Quilligan: We must be shrewder
The supporter, Martin Stokes, received a 96-week ban from the county board’s Competitions Control Committee. It became a nationwide talking point with GAA Director General Páraic Duffy going so far as to back criminal prosecutions arising from assaults at games.
Tonight the two sides meet again and, while the focus will be on that injury-time incident, Newcastlewest manager Mikey Quilligan believes it’s a pity the matter has deflected attention away from what was a fine contest.
“It’s remembered now for all the wrong reasons,” he said.
“All the talk over the last few days has been about that incident at the end of the game rather than the game itself, which is unfair on both Newcastlewest and Drom-Broadford. Hopefully we’ll put that right in this game.”
Other than to state his admiration for most of the Drom-Broadford players, Mikey has nothing to say about what took place three minutes into injury-time.
“Like everyone else I was following the play and I don’t believe in commenting on something I didn’t see.”
He wasn’t alone. Kelly received his second yellow card and was making his way off the pitch when the incident occurred. At the same time Drom-Broadford took a quick free and were in the process of manufacturing the game-tying point at the other end.
On the game itself, however, he was more than happy to comment.
“It was a great game for the fans but pure nightmare for a manager. You want your team to be more consistent, to be more clinical, to be more focused on the task in hand.
“At any given time in the game no more than five of our players were performing, and that’s not being overly critical. There’s more in them. I know that. We’re going to have to be a bit shrewder the next day and a bit more clinical. We missed a few handy chances. We lost focus a bit too.
“Even with only a point in it, Drom-Broadford should have been dead in the water. We should have made it an impossible point to score but instead we left ourselves wide open and they took their chance.
“You focus for 65 minutes because it’s never 60 minutes anymore, and you don’t take your eye off your man or your attention off the game for that 65 minutes for even a split second, never mind a second. Easier said than done, and hopefully we’ll be better for longer this time.”
As is so often the case when an upstart plays an established team in a final, there are those now who will say Newcastlewest blew their chance. Mikey begs to differ.
“The game still there to be won and I’m happy enough we have another bite of the cherry,” he said. “We just didn’t play well. Now is their time, these players, they must stand up; I’d just like to see them play the brand of football they’re capable of playing.”
The five-day turnaround makes no difference, he reckons. “What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander and they don’t have any more time to prepare than us! It’s not a long time and if you were facing a different team then yes, it would be a factor, but not in this situation. In one way it’s even a good thing. You don’t have to do an awful lot more training. Hopefully we can start a bit sharper this time and if we do. If we get it together, then these fellas are a match for anyone.
“They’re a young side — we finished with 12 U21s on the field the last day. I’m not saying that as an excuse one way or the other. Young as they are they have the capacity to learn, to develop a lot more, to win this. And I think if they did win it would benefit Limerick football, in the same way that Drom-Broadford coming through was good for Limerick football.
“They were great ambassadors for Limerick club football for the last decade; our boys could do the same, if they could make that breakthrough.”
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