David Niblock ready for final fling

Defeat for Nemo Rangers in tomorrow’s Cork SFC final and we may well have seen the last of the rangy midfielder in his favoured black and green.

It’s been quite the journey since Billy Morgan “dragged” the fresh-faced 17-year old into the club’s senior set-up towards the tail end of the 1999 county championship.

David Niblock wasn’t even togged out for the 1-11 to 1-8 final defeat to UCC, but Morgan was keen to begin the learning process.

Fourteen campaigns later, interrupted by three years spent in the States between 2003 and 2005, Niblock heads into his 10th county final. Victory tomorrow would mean a ninth senior championship medal.

He’s enjoyed this summer of football.

There’ve been no distractions, no injuries and no interruptions. Above everything else, though, he’s enjoying it largely because he didn’t expect to be still togging out every Tuesday and Thursday night below in Trabeg.

Last year, to borrow Niblock’s own words, was a bit of a mess, a sign the end was nigh.

Fresh out of UL with a physiotherapy degree in his back pocket, the HSE embargo on the hiring of graduate physiotherapists forced him to cast the net far and wide in search of employment.

In the end, he secured work with Neasa Canavan’s practice up in Tuam, meaning some long and tiring commutes for midweek sessions.

The tipping point was reached on one particularly long Wednesday. “I left Cork that morning at 5am for Tuam, drove back down that evening for a junior hurling final and then drove back up to Tuam that night. That was nine hours in the car in the one day, and playing a match in the middle of it when you are 32 just isn’t on.” Not fully fit for the semi-final clash with Ballincollig last October, he started on the bench. Nemo lost by seven and Niblock was ready to call it a day.

“After that game, I was thinking this was my sign, I have had a good innings and it is time to move on and let some of the younger lads take the mantle and drive one,” recalls the 33-year old.

“I sat down with Dylan Meighan over a cup of coffee, I think it was more of a Guinness, but anyway, we discussed... well it was more me trying to coax him and be all optimistic because I knew I couldn’t do it without the likes of him, [James] Masters and Willie Morgan behind me. We soldiered together right through from U16. I really did need a bit of solace from the lads to go another year.

“I would say this is the be all and end all for me. I am around a long time and am not getting any younger, I have a 34th birthday in a couple of weeks. I have played with great teams and under great management.

“There are younger guys coming in there now and they show you a different level of professionalism, show you a different level of hunger. If you are slacking or are dragging your heels, you will be clipped.

“For me, the last 36 months have been hectic. I finished my physiotherapy degree two years ago, which I really had to focus on because I was in danger of being kicked out of home if I didn’t take this second bite of the cherry.

“I got injured playing Sigerson which kept me out for a number of months and when I did get back, I wasn’t even in the country for the 2013 quarter-final against Skibbereen because I was at a work expo in Wales for my own business.”

He’s benefited from a more settled approach this year. “I got an opportunity this January in Ballinlough and in Carrigaline so I opened up a new chartered physiotherapy clinic (Core Physiotherapy in Cahill’s Gym) and it has been going from strength to strength since. On the field I’ve had a free run and I am really delighted I played on.”

Five years without a county senior title is closing in on ‘famine’ territory for a club of Nemo’s stature. The defeat to Haven in 2013 was his first final loss. There simply cannot be a repeat tomorrow.

“Prior to the 2000 county final, Colin Corkery referenced the 1999 final in the dressing room and how he definitely wasn’t losing another one. He had won one as a young fella in 1993 and he thought this was the norm; counties and Munster club championships would just roll off the side.

“For me, that was almost the case. We won three on the hop in my first three years and when Ephie [Fitzgerald] told me to come home from the States in late 2004, we won the next four [2005-08]. I was grossly overweight coming back but I hunkered down. It is the middle of the decade and we need to hunker down again and do the business.”