Clubs should get the respect they deserve in era of endless fixtures
‘EVERY CLUB WILL TRY TO SEIZE THEIR CHANCE WHEN IT COMES’
IN THE endless GAA season, we have reached the point where players know this might be their only shot at a certain type of glory. They have got out of their county and are into their provincial Championship. They see a path towards St Patrick’s Day in Croke Park. And this might be their only chance of an All-Ireland with their club. I know that from bitter experience. One of the big regrets in my career is that I never got my hands on that medal with St Rynagh’s.
There has been plenty of hand-wringing about the plight of the club player. We have seen the formation of the Club Players Association (CPA) and yet the calendar seems to get more and more congested, with the round robin in hurling and Super 8s in football adding more fixtures.
April was supposed to be a month dedicated to the clubs, but that didn’t really work out. It is up to counties to make noise about the plight of their club player. Kilkenny have been the most vocal about the lack of club action during the summer months. My main gripe is that players are training so much more at club level but they are going months without meaningful matches. It is demoralising.
This is the sort of afternoon that reminds us why the club is special and why we need to do more to look after the club player. This is the time of the year when we see that the club means absolutely everything to a GAA person. It is where it starts and where it ends.
In the past few weeks, we have seen county players, past and present, light up the club scene. Conal Keaney, who had achieved warrior-like status after his comeback with Dublin this summer, rolled back the years for Ballyboden. Shane Dowling led Na Piarsaigh to another Limerick title. Brian Carroll, at 35, guided Coolderry to another Offaly title. Tony Kelly for Ballyea, Neil McManus for Cushendall...
And for everything they have won, it always means more when it is with the club. You are never going to win everything in your career, but that St Rynagh’s never scaled the summit is a regret for me. It would have been massive for the club.
St Rynagh’s contested the first ever All-Ireland club final in 1973 and were beaten by Roscrea. By 1993, the side had contested a few Leinster finals and never got over the line. But once we won the Leinster title that year, our goal changed and we set out to become the first Offaly club to be All-Ireland champions.
We met the great Sarsfields team from Galway, led by Joe Cooney, down in Thurles. They beat us by a point, having got a late goal. It was one of the most disappointing moments of my career but I thought that we would be back. I was sure that we would be stronger for the experience, come back and win the All-Ireland next year.
But, of course, along came Birr, one of the greatest club teams ever, who would win four All-Irelands and seven Leinster titles with five players – the Pilkingtons, Brian Whelahan, Joe Errity and Gary Cahill – on all those teams.
By the time St Rynagh’s got out of Offaly again in 2016, I was well past my sell-by date. After believing that we would win the All-Ireland club title following the disappointment of 1993, it took the club 23 years to even win a county title again.
There’s a lesson in there for all the players in club action this afternoon. You have to take your chance when it comes because, in this year-long game, there is no guarantee that you will ever get out of your county again. It is all on the line. That is what makes the club Championship such a great competition.
The quality of players involved is why there is such an insatiable appetite for matches. In Walsh Park this afternoon, it would be worth following Tony Kelly and Pauric Mahony as both players will be key to the hopes of Ballyea and Ballygunner. And they have great personal stories.
Kelly is still only 25, but he is judged by the highest standards after what he did for Clare in 2013, while Mahony fought back from a career-threatening injury.
Na Piarsaigh have shown that the All-Ireland celebrations in Limerick haven’t knocked a feather out of them, and judging by Dowling’s form, they may have got a bit of momentum from the county’s historic success.
Whatever happens in Tullamore, there will be a great winter tale. Coolderry’s emergence from Offaly is a wonderful story. There was a change of structure in the county this year, with two groups of eight and it was felt that maybe Coolderry might find themselves in a relegation play-off as their team had been slipping the past couple of years.
Joachim Kelly, the Offaly legend who will be 63 in December, took them over and completely turned the team around. They beat KilcormacKilloughey in an excellent county final that was a fantastic occasion. It just goes to show when the mind is strong, if you apply yourself and put in the effort, anything is possible. Coolderry’s opponents today are proof of that. Everyone was taken by the story of Mount Leinster Rangers as they made the All-Ireland final a few years back. And they will fancy another trip to a Leinster final.
But they are the sort of team who seize the chance when it comes along. And it is what every club will be trying to do this afternoon.
It is what makes this time of the year so special in the GAA – and why we all need to work together to ensure the club, the institution around which everything revolves, is treated with more respect.