Blinding Nemo raise the bar
And yet, after over three decades of dominance, there isn’t even a hint of complacency, of resting on laurels.
Yesterday in Limerick, they took their 13th Munster club football title in 14 attempts, polishing an already astonishing record at provincial level of played 37, won 34, drawn 2, lost 1.
Yesterday, they were expected to meet their match. Two years ago, St Senan’s (from Kilkee) met An Ghaeltacht of Kerry in the Munster final, put up a fine display, before eventually losing a nail-biter, 1-8 to 1-6. This year, those two met again in the semi-final and Kilkee reversed that result in very convincing fashion. Little wonder they were tipped by several experts to lower the famed black-and- green colours of Nemo.
For about six minutes yesterday, it even looked like that; two clear goal chances created by the hard-running Clare men for Ger Keane and Derek de Loughrey, neither accepted. And that was it. In clicked the Nemo machine, and 20 minutes later, this game was over. A toe-poked goal by Paul Kerrigan, set up by the superbly creative William Morgan, a pile-driving goal from James Masters, then points from the unstoppable Masters (3), high-soaring David Niblock (2) and omnipresent Martin Cronin (1); this was total football, played at the highest standard.
“Ephie (Fitzgerald, manager) said it at half-time, we had played the best football we’d played all year,” said Masters.
“Our movement was excellent, we held it up well inside, only gave it (the ball) when it was on, and that’s what it’s all about, giving it when it’s on rather than having to give it. Our movement was good, the backs cleaned up as well after those two early frights which would have changed the whole game. Luck was on our side for those.”
Ah, this club makes its own luck. Long before anyone heard of Armagh or Tyrone, Nemo Rangers were playing this total football. The rule is simple: with the ball, everyone, from 1 to 15, is an attacker; without the ball, everyone defends. That was the philosophy when Ephie Fitzgerald was a player himself, winning five All-Ireland medals, that’s the philosophy still.
“Our running off the ball, our support play, our tackling, the pressure we were putting them under was top-class and that’s what we expect,” he said.
“The panel we have is exceptional, we’ve used 26 players this year but there are others itching to get on. All we ask is that everyone gives 100%, and if you’re exhausted, we’ll take you off, replace you with someone equally as good.” And it is that simple.
Of course, you must also have the talent. Yesterday, in a game that supposedly was going to be dominated in the possession stakes by the bigger team (Kilkee), that never happened. It didn’t happen because Nemo had big players of their own, players like David Niblock, but with the Nemo attitude.
“I read a verdict in one of the papers during the week that because underfoot conditions would be heavy, and because they had a lot of big men, especially around the middle, St Senan’s would be favourites. That never bothers me, Martin or Maurice, (Cronin and McCarthy, Nemo midfielders), or Alan Cronin for that matter. We just get in among them the way they get in among us, horse it out in the middle of the park.”
They got in among them, plucked some fantastic ball from the sky, a critical talent in any conditions.
“It’s important to be able to judge it with all that’s going on around you, but I was away for a few years and that’s the hardest thing to get back, to be honest, I spent about six months after I returned just jumping for fresh air. It came back to me slowly, I still have a lot to do, so do we all. We’ll enjoy a couple of weeks off, but the whole team, the whole panel, have to improve. You have to keep improving or there’s someone else just as good, maybe better, to come in and take your place. We saw it today, Joe Kavanagh, Dylan Meighan, fellas of the highest calibre, coming off the bench.”
They are not the biggest club in Ireland, Nemo Rangers, not even the biggest in Cork city, not by a long shot; they are merely the best. Yesterday, even when James Masters blasted their second goal to give them what proved to be an unassailable lead, there was just the merest cheer. It’s not that the Nemo fans don’t travel, reckons Masters, simply that there aren’t that many of them.
“People don’t seem to realise, but we’re a small club, not an awful lot of members, one of the smallest in the city. We know the opposition will always have more support, we just get on with it. Again, and contrary to a lot of thinking, we don’t have that many players either, but those we have train very hard.”
It shows, doesn’t it? Treble champions in Cork this year, minor (won on Saturday evening), U-21 and senior, now another Munster title added. Where does it all end? More pertinently, where does it all start? Ephie knows.
“The older guys are an example to the younger fellas in how they live their lives, how they prepare, how they train, and good example leads to more good example...!
“Essentially this is a new Nemo team, we have the Cronins, but we now have the likes of the O’Sheas, Gearoid and Ciaran, of Neil O’Sullivan, Paul Kerrigan, all winning their first Munster titles today. It augurs well for the future.”
It does, for Nemo Rangers; for the rest of football, though, how do you stop this machine?
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
