Gleeson bidding to get Sars accustomed to glory days again

IT’S A long way from Balbriggan to Thurles, longer still if, like Michael Gleeson, you lived in one but pined for the other.

Gleeson was a member of the Thurles Sarsfields team that won the Tipperary SHC title in 1974 and was there again when they lost to Kilruane McDonaghs in 1979. A few years later, however, work took him to Dublin and he settled into life in the capital where he became a star with the newly-formed O’Dwyer’s junior hurling team.

He spent good years in north Dublin, made a lot of good friends, and, with his wife and Dublin-born three sons and daughter, was adapting to his new surroundings, sure that this was where he would spend the rest of his days.

And then, in 1992, out of the blue, opportunity knocked. And now, 17 years later, Michael Gleeson is manager of the Sars team that faces Drom & Inch in the Tipperary senior final on Sunday.

“Working where I was working, in customs, I didn’t expect I’d ever be back in Thurles – you don’t find too many customs jobs in the midlands! And suddenly decentralisation came in. I was offered the chance to come down to Nenagh, and I jumped at it. I’m commute from Thurles which is only half an hour each way. It is perfect.”

And perfect it is. Michael – or ‘Glossy’ as he’s known – was soon heavily involved again in hurling, doing with his own sons what his father had done with him all those decades earlier. One little difference, however: where Michael grew up in a period of almost total dominance by the famed Thurles Sars, his own sons saw only failure after failure. “When I was growing up, during the period from 1955 to 65, Sars won every title, with the exception of 1960, and that year they won the football. So they won 10 titles in 11 years. My father was a selector; I remember going off on the team bus to these games and all those guys were heroes in my eyes – Jimmy Doyle, Michael McElgunn, Michael Murphy, Seán McLoughlin, Tony Wall, the Rattler Byrne, tremendous players and household names. That was a great period for Sars.”

Since Michael’s return, however, and for nearly two decades before it, it’s been nearly all heartbreak for Sars, the glory days well and truly over. The title he won in 1974 was to be the club’s last for over 30 years, the famine not ended until 2005, when Drom & Inch were the opposition. Now, however, Sars have come again, and though that title remains their only success this decade, the club has contested six finals since the turn of the century.

Several stars remain from those teams, not least the likes of Lar Corbett, Ger ‘Redser’ O’Grady (captain of that 2005 team) and the inspirational Johnny Enright, this year’s captain. They’ve been reinforced, however, with several youngsters from the underage club, Durlas Óg, youngsters with whom Michael is very familiar.

“This is my second year with the seniors but before that I was involved with the minors for three years, and we won two counties, along with two football counties, believe it or not. I’m lucky then that I’ve already worked with the likes of Padraig Maher, Pa Bourke, Michael Cahill, Michael Gleeson (his youngest son), Denis Maher, Kevin O’Gorman. They have all played county minor, and most have All-Ireland medals. I worked with them since they were U14, when they reached the Féile All-Ireland final. These are good lads, they know only winning.”

He hasn’t been afraid to go with the youth either in spite of some local criticism.

“People were criticising me last year because, they said, the inside back-line was so young – Michael Cahill, Pádraic Maher and Michael Collins. Well, this year it’s even younger. Michael Cahill and Pádraic are still there, but Kevin O’Gorman has come in for Michael Collins. Kevin was minor last year, and both Michael Cahill and Pádraic will be U21 again next year.”

Gleeson is a believer in that very pragmatic philosophy – if they’re good enough, they’re old enough. But, are they good enough? Can Sars repeat that win over Drom of four years ago? True, they now have all that new talent on board, but their Mid-Tipp neighbours and rivals have also improved, and a second final defeat, in 2007, will only have given them greater incentive to win their first Tipp senior title.

“Drom & Inch have an awful lot going for them. They are the only undefeated team left in Tipp this year and had a good win over Toomevara – county champions and this year’s championship favourites – in the semi-final. They’re on a run. In 2007, they underperformed against Loughmore-Castleiney but they’ve come on a lot since. Seamus Callanan would get on any team in the country but they’re not a one-man team by any means. There is pressure on them to pull one off, and the first one is the hardest. We’ll be taking nothing for granted, but I’d be hopeful we can pull it off. Drom are our neighbours and rivals, we played them three times last year in the championship, won one, lost one, drew one. It couldn’t be more even.”