Muldoon’s exit leaves major void at the Sportsground
Connacht legend will get send-off he deserves this weekend, but departure will be overshadowed by recent disappointment
AFTER 15 seasons in the trenches, Saturday’s visit of Leinster will be John Muldoon’s last game in Connacht colours, but the iconic captain’s retirement has been far removed from the happy ending supporters would have hoped for.
Not only have the province endured another miserable season on the pitch, but their one-club captain has rubbed salt into the wounds by deciding his immediate future lies elsewhere.
Instead of taking on a role with his home province, Muldoon is headed for Bristol to work alongside former Connacht boss Pat Lam as defence coach.
And quite frankly, who could blame him?
All the good feeling and optimism that came with the Muldoon-inspired Pro12 success of 2016 has since been obliterated.
The man that helped transform Connacht and steered them to that first ever trophy, Lam, departed to take up an offer he couldn’t refuse with Bristol, and his replacement, Kieran Keane, has struggled to fill the void left by the personable New Zealander.
There are concerns that Keane’s far less hands-on approach hasn’t sat comfortably with the squad, with the unease behind the scenes reflected in the performances on the pitch.
They head into the final weekend of regular season Pro14 action just two points ahead of bottom side Zebre in Conference A, having suffered 14 defeats in their 20 outings so far.
The Leinster side they beat in that historic Pro12 final arrive in a much healthier state, competing on two fronts for trophies while employing an exciting brand of rugby and mixing home-grown youth with experience.
Of course, resources and player pools all play their part but, privately, Muldoon must be bitterly disappointed at the state of affairs out west.
The progress made in 2016 was meant to kick-start a new era for Connacht rugby, but instead they have failed to build on that success while the key men behind that breakthrough season have taken on new challenges in England in order to further their careers.
Muldoon was the beating heart of Connacht’s remarkable rise, and without him the next few years threaten to bring further uncertainty and frustration.
It all echoes his own early years with the province.
A promising underage hurler, Muldoon took up rugby at 14 years of age in an effort to keep fit during the off-season in Gaelic games.
He stuck with both sports — Muldoon was a member of the Galway panel that captured the All-Ireland minor championship in 2000 — but eventually rolled the dice and signed his first contract with Connacht at the age of 20, making his senior debut in 2004.
The Portumna native has since admitted that he was lucky to be kept on, with the departure of a number of senior players opening up some vacancies at the right time.
‘It was around the time that Connacht were getting threatened to be disbanded and if I’m being honest, I probably wouldn’t have got a contract at the time only for one or two people decided to leave the province,’ he explained in an interview last year.
‘I knew it was an opportunity and as they say, one man’s misfortune is another man’s gain. The funny thing is, I only played four times in my first year, so I had to get stuck in and work hard and train to get up the pecking order, because I knew when I joined that I was firmly the last one in the pecking order.’
Slowly but surely, Muldoon began to find his feet and establish himself as a first-team player under head coach Michael Bradley, with whom he enjoyed a difficult relationship.
Bradley had coached Muldoon with the Ireland Under 21s before taking the Connacht job, and seemed underwhelmed by the Galway man’s potential.
‘We had an OK relationship, but not brilliant,’ Muldoon admitted. ‘I know when he took over I had thought “oh no”. Later Brads told me I was hitting my ceiling and a year later that I was overachieving.’
If he was overachieving then, one wonders how Bradley would describe his fortunes since.
The 2004/05 season would be his big breakthrough, with injuries opening the door for Muldoon to rack up a significant increase in game-time and establish himself as first-choice blindside. By 2008, he was captain. His rise coincided with a vast improvement in the state of fortunes out west, and in his first season as captain they reached the semi-finals of the Challenge Cup. While the trophy cabinet remained bare, they were at least still in the mix come the business end of the season, while also regularly troubling their provincial rivals in the Pro12.
Despite his new-found status as a provincial captain, an international career never fully materialised. He earned his first Ireland cap against Canada in 2009, but his third — a 2010 start at blindside against New Zealand in New Plymouth — would be his last. The All Blacks won 66-28 with Muldoon continuing to make tackles despite suffering a serious arm fracture.
Instead, it would be his Connacht displays that defined him, and following a decade of shuffling between seventh and 10th in the Pro12 table, under the guidance of Pat Lam the province found themselves gearing up for the competition’s Grand Final against Leinster in May 2016.
The heavily-fancied Blues failed to get going as Connacht recorded a famous 20-10 win in Murrayfield,
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with an emotional Muldoon talking to the TV cameras, shortly after the final whistle, being the stand-out image of the day.
However, the years since have seen a swift fall back to the mediocrity that tarred the province for so long, with the in-demand Lam soon snatched up by Bristol, a club full of ambition and loaded by billionaire Stephen Lansdown.
His replacement, Keane, has failed to capture the imagination in the same manner as his compatriot, and Muldoon’s final season has been one blighted by underachievement.
Aside from his obvious qualities as a player, the leadership void Muldoon will leave is a major concern. His 326 appearances for the province form a Connacht record. With second-row Andrew Browne (155 appearances) also departing at the end of the campaign, 27year-old Tiernan O’Halloran (148) will be the most experienced Connacht player on the books when next season commences.
And so it is easy to understand the disappointment surrounding Muldoon’s departure. Not only are the province losing one of their key performers, they are losing the most influential voice to have laced up a pair of boots at the Sportsground, an invaluable source of knowledge and experience walking away to lend his expertise elsewhere.
It is a disappointing end to the greatest career in Connacht history, but given the stodgy feeling of the past 12 months, it is not hard to understand why.
Whether or not Connacht can upset the odds against Leinster on Saturday remains to be seen, but win or lose, the Sportsground will no doubt give their greatest servant the send-off that he deserves.
They may never see his like again. ÷LIONS winger George North has returned to his native Wales to join Ospreys from Northampton Saints. The 26-year-old had signed a national dual contract with the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU), which means the governing body will fund 60 per cent of his pay with the rest being paid by his new Swansea-based club. North said: ‘I am really excited to be joining the Ospreys and starting a new chapter in my career when I return to Wales.’