I just love coaching... what else would you be doing?
From the highs and lows of being Davy Fitz’s right-hand man to lending expertise to Meath, Seoirse Bulf in adores the buzz of the sideline
THUMB the pages of some of the most interesting hurling stories of the past decade or so and, chances are, Seoirse Bulfin’s name will pop up. Through his job as a lecturer in the sports department of Limerick IT, he linked up with Davy Fitzgerald. From being involved together with the college’s Fitzgibbon Cup team, his first inter-county involvement came when Fitzgerald asked him in as goalkeeping coach with the Waterford senior hurlers in late 2010.
When Fitzgerald took on his native Clare and set off on a triumphant All-Ireland odyssey in 2013, Bulfin was there again – coach, sounding board and trusted sideline lieutenant, where he could be found roaring instructions in his role of maor foirne to goalkeeper Patrick Kelly at one critical moment in the epic two-legged final against Cork.
‘I remember climbing up into the stand after the final whistle and looking for dad, and Sharon my wife was beside him. It was a very emotional moment. I couldn’t get back on the pitch then. The stewards wouldn’t let me in. And I was there with the ‘Maor Foirne’ top as well. They thought I was a supporter!
‘An hour after, the stadium was empty but the lights were still on. I remember going out on the pitch afterwards and ringing my grandmother and crying. My grandfather died in 2007, we were steeped in hurling at home. To this day – she’s 91 – she’ll text. The last day against Carlow I got one “Best of luck today Seoirse, hope it goes well. Tell the girls I was asking for them”.
‘She’s living beside me. She loves John Mullane. When I was in Waterford, she thought he was the best thing since sliced bread.’
In Wexford – ‘another rollercoaster!’ – it was more of the same, being able to linger in an emptying Croke Park after the final whistle of the 2019 Leinster final title win. ‘A unique bunch of players,’ he says, with obvious fondness for the five years spent there.
The text referring to Carlow is because he took on the role of coach with the Meath senior hurlers this season where Nick Weir is in charge, his brother-in-law Brian O’Shaughnessy also part of the set-up – another Limerick man who shares the same passion for coaching and the game.
Oh, and he’s just taken on the role of coach with Dublin’s double AllIreland winning club Cuala, where Wexford’s JJ Doyle is helping him, the new split season helping to facilitate any crossover.
His family roots in Bruff (the ancestral home of JFK being one claim to fame) mean that the modern Limerick success story resonates – before Seán Finn was a four-time consecutive All-Star and three-time All-Ireland winner, he can remember the slight-framed young fella who used to serve in the local chipper.
‘Cian Lynch was always going to get Hurler of the Year but if you look at consistency over the last four or five years, Seánie Finn was very unlucky. If you did take the three or four years as a block, he’s probably been the most consistent hurler in the country, to be fair.
‘It’s huge for us to have four AllStars in a row. We’ve Paul Browne still hurling for us. To have All-Stars
and All-Ireland medals in the club is brilliant.
‘It’s great for Seánie and to put Bruff on the map. Up to a few years ago he’d be serving you chips in Glynn’s when he was in college. After 2018, things exploded. There was a queue out the door to talk to Seán Finn – and not necessarily about chips!’
NOT FAR FROM THE TREE
A couple of weeks ago, he posted a photograph of his father Tom, bringing granddaughter Sinéad through the gates of the club down home for her first session in what is his 50th year coaching. Seoirse’s wife Sharon is steeped in the game as well and their three girls are already getting the best hurling education.
It’s not hard to see where his interest came from, given his father was a coach and selector himself with Limerick.
‘He started his 50th year this year with the underage. He’s a retired principal in the primary school. I don’t
know how he does it. That’s where I started – dad was bringing me to the field when I was 12 or 13, coaching the U8s and 9s. You can bluff it at the level I’m at because they all can hurl. It’s very easy to coach a Lee Chin or a Seanie Geraghty. But if it’s an eight-year-old girl and they’re looking to blow their nose or take the helmet off – that can be more of a challenge!
‘The last Limerick minor team that won the All-Ireland in ’84, he was a selector. In ’87 then, they won the Under 21, he would have worked under Phil Bennis. He would have been coach/selector.
‘It’s funny how things can change. They got their shot in late ’91 as the senior management. In their first year they won the National League, got to the Munster final and the famous Tomás Mulcahy goal where he juggled it, over-carried it, caught it three times.
‘I was doing the hurleys that day, the Munster final. I was 11 or 12 – in Sixth Class! I’d say I was shoved up behind the goal with a fourth-choice hurley but I remember the noise, the colour below in Cork – it was a scorcher of a day.
‘We were well down but got back into it. That goal came at a vital time where he over-carried it, caught it three times. Sure it was knockout at the time.
‘We came from nowhere to win the National League against Tipp. I’ll never forget. It was 0-11 to 0-3 at half-time. There was 35 or 40,000 at the Gaelic Grounds. An awful wet day. Won it 0-14, 0-13. Ray Sampson got the winning point. Following year, beaten in the first round of Championship. There was some bit of a push. Phil’s brother Gerry, Lord have mercy on him, was chairman of the county board. They got rid of the management after two years.
‘It’s the nature of the GAA. Hand on heart, I’d say if they got one more year they would have won the All-Ireland in ’94.’
As a kid, those days left such a vivid impression.
‘I lived the dream for two years with the seniors. Hardly missed a training session. It was different times. I remember one night there was an awful fog. You’d collect the local guys. So you’d Anthony
O’Riordan, Mike Reale, Ray Sampson and Frankie Carroll – there was six of us in the car. My father was driving. I was on a cushion literally sitting on the handbrake. Frankie was the tallest – he was in the front. The fog was so bad Frankie had his head out the window telling my father to go left, go right.’
CLARE THE WAY
While it unravelled at the end, Davy Fitzgerald’s departure after four years in charge of Clare coming after tensions in the dressing room, all involved will always have the ‘magic’ of that summer of 2013. All the years on from being involved as a kid, he could be found wearing the maor foirne bib for Clare as the county lifted the Liam MacCarthy Cup for only the fourth time. That was the summer of the famous ‘Miwadi and biscuits’ house meeting between Fitzgerald and the players in the wake of a Munster semi-final humbling by Cork at the Gaelic Grounds. ‘Davy took the brunt of it. On the way out there were programmes fired at him. Complaining about the short game, this and that. Davy and the players then met on the Monday morning.
‘We got on a roll then against Laois. The only player on the 15 then who didn’t get a score was Domhnall O’Donovan. Pa Kelly even got a point. So the only fella who didn’t score was Dunny. He got awful stick after it. Then we played Wexford. We had the game won, Jack Guiney got a goal and pushed it to extra time. I remember Fitzy in the dressing room saying, “Lads, if we win this, we’ll win the All-Ireland”.
‘I remember thinking, “that’s a big, big statement”. Loughnane said something similar after the League in ’95. Davy’s a very good motivator, a very good man manager. We won the game and you could see lads growing from that.’
He admits he thought the drawn game with Cork was gone when Patrick Horgan sneaked Cork in front – never thinking their cornerback would pop up to force a replay as the Cork management gathered, ready to celebrate. ‘I remember looking down and seeing them in the huddle. I said to Davy something along the lines of, “We gave it some shot”. We both thought it was gone.
And then Domhnall O’Donovan got the point. We got out of jail.’
As for the replay? A unique Saturday night occasion, the floodlights coming on to witness Shane O’Donnell’s hat-trick and Clare’s first All-Ireland since 1997.
‘There was something magic about it all,’ he admits.
As to why Clare haven’t backed up that All-Ireland since?
‘They’re an exceptionally talented bunch of hurlers. As a coach, you learn not to assume things. You would have assumed the team would have got back there but it just goes to show how competitive it is, how hard it is to put titles back to back. That’s why what Kilkenny achieved was phenomenal with the fourin-a-row. To win one is so hard.’
BY ROYAL APPOINTMENT
Davy Fitzgerald’s involvement now stretches to the Cork camogie team in last night’s Division 1 final, and Bulfin is reminded of the time Fitzgerald came out of hospital for a Clare Championship game after having a heart stent put in.
It’s nearly life or death for Davy, it’s put to Seoirse? ‘It is life or death,’ he answers.
‘It’s everything.’
Next weekend, Bulfin will be on the sideline with Meath for the first round of the secondtier Joe McDonagh Cup. Why Meath? ‘I got a call from Nick Weir. I just love coaching. Ten or 11 years leaves a fair hole. What else would you be doing?
‘Met Nick, within five minutes I said yes, I could work with him. As passionate about Meath hurling as any man could be.’
So how does a county like Meath make the step up to Liam MacCarthy Cup status when history shows how hard it is for counties to break into the top tier and stay there? What is the lesson of Meath hurler Jack Fagan’s blossoming with Waterford?
‘The short answer? I don’t know. I won’t say I’d be ignorant of Division 2 or Joe McDonagh but coming up, you’d be thinking, “Will this be like a good club team, organisation-wise?” The support system is up there with anything in Wexford. The set-up is identical. They’re very well looked after. Top quality people involved.
‘I see the guys training. There’s very good hurlers in Meath. You could pick out a handful of guys and slot them into a Tipp or a Cork or a Limerick – like Jack Fagan. And they wouldn’t look out of place. ‘Does it come down to tradition? A little bit. I think they need to be exposed to more games at a higher level.’
He does wonder if there’s an explanation for the lack of profile or television coverage for second-tier League or Championship games. ‘I think there’s a lot of football people in power. Making decisions on hurling that they shouldn’t be. ‘Certain football counties, with all due respect – and not Meath – who have as much voting power on hurling but don’t want to see the game improving.
‘I’ve quickly realised that the Meath lads are no different to the Wexford lads in their preparation, in their sacrifices. A couple of small things where they need to go the extra mile. You can see why perhaps they mightn’t – potential rewards or profile. But generally speaking, they are as dedicated.’