Raff looks back on his career
RAFFAELE CRETARO REFLECTS ON HIS CAREER WITH JESSICA FARRY AS HE PREPARES FOR HIS TESTIMONIAL.
SUCH is the esteem in which former team-mates hold Raff a el eC re taro, that so many of them are willing to come back to honour him as part of his testimonial, taking place on Saturday.
Having first donned the Bit O’Red jersey in 2000, Cretaro has since gone on to become part of the furniture at The Showgrounds, experiencing all the highs and lows that football brings.
The Tubbercurry native doesn’t believe in regrets, but if he could change one thing, perhaps that year long spell at Bohemian may have never happened. But, he has learned from that.
In the midst of another relegation battle with Sligo Rovers, Cretaro is more than willing to help out in whatever way possible.
One of the most versatile players in the league, he has represented the club in almost every position on the pitch, except for between the sticks.
“If Gerard (Lyttle) said at the weekend ‘we need you for goals’ I’d say ‘I’ll give it a go, no problem’. That’s just me. They’d probably be trying to chip me all the time because I’m a small lad!”
The longevity of Cretaro’s career is no accident. Always the first one on the training pitch and the last one off it, he feels that the extra work he did in his younger days has helped lengthen his career.
As he has got older he’s had to take extra care of his body. Managed well, it allows him to perform at the same levels he did ten years ago.
“I want to play every minute. Now that might not be possible but I’ll do all I can. In training some days, we’ll do a hard double session in the morning and another session in the afternoon. Sometimes Ger (Lyttle) will come to me and see how I am and sometimes I’ll have to sit out part of it and those are the little things that help me prolong my career. But I’m still full of energy and enthusiasm. I’ve won a lot but I want to win more. When I finish, I want to finish by winning something.”
Unlike some of his team-mates, Cretaro can not just switch off when the season ends. He takes a couple of weeks to rest, but the hard work starts up again after that.
“I take two weeks off and shut down. After that, I do a gradual build up to where I’m ready to train every single day for pre-season. I might do three days a week, then four and a kick-about with mates. So I’m getting back into the routine. I wouldn’t be still playing if I didn’t look after myself and that’s the reality. I can’t push that enough to the younger lads.”
It all started for Raff as a child. Being a footballer was all he ever wanted to do.
He plied his trade with local club Real Tubber, until he was plucked out of the junior soccer scene by the then Rovers manager Tommy Cassidy, having impressed Niall Harrison while playing for Sligo/Leitrim.
“I remember coming in and Tommy Cassidy bringing me in for pre-season and being down at Sligo Racecourse. I think I was 17, myself and Michael McNamara, and I remember after that session thinking ‘Jesus’. We were on the racecourse and there was no sign of a ball. We just ran.
He added: “It’s funny how much it’s changed. I was lucky enough that it was a small squad at the time. A couple of injuries within the first two months gave me the opportunity to be on the bench and obviously get a chance to prove myself. When I did get the chance, I came on as a sub up in Monaghan and scored. I think it set the ball rolling and gave me the confidence to go on.”
It might be almost two decades ago now, but Cretaro remembers that day in Monaghan as if it was yesterday.
Little did he, or anyone watching that game, realise that all these years later, he would still be filling a place in the Rovers match-day squad.
“I remember everything about the day, being on the bench with Lee Marshall and Damien Kennedy who was here at the time. One of the lads got hurt and we were 2-1 up at the time. It was probably a brave decision by Tommy, we were only 2-1 up at the time. I was running around like a lunatic and there was a short back-pass to the keeper and I’ve charged it down and the ball has hit off me and rolled into my path and I slotted into an empty net.”
When Cassidy left, Don O’Riordan joined in 2001, and was forced to build a squad made up largely of locals due to financial constraints.
The 36-year-old remains in contact with O’Riordan, and says that he did a huge amount to build up his confidence.
“I’ve great memories of Don. I’d still be in contact with him, I’d talk to him every now and then. I’d pick his brain as I’m starting out as a coach. I remember the first season he had come in, we were struggling for a right-back at the time. I just said ‘I’ll play there’ and he started me for two games at right-back and I think I scored. I played well in the first game and in the second game we were down in Athlone. Ath- lone were at that stage running away with the First Division, they were 15 or 20 points clear half way through the season.
“I played at right-back and I scored in it. I remember Don afterwards on the bus saying ‘look we need to get you in with the board ASAP, we need to get you on a new contract’. He had made me feel really good and confident. He said all the right things and as a coach did all the right things to help me as a player.”
Sean Connor joined the club in 2004 after O’Riordan’s departure. He guided Rovers to the First Division title in 2005.
That, Raff says, was his first taste of success as a footballer.
“That was my real first taste of success as a player. We were full-time at that stage. There was no-one in the First Division at the time, except ourselves, who was full-time. We had fantastic players like Liam Burns, Faz, we were blessed to have such a good squad and be full-time. That season I played at rightback for Sean because one of the lads picked up an injury and I slotted in at right-back and probably that’s why I would regard Liam Burns as one of the best players I would have played with.
“As a young lad he’d talk me through the whole game. I didn’t put a foot wrong that season and I was nominated for player of the year. That was solely down to him helping me. I got on with Sean. I had great time for him. I played for him every week, I genuinely did.”
But Raff’s first spell at Rovers came to an end under the guidance of Connor, when the pair could not come to an agreement over a contract. Connor was adamant that all players should be full-time, but Cretaro was insistent that he wanted to play part-time and keep up his job in a factory. That lead to him leaving Rovers for Galway, but that didn’t last.
Having worked hard to get Rovers to the top division, Raff found himself back in the First Division trying to help Galway follow Rovers’ lead.
My initial thought was ‘what can I do to help Galway United get to the Premier Division?’ I was lucky enough that we did it. That was my aim, right ‘I can help everybody in this team achieve something here’. And we did. We came third and by default we ended up getting promoted. We went up and I had a fantastic season there, got on the team of the year.
“I remember coming towards the end of the season. Rob McDonald had come in as Sean Connor had moved on to pastures new. He got in contact with me about making a return. He didn’t have to ask me twice. I was dead on for it. Galway did all they could to try and keep me. Once Sligo came, it was a case of ‘show me where I sign’.”
It was then that Raff’s eyes were opened. He had always wanted to be a footballer, and here he had an opportunity to fulfil that ambition, playing full-time.
“I realised ‘I need to go full-time’. That’s when I said ‘I’m going to give this a bash as a full-time footballer’ and it was probably the best decision I ever made. It brought me on, physically, fitness wise and brought my game on leaps and bounds cause I was training every day.”
Following a bit of to-ing and fro-ing with Rob McDonald, Paul Cook then arrived in 2007. Little did anyone know what would happen in the years that followed.
“It took him three years to get to where he wanted to be. By god he did it. He created something here that made us believe as a group. Not only as an individual, but as a group, that we were invincible. That was the belief we had. We were going out every game thinking ‘we’re gonna win’. There was no negative thought of ‘we might lose today’. There was none of that. We knew someone was going to produce. If it wasn’t Jason McGuinness it was Richie Ryan or Joseph Ndo, or whoever it may be.”
While it was clear that Cook was building something special at Rovers, there were clubs sniffing around Cretaro.
This level of attention was something he had not been privy to before, and then came an offer that was too good to refuse.
“I probably had the best season of my career, I had scored 26 goals in all competitions. As Paul Cook said ‘I’d created a monster’. Those were his very words. There was never a stage when I wanted to leave. Bohs were the so-called ‘kingpins’ of Irish football at the time. They had just won the double, I was thinking to myself ‘I’m 27, going on 28, will I get the opportunity to win something?’. I thought ‘maybe it might pass me by’. It wasn’t a case of money or anything like that because by the end of it, I remember sitting down with Paul Cook and Mary McGowan, Paul Cook nearly had me in a headlock. They moved heaven and earth to try and keep me.”
And so, Cretaro moved to Bohs for the 2010 season. Any Rovers fan old enough will be able to recall what happened in 2010 without having to think.
Unfortunately for Cretaro, he could not make up for the pain of losing the 2009 cup final to Sporting Fingal. Instead, he had to watch on as a fan when
Rovers beat Shamrock Rovers in the historic FAI Cup final at the Aviva Stadium.
“There was interest from Millwall and there was interest from Scottish clubs. I was a bit flattered by all of this because I had never received that much attention. I knew that if I waited it was only a matter of time before there was success. With things going on, you’re kind of pushed towards a two year contract, 52 weeks, good money. If I had the benefit of hindsight I probably would go back, I don’t have many regrets in football. I would say I had a good time up there but if I was to say I had one regret it would be that I didn’t stay and give Paul Cook another year and a chance. I missed out on the 2010 cup.
“It was painful in a way that we had lost it the year before. We had a great chance of winning it and we lost it (2009). I was happy (in 2010), I was happy for all the lads, and Paul, and I was happy for the club as well. I was a supporter at the end of the day. I wanted everyone to do well. When they came back if there was any bit of bitterness I wouldn’t have shown my face anywhere. I was there welcoming every single one of the lads back. I was in Fiddlers with the lads afterwards enjoying the party as much as they were.”
Despite Paul Cook’s best efforts to get Cretaro back at the club during the summer transfer window in 2010, the then Bohs manager Pat Fenlon refused to let him go.
Cretaro did have a two year deal with Bohs, but due to financial problems, all players were told that their contracts would be honoured, but if they found another club they could leave. Raff didn’t need to be told twice. He knew what he wanted to do.
“I had been in contact with Paul, and after the cup final, I didn’t care that I had a two year deal or that I was on a 52 week contract, I was on a fantastic wage, I only wanted to be in one place. I was lucky that Paul didn’t take it personal that I left in 2009 even though he does joke about it sometimes. He kept the respect for me like ‘I think if I bring this guy back he can do something for us and help the team achieve something that I want to achieve’. I think I did that.
Rovers made it to the FAI Cup final again in 2011. It was somewhat fitting, then, that Cretaro would take the winning penalty against Shels to see the Bit O’Red claim the trophy two years in a row.
“I think I did reward him the following season in some regards with a couple of good performances and a performance coming on as a substitute in the cup final that helped us to go on to believe and scoring the winning penalty. I probably couldn’t come back to anything better than getting the chance, after missing out on it the year before, to score the winning penalty in the Aviva. You couldn’t write it. It wasn’t planned.
“I was the fifth penalty taker and it happened to be that if I scored then we won. On the way up to taking the penalty, in my head singing Rihanna’s song ‘Cheers for the Weekend’ and I remember singing that the whole way up and just before I went up to take the penalty to calm myself and block everything out. I took a note that the keeper would go to his left if it was a left footer, if it was a right footer he’d be going to his right. I just put it the other side and the keeper went the other way. It’s hard to describe the feeling. ‘We’ve just won the cup again and I’ve scored the winning penalty.
“I remember taking off my top and just swinging it around. The place just going crazy. I was delighted that I got the chance to see it as a winner, and not just sample it as a spectator the year before so I’ve seen it from both sides.”
Knowing that fans would not be exhilarated about him leaving the club to go to Bohs, he knew he would have to win them over again.
Cretaro felt as though he owed the fans having left in 2010.
“I felt I had to prove my loyalty again. What was in my head was ‘I’m going to do everything in my power to prove that I am here to win trophies’ and that it wasn’t about money. It genuinely wasn’t about money because even Ger Lyttle will tell you that it’s not for the money anyways. I felt I had to come back and prove that. I think I did that within the next two years going on to win the cup and the run-in in 2012, the final 10 games, scoring six goals to help us win the league and probably two on that day against Pats are probably the ones that stand out the most, well to me anyway because the place was packed to the rafters. The whole day, the build up to it, the sun was shining. I’ll never forget it as long as I live.”
Cretaro has aged like a fine wine throughout his career. He played a huge part in Rovers’ league win in 2012, not just the two goals he scored in the winning game against Pats. “Baraclough was probably the most honest manager I’ve ever played under. He was straight down the middle and told you how it was. He had great time for me. I played a lot for him in the second half of 2012. I would have always been first off the bench when I was on it, so he had great respect for me. Not only as a player but as a person because sometimes you can tend to throw the dummy out when you’re not playing. But I knew I’d get a chance so it was up to me whether it was five minutes or a half hour, can I do something in that five minutes to make him say ‘I need this guy in my team’? That was the attitude I think a lot of the players had and it played a big part in what we did.”
Although he went through a somewhat baron spell in 2014 and 2015, Cretaro excelled under the guise of Dave Robertson, playing some of the best football of his career in 2016, scoring ten league goals. “The first eight or nine games didn’t go to plan and I don’t think I played in any of those. But you stay positive and keep your head down. He started me at home to Longford, I scored and from them on I just drove on. I think I fitted Dave’s system really well too, the diamond. I ended up playing some of my best football. We went to Limerick the first game of last season and that wasn’t an ideal way to start. Dave did his best to create a positive environment and he did a fantastic job in doing that because up to the day he left, there was a real togetherness about the group. To me, Dave was one of the best coaches I’ve ever played under.”
Now in the latter stages of his career, he feels it is important that he helps out younger players who may need advice or even a shoulder to lean on. “If I see a younger player struggling, I’ll do my best to give him confidence and help him out with where he might be going wrong. I got a text from Ally Roy after he left here and he told me he wanted to thank me because he was at a low and he said I was a big part of him getting his confidence back.”
As for this season, Cretaro is keen to finally win the EA Sports Cup having missed out on the win in 2010. Rovers play Derry at The Showgrounds in August in the semi-final.
“I will be moving heaven and earth to try and win that one. It was the start of the golden era back then. If we were to win it, it would give Ger and the players a chance to taste success and that can only push us all on. Derry are hit and miss and if we’re at our game I don’t think we’ll have many problems.”
He’s been around a long time now, but Cretaro is still on the receiving end of a horde of abuse from opposition fans, particularly Bohs, Galway and Derry City.
It doesn’t get to him, though. In fact, he loves the abuse he often gets from the sidelines.
“I actually take it with a pinch of salt. Even to this day, I get it at Bohs. That’s football. If you take things personally, that’s football, that’s fans. I guarantee you if I met the same fella in the street who’s shouting at me we’d have great conversation. That’s football. Nothing personal. I don’t take anything personal. Whatever side I’m on, if there’s someone having a bit of craic with me I’ll crack a smile, I’ll run my fingers through my hair. Or I’ll do something just to get a giggle. I love it. The feeling I get from it is ‘if I wasn’t any good they wouldn’t be trying to boo me’. I feel like they do it because I can have an impact on the game, and I can have a bit of craic as well.”
Raff coaches the Rovers Under 19s with Brian Dorrian, and that is an avenue he will explore as he comes closer to end of his career.
Right now though, he has no intention of quitting. He still feels as though he has more to give. “I’m happy to work with Brian and the 19s for now. I’m ambitious so in five or so year’s time I might be looking to do something in that line. But for now, I feel I’ve more to give as a player. I speak to a lot of lads who have retired and they’ve told me I’ll be long enough sitting on the couch at home.
“I’m privileged to still be here. But it’s not by chance. I’ve worked and still work hard. I’m one of the first on the training pitch every day and I’m the last off because I’m staying on to do extra stretching or whatever. I’m still hungry and as long as I still have that, I’ll keep going.”
A stalwart of the Sligo Rovers squad, Cretaro remains there on merit. He is only a handful of appearances away from overtaking Tony Fagan’s record, and he will undoubtedly beat that record soon.
Loyalty in football, let alone League of Ireland, is hard found. And Sligo Rovers know that Cretaro is a rare gem.