarsaigh and Ray Dempsey in Knockmore, simply returned to their home clubs after chastening experiences at intercounty level. O’Neill and Shefflin sparked an old flame.
But when intercounty managers re-enter that arena, there are obvious risks. For a start, they must know their audience. “The pitch is getting the balance right,” says Derek McGrath. “A club player might never have heard of a KPI [key performance indicator], for instance. It might be a guy from a rural background that likes things very simple – that likes things straightforward, tactically, psychologically. He likes to go down to the pitch because that’s his place of solace, that’s where he gets away from the farm or the stresses of daily life.
“So, you’re trying to find the access point. You know well that some of the boys are used to Kiely and Kinnerk and Seanie O’Donnell [the Limerick management] and you know well that some of the lads are coming in at the other end of the scale in terms of what they’re used to. You’re trying to find a sweet spot. But their hobby can be challenging as well. I think [club] players now are reacting to that.”
Tipperary is a vivid example of how the landscape has changed. Eddie Brennan has just finished three years with Moycarkey-Borris; Glen Ryan coached the Upperchurch Drombane footballers this season while Cashel King Cormacs were managed by Fergie O’Loughlin from Clare and coached by Eoin Cadogan from Cork.
The most successful club by a mile, though, has been Loughmore-Castleiney, winners of three hurling titles and two football titles since the turn of the decade. This year their management teams were stacked with intercounty credentials.
Their hurling manager, Eamon Kelly, has previously managed Offaly, Laois and Kerry; their coach, Donal O’Rourke, has filled that role with the Cork seniors for the last three years and will be Waterford’s coach next season; their other coach, Hughie Hannon, worked with the All-Ireland winning Offaly under-20s.
Their footballers were led by Paddy Christie – the former Dublin player and Longford manager – and Mick Dempsey, who managed the Laois footballers nearly 30 years ago, but made his reputation as Brian Cody’s right-hand man for 17 seasons.
“This was no disrespect to anyone we had before,” says Joe Ryan, the Loughmore-Castleiney chairman, “but when I came in [two years ago] we just felt we needed to do something a bit different. We normally wouldn’t go outside the club. It was a long time since we went out before. But I had a good chat with some of our more senior players, and they were on a par with me on that.”
Along with Kelly and two coaches, they have two strength and conditioning trainers and a new video analyst. When clubs make such a leap they must have a landing spot in mind. Loughmore had already enjoyed success in Tipp, but not beyond. There was a sense too that they had a left a couple of county titles behind them. In their care was the most talented generation of players Loughmore had ever produced. They were looking for rocket fuel.
“Donal [O’Rourke] will tell you,” says Eamon Kelly, “what we were doing [in training] is very, very similar to what Cork were doing. You have to do that now. The days of running out to the cone, turning and striking are gone. The day of the club hurler togging out twice a week and playing a match at the weekend is gone – he’s a junior hurler.
“I trained and managed and did everything with teams when I started out, but I would be afraid to do a session now. The sessions now are like a maths exam. I’ve seen both sides of it. A couple of years ago I had a guy who was doing the coaching, and he just wasn’t up to it and then you’re shown up. I had Aidan [Stakelum] last year, Donal and Hughie this year, all intercounty guys. The lads respond then. If they’re asked to do something, and an intercounty guy is asking them, they don’t question it, they believe in it.”
But how much is too much? For a club team, what interventions are liable to bend them out of shape? Shane O’Sullivan hurled for Waterford for 14 seasons, and for Ballygunner for 22 years, but he is a performance coach by profession, in sport and business. Sometimes clubs will call him looking for a quick fix, or maybe to tick a box, because they see it as a transferable practice from the intercounty game.
If you find fun in the intercounty game it’s on a very, very individual basis. There’s probably a masochistic element in it – that you enjoy getting flogged to death seven days a week
— Pat Roe
When Maigh Cuilin won the Galway football final recently they eulogised the impact of Caroline Currid, the pre-eminent performance coach in Gaelic games over the past 15 years. Currid has contributed to eight All-Ireland victories, five in Limerick, and her involvement in Maigh Cuilin was characterised as small and targeted. It worked.
“There’s intermediate clubs and even junior clubs ringing me,” O’Sullivan says. “and I wouldn’t have the time, or I wouldn’t think it was a beneficial thing because they’re looking for these one-off performance coaching sessions that don’t serve the club. The gap has definitely closed [between club and county]. There are club players now that would have an understanding of concepts that 10 years ago they wouldn’t have had a clue of.
“But it’s a kind of paradox. People think that these psychological concepts will be the difference between them winning and losing and they don’t understand that, actually, if you look at a club and the culture of a club it’s all about a deeper why, it’s all about enjoyment, it’s all about connection and relationships. I’d be conscious of the joy element and the fun element – are clubs losing that?”
Between elite clubs and intercounty set-ups, is that point of difference under threat? If clubs are importing intercounty expertise and attitudes and training programmes, are they also importing the stony-faced joylessness?
In his time, Pat Roe has managed three intercounty football teams – Carlow, Wexford and Offaly – but over the last 10 years his focus has been on clubs. This year he led Portarlington to another football title in Laois and he marvels at elite club players now, and their appetite for improvement. Mercifully, though, he still sees some lightness.
“At county level, it’s seven days a week now,” says Roe. “They do build their lives around it. I don’t know if that’s the healthiest thing, but it is what it is. If you find fun in the intercounty game it’s on a very, very individual basis. There’s probably a masochistic element in it – that you enjoy getting flogged to death seven days a week.”
The pattern of elite clubs looking for managers and coaches with intercounty experience is ingrained now. When Darragh O’Sullivan stood down as the Ballygunner manager at the end of last year, they turned to Jason Ryan, the former manager of the Kildare and Wexford footballers.
When Lochmacrory St Teresa’s won their first Tyrone county final a few weeks ago, their manager was Marty Boyle from Donegal, who had led Derry to a minor All-Ireland. Alongside him was Luke Barrett, a member of the Donegal management team this year and Ciarán Meenagh, the current Derry manager, but a local man.
They were stacked. This is how the club game is played now.
