‘They are a genuinely big, strong side’
DAYS like next Sunday in Dublin will live long in the memory for those that are involved.
Be they players, management or supporters – seeing your friends, your family, your sons, your grandsons, your nephews or just the young lad from next door that has been wrecking your head banging balls off the gable end of your house for years on end, everyone in Charleville and the surrounding areas has a vested interest in what happens next weekend.
While there isn’t really a pecking order on who deserves an All-Ireland title the most, few in the locality could argue that team manager John Moloney isn’t somewhere near the top of the list.
After dedicating well over 20 years to the Charleville hurling scene, Moloney will, for the last time in the 2018 season, put his heart, his soul and the sum of his hurling knowledge on the line to do all he can the help his beloved Charleville make it to the promised land.
Moloney ( right), along with Tony McAulliffe, coach Ben O’Connor and all those that wear the club colours, but not the 1 – 30 jerseys will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the men on the pitch hoping to guide their charges to the illusive national medal in the nearest thing Ireland has to a coliseum.
“It’s a huge game for us but there seems to be nice low-key preparations around the place” Moloney told The Corkman earlier this week.
“We are training away and everything seems to be good at the moment. We are still waiting on Darragh’s [Fitzgibbon] fitness, but we won’t really know that until we head into the weekend but hopefully he will be okay. Darragh hasn’t done anything with us since the last game but hopefully he will be okay.
“Everybody else seems to be ok at the moment so hopefully that will remain to be the case for Sunday.”
Heading to Croker can be stressful for senior inter county players never mind young lads from Avondhu, but Moloney thinks his boys are taking it all in the stride.
“The boys all seem to be nice and calm, nobody seems to be overly nervous about it at the moment so that is a good sign as well. There were four or five of this panel involved back in 2011 when we played there before and they will all be a positive.”
Charleville’s young side, that sees up to twelve Under 21s on the pitch at times is a positive for the club, but Moloney thinks that is just the way the game is going rather than anything special happening on the Limerick border.
“The way things have gone over the last number of years at all levels, including inter-county, it seems that players are coming in younger, playing much more and then perhaps retiring younger as well.
“There are significant demands on players at all levels now and it seems to be getting to be a younger man’s game. We have a lot of fellows playing underage and college and getting onto the adult teams earlier and then they are probably bowing out earlier as well.
“The demands put on the players for matches and for training have intensified for club hurling and that eventually takes its toll.”
Charleville were playing
Junior hurling in the same decade they will play senior and for any club that has to be seen as a remarkable turnaround in fortunes. “We are after a great decade to be fair from winning the junior in 2011, after being beaten by Churchtown in 2010, which was a real low point for us, we are now gone senior and facing into another All Ireland Final.” So what does all this mean to Charleville? Days like next Sunday are about much more than just the team – the whole community is rallying around for what is likely to be one of the great days for this market town.
“There is a great buzz around the town with the flags and banners going up throughout the week. It is intensifying every day this week but for us we have tried to keep it low key all year and we are trying to do the same for this game – even though it is an All-Ireland final.
“We can’t get caught up in it. We have a job to do to prepare for the game as best we can and when we get there we must do all that we can to win. That is our job. We have a young team so we try to keep them away from that kind of thing.
“We try to keep them away from media and stuff like that so the buildup for them can be as calm as possible.” Moloney and the backroom team don’t know much about this weekend’s opposition, but they did get more than a glimpse of them in their All Ireland semi-final a few weeks back.
“We went up to see the semi-final that they were in against St Galls and they are a genuinely big, strong physical side. In that game St Galls got two late goals and other than that they only managed four points against a strong defensive set-up.
“Strong defence, good attacking players that are lively so we are going to be at our very best to beat them.”
Moloney was showing plenty respect for the opposition, but he was also clear that the Croke Park pitch is something that really should suit his side as they head into the biggest day of their young sporting lives.
“We went up [Croke Park] on Saturday for a look around to let the lads see it and the pitch is just immaculate. It is like a carpet. You just couldn’t believe how good it is. It should suit us and suit our style of play – we can’t have any complaints about the pitch anyway that is for sure.”
This Sunday, for over 60 minutes, Moloney will stand in the same spot as many of the great managers of the game and while many of those that have gone before are household names, they all share one thing with Moloney.
They all deserved to be there.