Cahersiveen call is strong for captain Cournane
Jason O’Connor spoke with St Marys captain Sean Cournane about Saturday’s final and about how his father Noel kept the spirit of the Marys alive even in London
UPON first meeting Sean Cournane and conversing with him, one thing will stand out: his accent.
Born in the UK to an Irish family living in London at the time created this paradox and even though he is proud of his Irish roots, he admits that he found Gaelic football a peculiar game at the start having become accustomed to soccer.
“I remember in my early years, hearing my dad [Noel, team selector] talk about football and we played it and in fact I competed in a Féile. Dad used to say to me when I was young to bring a pair of gloves with me down to the football field and I used to ask him why I would need gloves when I thought I was going playing soccer.
“His reply was you’re not going playing soccer its football! I’m glad that I brought those gloves because I’m delighted to be going to Croke Park for a second time and it means as much to me now as soccer does and I have to stress that soccer does mean a lot to me,” the St Marys captain said of his interesting backstory.
Cournane commuted from London for St Marys’ All-Ireland Junior success back in 2011 so didn’t get a real sense of any hype or pressure, but now he notices the buzz a lot more with the captain’s armband on. He doesn’t find the captaincy a burden however giving specific praise to some of the leaders in the St Marys dressing-room.
“It’s no big deal because you have leaders all over the field in the likes of Bryan Sheehan, Denis Daly, Daniel Daly, Paul O’Donoghue, Austin Constable and many more. It is every young lads dream to captain a team that plays in Croke Park and to be playing in an All-Ireland final and to be captain is something even more special,” he said.
It’s hard not to talk about St Marys and mention Bryan Sheehan at the moment and the team captain is fulsome in his praise about the newly appointed Kerry captain.
“Bryan has been amazing, after losing an All-Ireland final with Kerry to come along and play an Intermediate semi-final the following week. Even though there was a small bit of a gulf in class, for Bryan it made no difference because he’s a winner and proof of that is what he’s achieved in his career to date.
“He’s a very down to earth individual in the dressing room and around the lads. He doesn’t sing his own praises, he just gets the job done. In training he does what everybody else does and he’s always willing to give other players advice if he saw that they needed to improve in some department.
“He’s a tremendous leader and it’s no surprise that he’s captain of Kerry this year,” Cournane said when asked about Sheehan’s input.
Between their Munster Final success over Carraigaline and the All-Ireland semi-final hammering of Ratoath, St Marys played six competitive games between the County League and South Kerry Championship to keep themselves sharp and Cournane feels the games have been a massive benefit.
“There’s nothing to beat competitive games and except for a week’s break after winning South Kerry on St Stephen’s day we were playing competitive games all the time and the County League play-off game we had before we played Ratoath, even though we didn’t win it, sharpened us up while Ratoath, they told us, hadn’t played for six weeks and that is probably one of the reasons why we started so well and had the game wrapped up by half-time.
“Many might say that the hard games we had in South Kerry were not the type of football that we are noted for playing but they were important too and we learned that sometimes you have to dig deep to chisel out a result.
“Against Ratoath we were able to go back to playing open, expansive football and it appeared to come easy to us again.”
Finally what is it like to be managed by Maurice Fitzgerald?
“He is a fantastic manager as he was when he was a player. I first played with Maurice back in 2009 and even back then he had leadership qualities. Every team talk that he gives is a different team talk and he is Mr Motivator.
“His philosophy as a manager is similar to what it was when he was a great player himself and he has helped every player on the team with their game. On the outside, Maurice might give the impression of being carefree, but he is quite meticulous and we have reaped the benefits of it this year as everyone can see from our performances.
“I’m just hoping that on Saturday we perform as we can and if we do, I’m just hopeful that we can get the right result for the team and for our wonderful supporters.”
There’s nothing to beat competitive games and except for a week’s break we were playing