REBEL ROYALTY
All-Ireland winning manager John Allen on his Cork journey, tapping into Roy Keane’s love of hurling and how today’s club final could revive the county
JOHN ALLEN had to smile when he saw the Roy Keane clip on Sky Sports going around this week. The timing was perfect. St Finbarr’s back chasing Cork senior hurling and football titles for the first time since the glorious double-winning year of 40 years ago and here was an Irish sporting icon educating a broader audience – not to mention fellow analyst
Jamie Carragher – about some of the names and events stitched into this country’s sporting fabric.
In a quickfire Q&A about his three favourite sportspeople, the former Ireland and Manchester United captain listed two boxers who defined their own eras in different ways – Muhammad Ali and Barry McGuigan. It said a lot about Keane’s attachment to his native county that he listed Jimmy Barry-Murphy
The deal was: Roy would come down to training but only if nobody knew
in the same breath.
Allen and JBM played hurling and football together during that Golden Years period for the Barrs – 1982 was the second time in three years that rare thing of a Cork double had been pulled off.
They played county together with Cork, too, both going on to take charge of the county’s senior hurlers. Both even going on to deliver All-Irelands – JBM in 1999, Allen in 2005.
It was when Cork were chasing a historic three-in-a-row the following season that Allen recalls how he asked Keane in to deliver a talk to the players at the height of the Championship summer in 2006 – and how Keane held the senior squad in the palm of his hand for a couple of hours, the whole room rapt.
It explains why on Sky’s Monday Night Football show Keane – a selfprofessed NFL nut – put ‘a hurling All-Ireland final in Ireland… especially if Cork are playing obviously,’ as a bigger attraction even than a Super Bowl.
‘I saw that,’ says Allen. ‘I remember the day we brought Roy Keane into training before the 2006 semifinal. I asked him. The deal was that nobody was to know. He said, “Look, I don’t want anybody else there – I don’t want fans or anybody else. I would really like if nobody knew”.
‘So I didn’t tell anybody at all. Told nobody – until the night of training. At that time, training was open to the public most of the time. Some nights we would close up – it would be on The Echo that there was nobody allowed into training.
‘That night Roy Keane came, we were down in Páirc Uí Rinn training. I’d say he came around nine o’clock. By half 11, I had to say, “Look lads, we probably have enough!” He was willing to stay and talk, they were willing to ask him questions… it was just great.
‘Now we didn’t win the All-Ireland after but it just showed what he thought of Cork hurling that he was willing to spend that much time with us. And what our players thought of him as a role model, even though he was coming to the end of his career at that stage.’
High performance and all that goes with it was the running theme.
‘Roy Keane didn’t have a sterling GAA career so it was the players asking him different questions about different games and preparation. About general values, all that side of it.’
Allen knew his brother-in-law and arranged it through him. Allen’s standing – a rich career soldiering with the likes of JBM – saw Keane happy to help in whatever way he could.
The retired school teacher can be found himself popping up on television of a weeknight. Thursdays, on TG4, for anyone following the latest edition of the long-running sporting soap that is The Underdogs, alongside fellow mentors Jamie Wall and Claire O’Connor.
He brings a gentle, bespectacled, calmness to it all – with a thumping back catalogue, his record speaks loudly on his behalf so he doesn’t need to.
While he went and played the prophet in another land not that long ago, guiding Limerick to a first Munster senior hurling title in 17 years in 2013 – of course it had to be Cork the vanquished opposition in the final – he spends his spare time now indulging his musical passions. That mainly involves playing the concertina – that interesting cousin of the accordion – and spending his time between ‘sessions, workshops, and lessons’.
He’ll be at Páirc Uí Chaoimh of course this afternoon for St Finbarr’s versus Blackrock – or the Barrs versus the Rockies as it’s billed locally. There’s a touch of old money, of old royalty about this one.
A pairing to evoke misty-eyed memories of a time when Cork were kings and bestrode the hurling landscape. There’s something quite Cork in the description of its own county final as the ‘Little All-Ireland’ but for a time there, it really felt that way. Over 30,000 at a county final.
John Allen remembers the days when the scene at Páirc Uí Chaoimh wasn’t a world removed from the colour and atmosphere and thrill of Croke Park on a September Sunday.
‘The county final is often used to show how Cork has a huge hurling following. We played the Glen in ’77 and there were 33,000 at the game. Now there were many more than that at the game than the official attendance. It was just like playing
in an All-Ireland final. The park was absolutely jointed.’
The stakes could hardly have been higher for the glamour clash of 1982, the last time they met Blackrock in the final with Glen Rovers another powerhouse of that time. ‘They had a star-studded team; we had a fairly star-studded team too. Not that the press or media attention was half as much then. We had beaten the Glen twice, hadn’t beaten Blackrock so the suggestion was that maybe we weren’t as great as being billed.
‘Now Ray Cummins had three goals the same day but tactically, we closed him down very quickly. Managed puck-outs which wasn’t really done at the time – Ger Cunningham was in goal – Tomás Maher, John Meyler, Tim Finn, Eamon Fitzpatrick, Jimmy Barry-Murphy, Christy Ryan, were the forwards. We opened up Blackrock and went up a good bit in the first half.
‘I was playing centre-back on those three teams. I was born in Aghabullogue which is a well-known hurling area. Played with Aghabullogue until I was 21. Got a job in the Barrs area as a teacher. My parents moved into the Barrs area of Togher during that period – sold up and moved – not because of me, they were going to do it anyway. I joined the Barrs.
‘Funnily enough, in that final, I was on a player who was a member of Aghabullogue club as well. His parents had moved into the city and he was playing with Blackrock. Now his nephew is playing on Sunday – Tadhg Deasy. So I was on Tim Deasy which was a strange back story to that final.
‘Now Ray Cummins did get three goals but we dominated them all over the field. It’s one of the finals I’d look back on and think, “I enjoyed playing that much. We were good”. It was significant for us because it was a three in a row for us at the time.’
He sees the parallels in the current team’s emergence with those heady days of the late 70s, early 80s. ‘The Barrs won the county two or three years ago at minor and Ben Cunningham, Ethan Twomey, Ben O’Connor, William Buckley as well as Jack Cahalane, Brian Hayes, they are now very much central to the team.
‘Similar to the late 70s, early 80s, there was a very successful period of Barrs underage hurling which produced fellas like Christy Ryan who became a really important player, John Cremin who is now a selector, Niall Kennefick, Tim Finn, Ger Cunningham, all of those were coming on to the scene whereas I was two or three years older.
‘Then you had the likes of John Meyler, myself, Tomás Maher from Waterford, who were from different places who came to live and work in Cork and joined. The Big Three always had one or two outside players – Blackrock always did, the Glen did, maybe not as much – and the Barrs did.
‘I just happened to come at a time when things started to take off.
‘On the hurling side you had Gerald McCarthy, Charlie McCarthy, Con Roche coming to the end of his time, Jimmy Barry-Murphy starting out, Tony Maher an All-Star who was coming to the end of his time. Jim Power a keeper who played with Waterford. Eamon Fitzpatrick was a legend of Barrs hurling. You just had a coming together of a few outsiders, a lot of very good young fellas, and a few very seasoned, very good players. From that, started – 1980 we won our first double – 1982 our second.’
That period captured Cork’s rich dual player tradition and while it’s all but disappeared at county level, it’s interesting that St Finbarr’s are back chasing a hurling and football double. ‘Playing both codes at that time wasn’t as big a deal as it is now. Particularly at inter-county level. I played both codes for a few years. Unfortunately, most of that period was when Kerry were very dominant so you were nearly guaranteed to be finished by the second Sunday in July when Kerry beat you in the Munster final and there was no second chance.
‘You trained with the hurlers when it was hurling training, with the footballers when it was football training. There was no tactics involved so if you were missing it didn’t matter. Whereas now, you can’t miss a session because there are so many tactics involved. If fellas are missing, it throws the whole thing out.’
At club level though, he agrees that the split season is playing a part in clubs like the Barrs competing on two fronts, like many other clubs around the country this year. ‘I’ve no doubt it has to be. Your players are there all the time. They are not being pulled away by a county manager. Maybe it’s an unintended consequence of the split season. While there are questions over the hurling and football final being played early, there’s no doubt it’s the right route for all the club players, for the majority who are club-only, who can plan holidays, marriages… it’s good.’
As for being back on a television
The ’77 final was like playing in an All-Ireland, the park was totally jointed
It’s great to see a new Barrs team coming along with dedicated lads
screen himself? He’s enjoyed the whole experience of The Underdogs and working with Wall and O’Connor.
‘Jamie and Claire are very good people, I’ve been so impressed by them. Jamie obviously had a tough break in life but is a fella who is dedicated to sport. A smart guy, an inspiring guy. He has done so many things from becoming a teacher to finishing his degree in law now, travels over to see Man United regularly. Claire is full of confidence, full of fun. We get on well, the three of us.’
On big occasions like this afternoon – his old buddy Ger Cunningham is now manager - he says he’s able to enjoy it as a spectator. ‘I’m very calm at matches. Rarely say a word. I like going. I’m friendly with Ger Cunningham, we often meet for coffee so I know what’s going on. It would be brilliant. I’ve a bit of contact now because the double hasn’t been done since 1982 and the Barrs are back so our careers are being thrown out there again! I think it’s great. The Barrs were so successful back then, middle 70s, to early 80s, then it went downhill for so long until the footballers made it to the final a few years ago. So I’m delighted. It’s great to see a new team coming along with dedicated young fellas, beautiful hurlers.
‘I’ve a son who is coaching Ballincollig’s senior team this year. He sent me a video last night of his young fella, who is four, with a Barrs shirt on him and him shouting “Up the Barrs” even though he is Ballincollig.
‘We’ll go down, he’ll wear his Barrs’ shirt and we’ll be absolutely thrilled if the Barrs win.’