London calling for multi-tasking maestro McDermott

IT’S only the early stages of the GAA season but already Michael McDermott is a busy man.

Since the start of January he has been serving two masters, taking the reins of the Clare senior footballers for the first time and continuing to guide Kilmurry-Ibrickane as they enter the All-Ireland club championships stages.

“It’s been very, very hectic since the start of the month,” admitted McDermott. “I’m at it six nights a week between the two jobs. But my attitude is that I devote full energies to every job I’m involved in or else I don’t do it all. That’s the way it’ll be for the two campaigns. It’s difficult but enjoyable.”

How much longer the double-jobbing continues depends on this weekend. This afternoon the Kilmurry-Ibrickane contingent fly out to London for tomorrow’s All-Ireland Club SFC quarter-final against Tír Chonaill Gaels in Ruislip.

Since the turn of the year this fixture has been their sole focus, yet prior to that their parish was shrouded in a giddy air of celebration after December’s Munster club title victory over Kerins O’Rahilly’s.

“It was a big monkey off my back to finally win a Munster title. I’d contested seven of them with Clare sides and lost all seven. It was becoming an issue in my own mind and was worrying me. It was great to get the win, particularly after we’d lost out the previous year against Drom-Broadford.

“But the players are an ambitious bunch. They were in the All-Ireland semi-final in 2005 but there was a long break leading up to it. The celebrations were huge as well at the end of 2004 because it was their first Munster title.

“I’ve spoken to that management team and it seemed no matter what they did, they couldn’t get firing on all cylinders again. Having a quarter-final to prepare for has been a help.”

However preparations for tomorrow were compromised by the weather.

“There’s no doubt over the last few weeks that we were hampered. We were quite fortunate we had the beach in Quilty, so we got a number of sessions there. Fitness is not a major issue, but football wise we’d like to have been back on the field sooner. Training on a beach is false in a way because when you come off the heavy fields you can have problems with injures.”

There was a time when the jaunt across the water for the All-Ireland quarter-final was a fait accompli for Irish sides but McDermott is wary of tomorrow’s opponents.

“From what we know, they’re a very professionally run club. They see this is an opportunity of breaking the duck and making it to an All-Ireland semi-final. If we perform to the best of our ability, we can win but it’s going to be a serious battle. The one thing is this year we’ve shown resilience. In the county semi-final against Doonbeg, we were four points down but came back to win that game. That test will stand to us now. We’ve a big crowd coming over from Clare to the game, so it should be a great occasions.

” It’s vital when you play an away match that you have vocal support and we’ll have that.”