An old school gent still thriving in a new hurling world
Days earlier, Ger Loughnane had discarded him as one of his selectors with Clare when he had been expecting to be Loughnane’s successor.
Now I wanted Stack’s side of the story but Stack politely said he wasn’t going to go into it, on or off the record.
A couple of years later Loughnane would, in his autobiography. The pair of them had soldiered together in probably the finest halfback line never to win an All-Ireland. After Clare had failed to retain the All-Ireland in 1998, Loughnane knew the setup needed freshening up and the only person outside it with the “proper pedigree” was Stack on the back of his coaching successes with Toomevara. Loughnane had thought it would work and had wanted it to work but it hadn’t.
According to Loughnane in Raising The Banner, Stack’s sessions during that 1999 season were “like something out of the 1940s”. At his first session Stack had shown up in his wellingtons with a bucket of sliotars. “They spent the two hours standing up and pucking balls to one another. There was no movement, no pace whatsoever.”
On reflection though Loughnane’s account wasn’t as callous as that appears. He’d told senior players not to worry, that Stack would adjust and learn. The problem for Stack was that first impressions were hard to erase.
That was a dressing room loaded with strong characters conditioned to harsher, more intense methods. You were scared of Loughnane and McNamara. You weren’t afraid of Stack. And maybe it said more about Clare than Stack back then but in that setup fear was the cornerstone of respect.
Loughnane was conscious of how embarrassing such a defrocking was for a hurling man of Stack’s stature.
“An individual can have outstanding personal qualities,” he’d write, “but may not be able to translate them into a particular professional setting. (Seán Stack) is one of the most affable and likeable people you could meet... but at this particular time, with this particular set of players, he is not the right man to manage Clare.”
It would not be the last time Stack would be undermined by one of his own. In early 2005 he was ousted as manager of the Sixmilebridge seniors and replaced by Davy Fitzgerald. Stack had put that club on the map.
They were intermediate when he began playing for them.
By the end of his career they had won seven senior county championships and a Munster club title. Fitzgerald’s quasi-coup could have split the club. But Stack wouldn’t allow it. A couple of years later he was still playing for the intermediates in goal at 54 years of age.
He’d manage the club U21s, guiding them to a string of county finals and outright success in 2009.
This past autumn seven of that team featured in the Munster club final against Na Piarsaigh.
They were heavily beaten that day in Cusack Park, by a team coached by one Seán Stack. He nearly didn’t coach Na Piarsaigh that week, the wrench of going up against his own almost too much to bear. When the final whistle went, instead of rushing to the centre of the field where his players celebrated, he retreated to the refuge of the dugout where he had a brief cry to himself.
Before the game he’d said he was going to lose either way and now he had lost. But he had won too, yet again. It was his second time winning a Munster title with Na Piarsaigh who hadn’t even reached a Limerick county final before he teamed up with them in 2010. To paraphrase Loughnane, at this particular time, with this particular set of players, he is absolutely the right man to manage Na Piarsaigh.
Some of his methods are still old school. There are no cones in his sessions. He’s all about the basics. But where once Na Piarsaigh were poor in the air, they’re now exceptional in the air. He’s made a team known for their flair now known for their fight. He’s been suitably progressive too. It was he who first introduced Paul Kinnerk to Clare hurling, the now renowned county senior team coach helping out with the Bridge U21’s five years ago. He’s had Tommy Dunne in to take Na Piarsaigh for some sessions, while his current coach Paul Beary also serves as a Limerick senior selector. The club’s young players rave about Stack’s empathy, regularly allowing them off to their college or U21 teams.
Before last September’s All-Ireland final, Loughnane and Stack stood beside each other on Croke Park, having each made a 1980s select of the best players never to win an All-Ireland. They’ve so much in common. All those years together with Clare. They’re now both retired school teachers. They both love the country; Loughnane his hunting and horses, Stack his coursing and dogs. Whether they shared a word that day, we don’t know. We do know Stack was hurt for years afterwards by Loughnane’s decision and subsequent words.
We suspect though that there are few greater admirers of Seán Stack these days than Loughnane, that it isn’t lost on the Feakle man that Stack is the one still making the impact, the one now most relevant to a group of young hurlers, as much as Loughnane’s legacy will always endure.
Stack had nothing to say when I called him 14 years ago and he probably has nothing to say about it now. In his own way he’s given his own answer.
