They say Michael Quinlivan is the brains behind Clonmel Commercials, and it doesn't take long to realise why. He speaks about their All-Ireland club semi-final with the same sense and sensibility that he often displays on the football field, and also brings to his work with PwC financial consultants in Dublin.
Indeed Quinlivan is one of the main reasons Clonmel have got this far, his injury-time goal in the Munster club final helping to set up Saturday’s semi-final showdown against Ballyboden St Enda’s. They also needed to navigate past London champions Tir Chonaill Gaels, two weeks after their win over Nemo Rangers, although that didn’t go exactly to plan for Quinlivan, who was black-carded in the first half.
That actually raised some brief doubt over his semi-final participation: three black cards at intercounty level results in a one-match ban, and Quinlivan already had two to his name – although fortunately for him the rule does not apply at club level.
“There was a lot of frenetic looking into that, it being my third one of the year, but thankfully it doesn’t relate to the club scene,” he confirms. “But my immediate thought was I might miss the semi-final, and was walking in at half-time, my head in my hands, thinking, ‘what am I after doing?’ I’d just gone in to tackle a guy and he stepped inside me, tripped over my leg. That’s how I remember it anyway. But about an hour after the game someone texted me to say it was okay.”
Clonmel handled Tir Chonaill Gaels with ease (winning by nine points), but Quinlivan admits that Ballyboden are an entirely different challenge: both clubs have made it to this stage of the competition for the first time and, while there was no surprise to see the Dublin champions triumph in Leinster, few expected Clonmel to beat Nemo and claim Munster.
No hiding place
“I don’t think there is any hiding place now,” he says. “We definitely announced ourselves by beating Nemo, then went over to London and did the same. We also play a style of football that is our own. It’s actually pretty similar to Nemo’s, and a lot of people saw that in the game. We’ll try and impose that on Ballyboden and whether or not that works we’ll see, and try and nullify them as well.”
In ways, he says, the game against the London champions helped keep the focus, especially after the heroic homecoming from the Munster title: “To come back down, after such a high, can be difficult. So I think the trip away made us grow a bit more as a group. We had to knuckle down and come away with a result because we could have undone all the work we’d done two weeks’ previous.
“I think it was probably our best performance of the year. We were flying it over there and I think Charlie McKeever, our manager, said as much. It was obviously going to be an issue for us, as they were confident they could turn us over. We knew if we put in a performance that we could come away, and I thought a lot of our younger guys were super on the day.”
Special praise
Quinlivan also singles out McKeever for special praise, the Donegal native who has managed several teams in the Tipperary area, including Clonmel Town soccer team.
“We didn’t even make a county quarter-final in 2014, and that was more of an issue with the players. He really has brought this group together. Now he’d drive you insane, but then he can put his arm around you just as quick. He knows what he is doing, as he has shown with whatever club he’s with, soccer or Gaelic football.”
