Nemo have come a long, long way in club finals
EARLY winter means heavy pitches, rainy weather, remote locations. In other words, the GAA club championships. You'd think a club like Nemo Rangers, with their patented brand of intricate support play would suffer in inclement conditions. Pity the statistics make a liar of you.
Since their first county title in 1972 Nemo have welcomed the Andy Scannell Cup another 13 times. That means a lot of jaunts around the province in the Munster club series and one staggering fact: in all that time the Capwell side have lost only one game the 1978 provincial final against what was then Thomond College. One loss in 14 campaigns.
Timmy Dalton made his senior football debut in Nemo's 1977 county championship victory and was still a mainstay in the 1993 version. In between he collected five All-Ireland club medals, which is the kind of CV that commands respect even at Nemo. Does he put the club's success down to that famous passing style or indomitable club spirit?
"A combination of both, probably. I always felt over the years that once we got out of Cork it was like the shackles were taken off we were able to express ourselves a lot better outside the county. We were so used to playing teams in Cork that a lot of the games were battles, really, but once we got out into Munster we seemed to play with a lot more freedom."
That means seeing a county championship as another stepping stone, not just an end in itself, as Dalton outlines.
"From as far back as my first involvement, once you won the county, even though you wouldn't keep the training going as hard, the focus would always be on the next round.
"We'd always take it game by game, and we always wanted to take the next step you're being tested against the best that's out there."
The best meant some dogged battles. Dalton remembers two particularly close shaves.
"I've always felt Clare teams have given us a tough game, particularly in Clare. My first or second campaign brought us up against Kilrush in the provincial final in 1979, and they were always very hard to beat very dogged. That was a tough, tough game and we were very lucky to come out of it by a couple of points.
"The other opposing side that stands out for me would be playing Austin Stacks in Austin Stack Park the previous year, when they had the likes of Mikey Sheehy and John O'Keeffe; they had five of that great Kerry team and Dinny Long from Cork, so they'd have been very good indeed. I remember games against them as being very close very good football games and beating them below there was obviously very special."
The mistaken perception of Nemo as a city club with the advantage of a huge pick was an exercise in motivation.
"We'd have used that as an advantage. Even though it might be suggested that we're a big club, we're not, and we never have been. We're small in numbers but we used that as a help; we're favourites more often than not but we've never seen that as a hindrance. We've always used the fact that we're a small club as a motivation for us against sides with a bigger pick.
"We've always had a belief in the way we play, and the instigator obviously was Billy Morgan, who's always preached that bad conditions suit better footballers not the physically stronger players. As a result we've always played to our strength, which is football. You could get into a dogfight on a muddy pitch but we always felt the lads with more skill would come out on top at the end of the day."
And the one that got away?
"I was to make my Munster club debut in '78, I'd played in the county championship, but I got injured the week before so I can honestly say I wasn't involved! But Thomond were an excellent side and they beat us by six points down the Páirc. They were led by Pat Spillane, but they had plenty more."
THAT they had. Spillane himself puts that victory down to the four-game series Thomond had had with Austin Stacks, which he always puts forward as the greatest series of games in the club competition.
That series of games tuned them in, says the Kerry legend, but they had other advantages. "We trained like professionals, we had video analysis, the whole thing," he recalls.
"We played Nemo down in Páirc Uí Chaoimh but I couldn't see us being beaten. The one thing with Nemo was you always knew what to expect you could beat them for 59 minutes but they were capable of a winning goal in the last minute. We beat them handy enough that day, I think that as Nemo teams go it might have been a transitional side.
"You have to admire them. They're like Dr Crokes in Kerry, they've a small following and a small population base and they play a possession game.
"Nemo live and die for their club, the likes of Billy Morgan, Dinny Allen, Jimmy Kerrigan are all still involved. The big problem for most GAA clubs is golf, with ex-players taking up golf and putting nothing back. Nemo are the exact opposite, all the former players get back into coaching.
"Some people like to slag them off, but they're the template for every club. Their facilities are second to none, they're the finest side in the history of the club championships and if they can get over Sunday they'll be favourites for the club championship next St Patrick's Day. They're everything a club has to aspire to."
On Sunday that record is on the line again. "We never go into a game thinking anything other than that we have the ability to win," says Dalton.
"But we're not naïve enough not to realise that there are other teams who are as good, if not better, if we don't perform.
"We realise we've a tough game on our hands; we saw St Senan's against Gaeltacht and they'll get the respect we give to every team, but we'll be concentrating on our own performance. We've always believed that if our performance is right but we're beaten by a better side, then fair play to them, they deserved it. But it will take a very good team to beat us."
It always did.
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