As solid as a tree trunk
MODERN commercial imperatives dictate that inter-county players arrive for duty these days with gear bags big enough to accommodate a tidy farm labourer.
Only for such convention, Noel O’Leary would still be using that marvellous scruffy white tubular bag; a compelling zipless and strapless illustration of where the Cork defender is from and what he is.
Cill na Martra GAA club. Unvarnished honesty.
Not for him the Yerra yodelling of his Gaeltacht counterparts across the Cork-Kerry divide. Asked would be rather win an All-Ireland medal with Cork or a county senior title with Cill na Martra, O’Leary hesitates for once in over 35 minutes of questioning. Given how much he yearns an All-Ireland with his county, it’s aneloquent response in itself.
In a week’s time, Cill na Martra will play their first ever Cork intermediate county final against Carrigaline. Their coach is Sean McLaughlin, the Tyrone wing forward of circa 1995. He’s not sure what gear bag O’Leary will arrive with, but he knows what he’ll get once the whistle starts.
“He’s the best I’ve seen at being there for club sessions even when he’s been training with Cork,” says McLaughlin. “That sends out a message to the other lads.”
Since Cork’s landslide quarter-final victory over Donegal, O’Leary and Cill na Martra survived an intense county semi-final against Adrigole. O’Leary was sited at corner back to keep an eye on a couple of the ‘Jer’ O’Sullivans.
“Adrigole were the favourites to win that competition. It was a good, tight game, and for me (after Donegal), it was a valuable hour. There was a nice bit of pressure there with 20 minutes left.”
McLaughlin’s involvement in the Mid Cork heartlands has also opened a little window for O’Leary into the Tyrone hard drive. “Sean has a lot of similarities to Mickey Harte in the way that he switches lads into different positions. He plays it on the edge, likes to get us to do the same. He’s very disciplined, very big into that in fact, even if he still has us on the edge.
“But playing Adrigole and Tyrone are two different things.”
Being on the edge seems a default setting for O’Leary, but his club coach doesn’t agree with the perception that he’s one glance at Paul Galvin away from a suspension.
“I’ve no problem with the O’Learys’ discipline (his brother Colm is the Cill na Martra captain). I can’t understand what happens with Noel for Cork, because with the club, he’s the one pulling lads out of a fight. Maybe there’s too much pressure put on him with Cork, I don’t know.”
Pressure and edge. Two of the tangy ingredients that will whip tomorrow’s All-Ireland semi-final against the reigning champions into a cocktail of chaos. Can you handle it Cork?
“Tyrone are a good team,” O’Leary nods, “they play a different style to your normal footballing team. They play on the edge and you have to admire them for that. Yeah, you would be scratching your head sometimes at a lot of things they do, but that’s the way they play. You have to aspire to that as well. You can’t fault them.
“They have great belief, they’re very calm in pressure situations, but we know we’re ready for it,” he whispers.
“We would feel that we’ve put down a tough four or five years, we know each other inside out, and there’s a belief in each other now exactly as Tyrone are doing. We do feel the self-belief is there.”
He mightn’t be aware that the Kerry lads have a lot more time for O’Leary than he imagines, Paul Galvin included. But he’s not ready yet to enter a joint appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport on that Munster Championship moment of madness in June at Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
“Pat (McEnaney) made his decision, I’ve no gripe with him. I’m more mad with myself than the referee. It was a big eye opener to me.
“You think about that and it focuses you on what’s in front of you (against Tyrone). I’m under no illusions that there probably will be things going on the next day but I’m ready for it now. I suppose you adopt a different mindset when it’s Championship days, a bit more geared up. It makes me think a lot about certain things I’ve done.”
There are several permutations being played out around Cill na Martra today; one sees Cork’s mobility and desire swamp Tyrone, but the most common thread has a basketball end to it – 60 minutes of teasing, 10 minutes of thrashing. Well, Cork, are you ready?
“We’ve had to find a new level of intensity in training. People think we won’t have that intensity below in the Páirc, but don’t underestimate a fella’s determination to get on this team.”
That’s bringing serious hunger to the show.
“If you want to get on the Cork team, you are not going to be pussy-footing around, and you’ll do whatever you can to get on that team. More than likely you are going to see a few skelps at training.”
He sees the next question already: “Yes Tyrone in Croke Park is a different proposition but genuinely we feel we are ready for it. Someone can forget that we’ve been around for a while now; lads are intelligent enough to know that it’s a different game now.”
You ask Sean McLaughlin about the well-being of O’Leary’s Cill na Martra bag and he tells you he wouldn’t know, because he’s already conducting training by the time Noelie arrives.
“I’d say he works late a lot of time,” McLaughlin explains. O’Leary’s earns his crust as a tree surgeon, felling obstacles a lot more truculent than mouthy wing-forwards. Business is good, but collecting cash is proving frustrating. Nevertheless, he’s not one to complain. Once he limped through training, explaining that he’d come off second best with a tree branch that day. “It was probably a tree trunk,” says selector Ger O’Sullivan.
Football is his release from work and vice versa. “Cinema and all that carry on” doesn’t figure. “In six weeks, it’ll all be over and you can be doing all those things then, can’t you?” he shrugs.
For eight seasons, his inter-county season has ended short of the steps of the Hogan Stand. He was a 2000 Cork All-Ireland winning minor with James Masters, Kevin McMahon, Conrad Murphy and keeper Kevin Murphy, and never thought further success would be so elusive.
“At a young age, you always think the road will be smooth enough for you, but the All-Ireland remains the biggest goal in front of me. It would be massive. I’m not here for nine years just to be playing Championship games. It’s not just me; where I’m from, football is a huge thing. There’s no hurling.
“This is a big day for our parish too, they’re proud Cork people. We won’t forget them.”
O’Leary’s learning years nourished on the 1989-90 double, and soon he could properly appreciate the nuances of the blood and bandage.
Buccaneering wing backs like Cahalane and Ciarán O’Sullivan were one thing, but the manner in which their deeds shortened the journeys home still lives on.
“I’d always have had great time for Ciarán O’Sullivan. I remember when I was nine or 10 going to Ballingeary for a county junior semi-final between Urhan and Midleton. Ciarán wasn’t even on the Cork seniors at the time, but Jeez, he was unbelievable that day. They done everything they could to put him off his game that day. He had blood pumping from his nose, but he drove on. My father nudged me. ‘He’ll be on the Cork team next year’. He was wing back the following season.”
The empathy with Cahalane and Castlehaven is understandable. “My father was a big football man, and they were the big draw. Their passion down the years with Larry (Tompkins), Niall and John Cleary. They were always something to aspire to in terms of the club and what they gave to Cork football.”
And you conjure the impossible dream for the Cill na Martra man. A Cork senior football title. Representing the county in Munster? “Ah, senior is a long, long way off for us still. But we’ve some good young players coming up. The way the club is going, maybe in another four or five years we might get a crack at senior.”
And he’ll arrive that day and rustle around in the boot of the car for that white gear bag with the faded black writing.
Cill na Martra. Cork county champions.
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