Royal abdicator happy to break with Leinster tradition
Tully probably never saw himself as coach for the Laois side either, but that’s precisely how things stand as Portlaoise meet Meath champions Skryne in tomorrow’s Leinster Club football final in Newbridge.
Back in 1990, the secondary school teacher upped sticks from his home sod to set up camp in Portlaoise and teach in Ballyfin College, a five-mile spin from the county town. At the time, football in Laois didn’t carry the kudos it does now, where every Laois minor player is a pin-up boy for schoolgirls throughout the county.
No, in 1990 it was different indeed. Only three months before Tully’s first semester in Ballyfin, Meath had hockeyed Laois 4-14 to 0-6 in the Leinster championship and, if the scoreline was an aberration, the result itself was merely following a well-worn script.
For the next 10 years, Meath held the upper hand over their Leinster cousins when it came to the summer; only once was the world turned on its head.
“A year or two after I arrived, Laois beat Meath in the championship in Navan. It was the day Hughie Emerson, with his dreadlocks, destroyed Meath and the stick I took in school the next day was unmerciful, especially from the students,” Tully recalls.
“When I arrived though, no one cared about playing for Laois really. Now it’s a status symbol to be a Laois player, whether that’s U-14, minor or senior. Kids are dying to play for the county now.”
Tully had arrived just as things were beginning to stir in the county. Ian Fitzgerald began life as a wide-eyed first year in Ballyfin on the same day Tully arrived and the youngster’s skill was obvious. The thing was, talent had never been in short supply before. Maximising its potential was where Laois fell short.
In the early ’90s that changed, with men like Oliver Phelan and Gabriel Lawlor establishing the bedrock at underage level that would reap such sweet dividends in the years to come. Portlaoise followed suit.
“When I came to Portlaoise first, you could see the club had a good juvenile set-up going,” Tully says.
“The likes of Wooly (Colm Parkinson) and Ian were 12-year-old lads then and guys like (current Portlaoise selector) Martin Parkinson and Brian Delaney were putting in some fantastic work, week in, week out.
“Those lads won titles all the way up to U-21 together and that set a trend. Last year’s All-Ireland minor-winning county team had Portlaoise lads like Peter McNulty and Cahir Healy and that’s down to people and structures.”
Tully himself has played a significant part. Down the years, a host of Laois underage sides have benefited from his coaching in Ballyfin, while this is his second stint with ‘The Town’.
Kerry’s William Kirby holds a Leinster South Colleges medal from a year spent in Ballyfin in 1993, while a fistful of All-Ireland minor-winning boys strutted their stuff for the college in the mid-’90s.
Current Portlaoise defender Cahir Healy is the latest past pupil to graduate from Tully’s footballing academy with full honours, collecting a Leinster and All-Ireland minor medal in the past two years with Laois.
Ironically though, one of Portlaoise’s key men tomorrow was moulded, not in Portlaoise or Ballyfin, but in Skryne itself. Former Laois All-Ireland-winning minor captain Martin Delaney, though born in Portlaoise, spent most of his childhood and teenage years playing in the Skryne colours before the family moved home when Martin was 16 years of age. Between Delaney and Tully then, Portlaoise should be well versed on the threat they face in Newbridge.
“The Meath championship is so competitive year after year, whereas in Laois you could probably pick your champions out of four teams at the beginning of the season. In Meath, 10 teams or more have a shout, there’s no easy game,” Tully explains.
“Skryne always had a touch of class about them. No matter what sort of team they put out you knew it wouldn’t be a bad one.
“They’ve always had forwards capable of scoring and if they’ve won Meath you can be sure that’s even more the case this season.”
As Tully alluded to, the Laois championship hasn’t the same plethora of pitfalls. This year was an even smoother ride than normal with giants like St Joseph’s, Portarlington and Stradbally clearly going through lean spells.
With both Rhode and Kilmacud Crokes failing to last the distance with Portlaoise in Leinster as well, there is still the sense that the Laois champions have yet to be put to the pin of their collar. Tully has heard all this before and rewinds back to early summer to counter that.
“We played Portarlington in one of the opening rounds in Stradbally on the May bank holiday weekend and it was one of those vintage games you see once a decade. Everyone said it was the best game in Laois in years. Hughie Emerson gave one of his
vintage displays and we got out with a draw. We played St Joseph’s as well but Joseph’s had Joe Higgins and Colm Kelly missing.
“We played well but still only won by three points. What I’m saying is, we had most of our hardest matches earlier in the year, but we did have very hard matches.”
As he knows only too well, another awaits them tomorrow, despite what the bookies may say.
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