WHEN MICKO IS SPEAKING, I HANG ON EVERY WORD
In his 18th year as a Laois footballer, Ross Munnelly is still in contact with – and informed by – the Kerry legend who gave him his debut
‘EVEN NOW, MICKO TALKS WITH PASSION – IT RUBS OFF ON YOU’
THE odds have always been stacked against Ross Munnelly. Being a December baby, particularly one born two days before Christmas, the calendar-year age grade meant an eternal battle against those bigger than him, stronger than him, older than him. Long before he came to understand the ‘relative age’ concept of team sport – and its inherent bias – he struggled to get his place on his own local team, never mind county.
And yet here he is. In his 18th season as a Laois senior footballer. The longest serving outfield player in the game following the winter retirement of Mayo’s Andy Moran and Monaghan’s Vinny Corey. At the end of the year, he’ll turn 38. Only one person still involved at the highest level has togged out longer for his county – that’s Dublin goalkeeper Stephen Cluxton, a seventime All-Ireland winner, who holds the all-time record for Championship appearances, over 100.
Munnelly reached that same milestone in Allianz League appearances last spring.
Not bad for a December baby. ‘Actually, it stood to me. I was a small player growing up, playing a year out of my depth, almost a full calendar year. I had a lot of frustrating times. I was a sub on a lot of teams growing up. That really drove me to practise my skills. When I was playing almost a year catch-up and being physically smaller than a lot of players. That had a major impact on how determined I became. In dealing with resilience and knock-backs. Not being picked.
‘Managers weren’t telling me I wasn’t good enough but that was how I interpreted it.
‘That always drove me to come home from matches being disappointed, crying in some cases. I would get my footballs and go to the school pitch across the road.
‘Spend how long – it felt like all night – kicking ball after ball after ball, to prove I was good enough.’
Kerry legend Mick O’Dwyer seemed to understand as much instinctively. As Laois manager he plucked Munnelly from relative obscurity in 2003, parachuting him into the first team.
By high summer, the rookie 20year-old kicked a crucial goal in the Leinster final as a glorious odyssey involved winning the Delaney Cup for the first time since 1946.
Later that year, his club ArlesKilcruise won a first county championship in another break-out act.
So much, he says, he owes to Micko and a fateful conversation in the spring of 2003, on the eve of a League game against Down.
‘I was standing in the stand in Portlaoise and Micko and [selector] Declan O’Loughlin were passing by. We were after doing Under 21 training. They stopped for a second. Micko said, “What are you doing tomorrow? Sure come on in. Bring the gear.” I was unsure of what was actually happening.
‘I went in the next day, had no expectation of togging out. All of a sudden I got a call to warm-up – the rest is history. I had no idea, no clue, no inkling.
‘When the season started, I wasn’t part of the set-up. I came in halfway through the League, for that Down game.’
In the League final against Tyrone, he had his first light-bulb moment as a senior footballer.
‘I came on at half-time as sub. I remember getting a ball, I was back in defence. I distinctly remember fisting it over Peter Canavan’s head and running past him to follow up. And thinking as I ran past him, “Jesus, that’s Peter Canavan!”
‘I would have been in my back garden, imagining myself as Peter Canavan once upon a time. It’s like your dream meets reality in the click of your fingers.’
Micko stayed true to form when it came to the first round of the Leinster Championship.
‘I had a small inkling coming up the game against Wexford when he asked was I practising my frees. After the team meal on the Friday night, he still hadn’t announced the team. He asked me, “Do you think you’re good enough to start?” I was the last one there eating food. I wasn’t shy on confidence in my own ability. I said “I am”.
‘“Right, we’ll start you so,” he said, and got up and walked out. From what I remember, there was no team announced.’
The two corner boys in attack – Brian ‘Beano’ McDonald and himself – cut loose, hitting six and five points respectively, a blur of movement, skill and finishing ability. ‘Beano and I connected up really well. It was a dream debut.
‘The second day was ropey against Offaly, then we put in a superb performance in Tullamore to win the replay.
‘My abiding memory from that day was Micko brought us in, 15 minutes before the game, in a huddle, to sit down on the grass.
Because of the crowd coming in to Tullamore, the game was put back 15 or 20 minutes. His experience in that period was really impressive. That was my first time thinking, “Jeez, this is a big thing. Throw-in is being put back because of the size of the crowd.”
Beating Dublin – the last time that happened in Championship – was just another surreal stepping stone.
‘One of the biggest memories I have from that match is beating Dublin and Hughie Emerson picking me up, he threw me up on his shoulder after the match and walked maybe 20 yards. I remember that moment with him, with someone who I’d gone to Croke Park and watched and thought “what a phenomenal player”.
‘When you make your debut there is certainly a crossover between I’m playing and I’m still a fan. It’s a magical moment when you make that breakthrough.’
The Leinster final fitted into just that category, O’Dwyer like a Kerry talisman against Kildare, his former team.
‘To put that day in perspective, back then there was no motorway. So when we left Portlaoise we had to go through Ballybrittas, Monasterevin, Kildare town and on from
there. So we were stuck in traffic for ages. It’s amazing how times were so different then than now.
‘One of the key things was that we had Micko in our corner. The year previous he was in the Kildare dressing room. If he told us we were going to win our personal battles, straight away you felt “mentally, we’ve got an edge here”.’
Only recently, he chatted with the Waterville great.
‘I’ve always tried to keep in touch. Any player will remember the person who gives them their Championship debut and believes in them. A certain part of the legend that he is took a chance on me. So I’ve great appreciation and respect. For Micko to put that faith in me that he did, I would never forget that. His son Karl coached my club for a year, another brilliant guy.
‘I had lunch with Micko and Maurice [Fitzgerald] – it was 15 years since winning Leinster. We had a bite the three of us. The GAA is a special, special community. It is a huge part of my life. I will always feel indebted to Micko, and feel guided by him. When he speaks, I would still hang on every word. Even now he would talk with such passion about what he did with the teams down the years. That enthusiasm rubs off on me and makes me think, “What can I do to improve?”
SPORTING lockdown doesn’t mean he’s been idle. Not only is he director of alumni relations in DCU but is head down in an Executive MBA. As for any return of Gaelic games or a 2020 Championship, he says he took solace rather than disappointment from The Sunday
Game interview with John Horan last weekend when the GAA president expressed the view that team sport won’t take place until social distancing restrictions are lifted.
‘No, it wasn’t hard to hear from my perspective. When the time is right, we’ll be back playing contact sport. But only when the time the right. As a GAA community, we have to protect life. John’s comments, personally, they’ve been a help.
‘If you’re an intercounty player at the moment and you think that games are going to be on the horizon quite soon, then there is an onus and expectation that you will be training on your own, and training to a certain level. Whereas, when John comes out with a very clear statement like that, it eases off on the intensity of the training that you think you have to do.
‘If we thought we were playing games in July, the fact that he was so strong brings a lot of reality to the thinking.
‘That maybe it’s further away than we first thought – and that’s okay. Until the time is right, when we’re told it’s safe to play.
‘As much as I’d love to be back playing, of course, I wouldn’t love to be back playing enough to put that at risk. If it means an extended spell on the sidelines, that I have to look after my own fitness, that’s not a problem for me.
‘At the back of my mind it’s that my parents remain safe, my girlfriend’s parents, all the people who are at risk.
‘You have clubmates and supporters who may be in the high-risk category and I think of those people. That’s why I don’t feel the urgency to go back that others do.
‘DCU has a phenomenal nursing graduate community. I think about how many graduates we have on the front line. I see the photographs of people, when they take off their masks, they have the lines on their face and the bruises from wearing it for so long.
‘All the hours. I think of my role in all of this, which is doing what they ask, staying home and being patient.’
Last March, 16 years after Micko handed him his debut, he hit a landmark of 100 League games. A moment preserved in history and marked by a fitting online tribute by Laois GAA, a montage of him in action down the years.
‘I had no idea at the time,’ he admits.
‘After the match, the PRO Pat O’Sullivan came to me and said, “Have a look at that behind you.” I turned around and there was a digital scoreboard with “Ross 100” on it. I looked at it and said, “What’s that?”
‘He said, “100 League games”. ‘I had no clue. It was a shock.’ According to the Laois GAA Bible on Twitter, he started in 82 of those games and scored in 80, amassing a total of 7-227. That night against Longford, he slotted 0-3.
This spring, he featured in every League game bar one under new manager Mike Quirke, until the pandemic prompted the lockdown. That’s to go with the 77 Championship appearances.
‘Our photographer Paul Dargan took some lovely photos with the kids at the [Longford] game and on the field after.
‘It became a little something. I got photos with my family, my girlfriend. In professional sport you don’t get that kind of mix of family and people celebrating on the field after with you.
‘When people talk about it, sometimes in their head they see it as a massive sacrifice – whereas I don’t. Because I’m doing something that I really love.’
To be in the company of Stephen Cluxton in terms of longevity, speaks volumes of his contribution to Gaelic games in Laois.
‘I’m happy for other people to talk about what it says. For me, it tells me I love the game as much as anyone. My motivation for playing, it’s the sunny evenings… I love going into training, I love heading into O’Moore Park.
‘Playing a training game against someone who is 15 years younger than me, who I’m going to have to outsmart, rather than outrun, or outmuscle. For me, it’s about the constant challenge.’
In his 18th season, does any part of him think he’s given more than enough to his county, his club, the game? That in the midst of a health emergency, and with work and academic requirements to juggle, it might be tempting to take an official final bow?
‘When the time is right for us to go back, if I think I can add value, and if the management think I can add value, I’ll make a decision around that. I’m certainly not looking at the pandemic and thinking that “I’ve done my bit” or “given more than my fair share”.
‘I’ve never seen it like that, being honest – that I’ve given more than this person or gone over and beyond. Because I love what I’m doing.
‘I love playing inter-county football. I feel incredibly privileged to play at the highest level, to have that opportunity.’
‘I DON’T FEEL AN URGENCY TO GO BACK THAT OTHER PLAYERS DO’