Glin won’t be overawed by neighbours, insists Madigan

Often, meetings in provincial junior and intermediate club championship clashes are trips into the unknown.

Sunday’s Munster Club JFC decider is different, however, as Glin of West Limerick go up against Brosna from North Kerry.

Glin manager Paddy Madigan believes that having such a knowledge of what’s facing his side means they won’t be overawed.

“Any time Kerry teams have played Limerick ones over the last few years the margin has been overwhelming, you’re talking about 19 or 20 points in a few games,” says Madigan.

“We feel it’s different this time as Brosna is only a stone’s throw back the road, there isn’t 20 miles in it.

“Every year we’d play challenge matches against teams from North Kerry – Tarbert, Ballylongford, Moyvane, they’d all be similar enough to Brosna.

“We’re pretty confident that we’ll give a good showing of ourselves on Sunday. From talking to some of the other Limerick teams, they felt maybe they gave the Kerry sides too much respect, I don’t think we’ll suffer from that.”

Getting over the line in Limerick was proving to be the problem for Glin, and once that was achieved they continued to improve.

“In the last six years before this year we lost to the eventual winners each time, we reached either the semi-final or final,” Madigan says. “More often than not, it was our own failings which were costing us.

“We knew at the start of this year we were good enough if we gave it a go. A couple of the older fellas realised that, even though they were getting so close, chances were running out, at the end of every year they were a bit closer to retirement.

“They had a word with the younger players and we got four or five players back on the panel who hadn’t been there for various reasons. It made it easier to train then with bigger numbers.”

Madigan, who lives in Kildare, took on the job at the start of 2013, with the campaign only ending with defeat in the county final to Feohanagh-Castlemahon.

Travel commitments were one of the reasons he stopped playing, and with good back-up around him, it means that they’re not as taxing now.

“I have some good selectors in John Anthony Culhane, Liam Long and Declan Reidy, so I only have to make about 50% of training or a bit more.

“It’s turned out well and if Brosna are to beat us, more power to them, but I think they’ll have to play very well to do so.”