MUNSTER’S JERRY FLANNERY SPEAKS FROM THE HEART
Flannery is still coming to terms with death of Foley
JERRY FLANNERY is still adjusting to life at Munster minus his late, great pal Anthony ‘Axel’ Foley. Chat about rugby coaching and the impending European back-to-backs with Leicester, a hurdle they failed to clear this time last year against the same English opposition, was always going to give way to warm – and teary-eyed – reflection.
Nearly five years separated them in age, but they both hailed from a St Munchin’s/ Shannon background before joining forces on the European Cup-winning Munster beat. Irish internationals cut from the same cloth.
Such was their bond that when Foley needed a scrum coach on taking the provincial reins in 2014, he convinced Flannery to quit work as an Arsenal FC academy strength and conditioning coach in London and move home, even though he had no pro rugby coaching stripes and would arrive raw to the job.
He’s still there two-and-a-half years later. Sadly, his friend isn’t, passing away in October at the age of 42. Rugby’s family spirit has carried the province in the interim, some stories about Foley’s influence even catching Flannery unawares.
‘The first few weeks were weird,’ he admits, reflecting on picking up the pieces following Foley’s death. ‘Rugby’s so structured, the weeks and the small things.
‘We’d finish a warm-up on a Tuesday and Aled (Walters), the conditioning coach, would normally say, “Right lads, over to Axel”. Then it was “over to Fla” and it was, “This feels weird”. Feels weird for everyone. Then when we have our session plan sheets, you have AF on it and I’d be like, I have to give it back. Delete that or put JF on it or leave it blank. Small things.
‘But the fact Munster are going well now, that is ultimately what Axel would have loved. I remember speaking to him and said if the players here knew how much you love Munster, how much you’d do anything to win… I don’t think they comprehend it.
‘So much stuff came out after his death that I realised, “Geez, this guy is so clever”. When things don’t go well in a sporting organisation you always wonder how people perceive people.
‘Axel has always been a hero for me since I was a kid and when we were losing and I saw all the pressure he was under, I used to wonder what the players thought of him.
‘Then I see things like all these little stories emerging of Axel going out of his way to look out for lads, stuff that he would never tell me. Even Rassie (Erasmus) would have told me a few bits and pieces, saying he just had a conversation or he found something out about Axel doing something for a player. It’s just another layer of Axel.
‘Olive (his widow) would tell you he wasn’t always going to be chatting and you knew he wasn’t going to tell you everything he was doing, but his influence was a lot more than people gave it credit for. ‘Everyone has their little things where they think about Axel. We’re always thinking about him but we have managed that now, we have moved past that from a work perspective. Everyone misses him every day but we have managed that now as best an organisation can. Munster have been good that way. Everyone has, to be fair. ‘It meant so much to see the way the Maoris paid tribute to him, the All Blacks, Scarlets, Clermont… that was cool. It made the rugby family seem tight and small even though it’s a global sport. I enjoyed that. My faith in humanity was restored, but you just have to get on with it. ‘When we all met up at Axel’s funeral some of the lads said, “I’m really going to start living my life” and I was there, “What can you do differently, man? You can’t start going out on a Wednesday night or anything like that”. ‘But you can just be a bit more appreciative. It puts s*** in perspective. When you get a parking fine, you just go, “So what?” It’s not that big a deal. ‘You can’t replace someone like Axel in Munster because Axel was so important in the formation of what Munster is today. It’s not like Axel was away in Australia and came back and gave us all this stuff. Axel was here and was the one who had been leading Munster on a journey as a player and as a coach. You can’t replace him…
‘Every day I walk past his office. No one’s touched it, like. I’d often go for a run and be thinking about him all the time. That’s it.’
Munster’s form all season has been decent, the recruitment of Erasmus and sidekick Jacques Nienaber re-energising the operation. Flannery has scars from the past two difficult winters to know it would be foolish to get carried away now with so much rugby on the horizon.
However, he won’t deny there is optimism they are, at least, going in the right direction. Indeed, the level of current ambition is vindicating his decision to give his role a third year instead of calling it quits as Mick O’Driscoll, Brian Walsh and Ian Costello did to accommodate the South African influx.
‘Until I met Rassie, I was very hesitant about staying,’ reveals Flannery, the entrepreneurial publican/media investor whose family life is set to become even more hectic with the arrival in around 10 weeks of his second child.
‘I was anxious as to what the dynamic would be within the coaching group. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to stay. Two incredibly difficult years and I was, “Geez man, I don’t know how much I enjoy this”. Then there was the thought of not knowing how Rassie and Axel would have got on.
‘I didn’t want to sit in a coaches’ meeting for another year, two years, if they didn’t. But then I met Rassie and he’s a very clued-in guy, a good manager who’s emotionally aware, and I felt we had a good thing going there with Axel and himself.
‘I can’t say I really enjoyed the first two years. You’re trying to find your feet as a young coach, trying to help, but I definitely feel I have more influence this year. I feel we are more united as a group. We had inexperienced coaches and an inexperienced group of players, but these lads are two years older now and we have a bit more time under our belt as coaches as well.
‘Then I see the enthusiasm you get from someone like Felix (Jones). He’s in there fresh and I was saying to him, “It’s like you have won the Lotto, you didn’t have to go in and spend the two years of pain”.’
‘The best years of my life were playing for Munster and I used to look at this group of players and feel bad because it was so much more difficult for them because there was so much expectation. I felt them carrying the weight of this responsibility as if they have to win every game and be perfect. That isn’t the case.
‘Having Rassie come in is very good for the group. He won’t ever call people out for making a mistake, that a mistake it’s not the end of the world. If they don’t show effort that is a problem, but it encourages players to go and play. They just have to give it everything and if we lose, there is nothing else they can do. It’s on us as coaches to prepare them better the following week.
‘I read some of CJ’s quotes from the awards [Stander was voted rugby writers’ player of the year last Tuesday] and he said how it
I walk past his office every day, nobody has touched it, and I think of him
[Axel’s death] brought everyone together. It really did because I needed help coming in on the lineouts and Donnacha Ryan, Darren O’Shea, Billy Holland, Dave Foley all came in and that’s ultimately what you want as a coach, players taking ownership and feeling empowered because they are the ones who make the calls when they play.
‘There is a better framework for the players to work in now. I’m starting to see a lot of competition in positions and that is driving performance. But I’m conscious I’m saying this and in seven weeks’ time it could be very, very different.
‘I’d like to think there is a better foundation.
‘We may lose some games. That is sport, but we have something to fall back on. Everyone knows what our plan is and there is going to be no knee-jerk.’
That attitude rails against what occurred 12 months ago, when Ian Keatley was booed by a dissatisfied section of Munster support when replaced in the home defeat to Leicester.
‘As a player involved in teams who people now think everyone was 10-foot tall and everyone was incredible, we lost loads of games and played terribly but we played as hard as we could all the time and the crowd got behind you.
‘As long the players play as hard as they can and buy into the plan laid out for them as coaches, if they do that and we lose we’re fine with that.
‘If Munster fans are only keen on seeing a team that wins all the time, then they need to go and follow another team because I don’t know a club team that wins every single game. But if you want to see players give their everything in a jersey, we’ll give you that.’