BRIDGING THE GAP
Gilligan is showing age is no barrier to class
‘It was the end of the golden era but Gilligan was lucky enough to catch the end of it’
AS it was in the beginning so it shall be at the end. He started out as a 16th man with Sixmilebridge and 23 years on it is a role that Niall Gilligan is still filling.
He is almost certain to see gametime in today’s Munster club semi-final against Ballygunner in Walsh Park, when at some stage they will lean heavy on his 41-yearold hurling brain.
It will most likely be from the bench, but last time out so shaken were the Bridge after being held to a draw in the county final by rank underdogs Clooney-Quin that they rolled him out from the start.
His presence was to radiate calmness and the couple of points he clipped over in the opening quarter were worth double what they added up to on the scoreboard.
When it was all over, he had won his sixth county medal but it was less to do with the quantity and more to do with the spread which grabbed the eye.
His first came when he was a teenager in 1995, two more when he was at his peak in his 20s (2000 & 2002), another brace while he was a late 30-something (2013 & 15) and now this in his 40s.
A champion over four decades of his lifetime, you would like to think that there is a page in the history books for Gilligan.
But then the club game fosters the notion that age is but a number and that service is a duty almost immune to the calling of time.
Where Gilligan treads now, the iconic Clare and Sixmilebridge stalwart Sean Stack walked back in 1993 when he won his seventh county medal, also as a 41-year-old.
‘I am amazed there is such a reaction to this but it is because people are writing off lads now when they are 27 or 28,’ protests Stack.
‘Niall is fit, he is light, he has never had a serious injury, he loves training and the craic of being involved, so why would you stop in those circumstances?
‘You will be long enough stopped, looking at other lads enjoying themselves out on the pitch.’
The wonder of Gilligan, though, is that not only has he been a pivotal player for so long — to go with All-Ireland medals with club and county, he is also holds the alltime scoring record in the Clare championship — but that no one really saw him coming. ‘Not really,’ admits Stack. ‘He was ordinary enough at underage, but he was playing at a time when there was no great underage teams in the club and and you are as good as your team-mates.
‘He struggled in that regard. But he had pace and there was potential in his size, because he was a tall gangly lad who shot up quite quickly.
‘He came into a Sixmilebridge team, several of whom had won seven/eight county title and who knew in 1996 that this was their last shot at winning the All-Ireland. That was the end of that golden era and he was lucky to catch the end of it.’
He made his luck too. He was still a 19-year-old when he came off the bench in that year’s AllIreland club final against Dunloy and whipped over three points.
It was the kind of cameo that made people sit up and take notice, Ger Loughnane included, who knew that he needed to freshen things up and called him up to not just the panel in 1997, but straight into the team for that year’s All-Ireland final against Tipperary.
It was such a closely-guarded secret that not only was he not named on the starting 15, but he lined up in a 16-man pre-match team photo, which also included Fergal Hegarty who he would replace.
He responded to the biggest challenge of his hurling life with another three-point All-Ireland show.
The wonder, though, is that Loughnane felt the need to indulge in such subterfuge given that even then it was Gilligan’s nerveless demeanour as much as his hurling that stood out.
‘Inside at training Loughnane would be roaring, getting everyone’s blood up and Gilligan would be inside talking to the cornerback with his arms folded,’ recalled Anthony Daly in a 1998 interview, when Gilligan was still shy of his 21st birthday.
‘Then the ball comes in, he burns the corner-back and puts the ball in the net, cool as you like. You’d be talking to him then afterwards... “2-2 tonight Gilly?” “Ah sure, lucky enough, the ball bounced for me.”
‘And the big innocent head on him letting on to be an eejit when you know he’d buy and sell ya.’
It has been that cuteness that has kept him at the top for so long.
Stack only managed him for a single season back in 2004, but he made a lasting impression.
‘He had his head screwed on when all the others would be losing theirs,’ recalls the Clare legend.
That calmness, that acutelydeveloped sense to hold his head and spot an opportunity, has served him well on and off the pitch.
He was only in his mid-20s when he made the bold move to go on his own in an auctioneering business which is now thriving.
Selling comes as easy as scoring and today he will serve as a reminder that the Bridge have a proud tradition in Munster.
Indeed, the entire full-forward line from their last Munster win in 2000 will be on duty; except that manager John O’Meara and selector Brian Culbert will be on the line.
As ever, though, when they seek to make a match-winning play, they will lean on Gilligan one more time.