Modest duo the wind beneath Gaels’ wings

THIS is the biggest day in the year for GAA clubs, St. Patrick’s Day, All-Ireland club finals, and due respect to the players from the four clubs who have made it this far – regardless of results today, it’s a magnificent achievement.

But what of those behind those clubs, the men and women without whom there would be no club, never mind an All-Ireland title? What of those who first had the foresight to buy the fields, those who followed and developed on that, those who have trained teams from underage to senior, through good times and bad? What of all those?

O’Loughlin Gaels are in the hurling final today, representing Kilkenny and Leinster, but they are not there by accident. True, in the likes of Brian Hogan, Martin Comerford, the Dowling brothers, the Kearns brothers, Maurice Nolan and Mark Bergin et al, they have the hurlers, the stars who, through their exploits thus far, have earned the Gaels this right. But they also have the others, those who got their hands dirty doing all the unglamorous work, those who give back in spades what they themselves had got from the club in their own years of playing. And with O’Loughlin Gaels, as with many other clubs, they are as involved on the field as off.

Andy Comerford and Michael Nolan are joint managers and in that role they have played a major part in the side’s run to the finals. Their role with the Gaels, however, goes far beyond calling the shots from the sideline, and both are heavily involved also in the club’s massive development programme. That programme began with a major decision to be made; situated in prime land on the edge of Kilkenny city, just across the road from Nowlan Park, several years ago the club was offered serious money for their grounds, could have built a state-of-the-art complex on a greenfield site with the spoils. They didn’t, and Andy explains why. “It went to the Committee, and we felt that what we had we should hold. Lads had put their hands in their pockets years ago when there was no money around; they had put the money on the table to buy the ground, then to develop it, to build on it, and all that done off their own backs. It would have been a betrayal of those guys if we had then gone and sold this place. We were happy where we were, we had what we needed, and we decided to develop that further – that’s what’s happening now. We’re looking at a new restaurant-cum-dining-area in the front of the building, a more elaborate gymnasium, a skills wall, two top-class pitches, and a dedicated training-area of 80x70 metres.”

Bear in mind that Andy is a former All-Ireland-winning Kilkenny captain, yet here he is, putting in the voluntary hours with the team and with the club, although – he reckons – his own contribution pales in comparison to that of his co-manager. “Michael is the prototype clubman,” says Andy; “He’s the chairman of this club, the joint manager of the senior hurling team, but he’s up here also cutting the grass during the week, he makes sandwiches when there’s a need, he paints walls, he organises the Lotto – essentially, he’s Mr O’Loughlin Gaels.”

It’s that commitment, as much as the commitment given by the players, that sees clubs like O’Loughlin Gaels rise to the top. In fact, there was a seminal meeting earlier in this campaign when the current crop learned exactly that. “We were at a very low ebb when we started last season,” Andy explains. “We had lost three or four very good players, serious players – there was Paul Kelly, the Tipperary senior, Seán Dowling, the former Kilkenny senior, Ollie Blanch who had played in goals for Kilkenny minors, which left us without a goalkeeper, Mark Kelly, a former Kilkenny U-21, went to England. I remember one particular morning coming up for a training session that had been called for nine o’clock, and fellas were wandering in at quarter past, half past. We sat them down then and a few home truths had to be told about what was going on outside the hurling field to keep all this going, to make it work. I gave an example of an oul’ lad here of 80 years of age, Andy Driscoll, who goes around every week selling Lotto tickets, about 20 books a week; then there was a lad, Johnny Houlihan, whom I’d played with myself, who lost his eye playing with the club but was still involved – I made them aware of all that, and I think it struck a note with the players. If it was still that important to Andy Driscoll, if he was still putting in that kind of effort for the club at 80 years of age, surely they could be on time for training? I don’t think they fully realised the magnitude of the whole thing, of all that goes on behind the scenes to put hurling-balls on the pitch, to provide the hurleys, to make everything easier for them to just go out and play. A few home-truths were said that day, I think the penny dropped, and now the lads are turning up well on time.

“That meeting sorted everything, for once and for all,” adds Michael, “And in fairness to everyone we never had any trouble afterwards – if we say training is at half-seven now, they’re on the pitch at twenty-past, no-one comes late anymore.”

They’re a model club, O’Loughlin Gaels, testament to what can be achieved when everyone pulls together, when everyone recognises the effort being put in by everyone else. Winning today may be in the lap of the gods, depending on the breaks; being in Croke Park, however, is no accident of fate.