Club rivals shining off the pitch too
Begrudged for their sizeable picks and state-of-the-art facilities, mocked because they lack the humility of smaller clubs and the Association somehow doesn’t mean as more to them as country folk, life isn’t as easy as it appears for the urban dwellers. A Munster club final between a Cork city outfit and a Killarney town side has not surprisingly garnered cat calls of “super club” domination.
But to lump Nemo Rangers and Dr Crokes into that category is far too convenient. To do that is to misunderstand them completely, in fact.
In an interview five years ago, James Masters gave a revealing insight into just how tribalistically “country” Nemo are. “Coming up to a big game, everybody is in the clubhouse for training and on the night of the game there’ll be nobody going to town afterwards,” he said. “We stick together in the clubhouse. People will say that it’s clannish but that’s the way we are.”
Dr Crokes are little different. Last autumn, a Kerry team-mate of Colm Cooper’s assigned to mark the forward in an East Kerry championship game was taken aback by Cooper’s verbals and the darker lengths he went to gain an advantage. But that’s how much his club meant to him. On occasions, he would be hit with pangs of guilt such was his disappointment at missing out on wearing the black and yellow because of his commitments with Kerry.
Numbers in personnel and money alone haven’t sustained the two clubs who line out in the Gaelic Grounds tomorrow. Yes, they both boast exceptional facilities. Nemo Rangers’ Trabeg clubhouse and sports centre were lauded long before they made national headlines last year when the Irish rugby team trained there.
But as the club’s senior manager Eddie Kirwan explains, they only go so far in breeding success.
“It’s a joy having four fields as opposed to one and the green pasture out the front,” Kirwan said. “It means you’re not scratching around. People were worried it would dilute the club but it was natural progression and if there is something better then it’s important to use or take it. It hasn’t diluted anything.
“No pitches or games facilities bring you trophies, though. They help, but it all comes down to work ethic from players and officials. It’s a case of putting the shoulder to the wheel.”
Dr Crokes are blessed with three pitches on Lewis Road and a brand, spanking new clubhouse, which features a sports hall and a gym. The club’s coaching officer Mark Cooper, brother of Colm, remembers how the club came to the realisation during the early Noughties that their grounds needed an overhaul to accommodate their plans to nurture talent and add to the underage trophy cabinet.
“Other sports had got more popular and had improved their facilities, so we came to the point where we said we had to do something and push on.
“Maybe we hadn’t as much success at underage level as we should have so we looked at it and planned ahead. It’s bearing fruit now the last couple of years.
“We can accommodate all the teams at some stage of the day if it comes to it. We have the floodlights for evening sessions and the hall upstairs for indoor training.”
OVER 200 juvenile members congregate in Lewis Road every Saturday and the emphasis is now on retaining those numbers. Having high-profile members like Cooper, Eoin Brosnan and former Kerry manager Pat O’Shea, who has played an instrumental role in underage development in the club, certainly helps.
“Children have heroes here; they’ve seen the club win a Munster title and get to an All-Ireland final,” Mark Cooper adds. “We’ve been very progressive in getting as many coaches involved as we can. The more coaches you have, the more skilled the children will be. It’s very hard for two coaches to run a session with 30 people. We strive to have five or six coaches and we’re lucky to have enough people to do that.”
Like Crokes, Nemo acknowledged their underage record had left a lot to be desired. Kirwan hopes the old adage of a rising tide floating all boats will apply with the senior team and he’s heartened by the number of former players willing to take responsibility of underage teams.
Joe Kavanagh, who manages the under-15s, is a shining example. “It’s one of the key things - that we have lads once they’re finished or even if they’re still playing who are involved with underage teams. We’re tight-knit like that,” Kirwan insists. “Some of the current seniors were involved with the minors last year as well in both hurling and football.
“There’s a fierce loyalty there and if their knowledge is passed on, then great. Joe would have been taking teams when he was playing himself but it’s great to get these lads back when they would have played themselves at the highest level. This strong base of past players are coming in and looking to learn. They’re not expecting that what they did on the playing field is enough to coach.”
Challenges will continue to face both clubs. As urban dwellers, they are in serious battles with other sports, while Killarney is also suffering a sort of a demographic exodus.
As Cooper admits: “The next few years will be difficult because the population is moving out of the urban area so we’re going to have to work that bit harder. We have to try and accommodate people as best we can.”
Kirwan, meanwhile, recognises the appeal of a rigid fixture list that rugby and soccer offer at senior level.
“It is an issue with the soccer and rugby, who have their definite fixture lists, whereas at senior level they’re less structured with the GAA in Cork. At underage level, they generally have set fixtures up until minor but with senior fixtures you might not be playing for six months.”
Managing to more than just survive these last couple of economically stricken years, you’d expect both clubs to meet their next hurdles head on. As the GAA begins to act on their urban strategies over the new few years, Nemo Rangers and Dr Crokes will be the examples. City slickers and townies maybe, but instilled with an indelible country passion.
AFTER fashioning a preview for this fixture before its postponement in December, this writer mischievously felt like doing a Ger Power when asked to script another one and tell the boss to go with what was written last year.
Of course, that would be foolish. A lot has changed in the interim. Barry O’Driscoll is available again to Eddie Kirwan while Ambrose O’Donovan and Kieran O’Leary have had more time to recover from injury for Dr Crokes.
The call remains the same, though. While the Killarney club are in a better position going into this game than they would have been in December after a gruelling couple of months of football, it would be remarkable if Nemo Rangers’ fires have been dampened over these past seven weeks.
Getting themselves up for this won’t be difficult with that 2006 Munster semi-final defeat to Crokes still sticking in their craw. After winning 29 of their 30 games last year, the fear will be that they might have lost momentum over the Christmas but they seem too cute a side to be troubled by that.
Like Kilmacud Crokes last week, Nemo appear to have the ability to size up the opposition during a game and then cut them off. As was mentioned in December, their work-rate is top-class and Paul Kerrigan’s pace will cause the Crokes’ defence problems even on a softer sod. Doubts about the availability of Crokes’ midfielder Johnny Buckley are worrying ones for Harry O’Neill as his excellent forward line will look ordinary without ball.
He may opt to push Daithi Casey out from full-forward to replace Buckley but there would be an element of robbing Peter to pay Paul about such a move. Casey and Colm Cooper have been combining nicely up-front and the latter will need assistance if, as rumoured, Brian O’Regan is asked to do the man-marking job on him. Then again, if there is no ball going into the full-forward line O’Neill may have no option but to switch Casey further out the field.
If last weekend’s Leinster SFC final, which delivered a wonderful first-half and 23 scores for the 60 minutes, is anything to go by we’ll have some decent fare in Limerick. Given the two previous Munster finals held in December had given us a paltry average total score of 12 points, it was feared Crokes’ fatigue and the fierce pre-Christmas cold snap would hurt an affair between two sides who like to play football.
But with an extended break over the festive period and a training run-in of four weeks into this game, there will be no excuses bar a lack of match practice. O’Driscoll’s return from injury is a welcome one and provides the Nemo attack with another finisher. James Masters is there to be called on too. Crokes are in a much better place than they were seven weeks ago but providing Nemo haven’t forgotten the hurt of 2006 and keep their heads, the title will be theirs.
- Verdict: Nemo Rangers
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