James Masters not ready for exit door just yet

Five years have passed since James Masters made the call to Conor Counihan to say he couldn’t tolerate warming the bench anymore and bade him adieu.

That is also the timeframe Nemo Rangers required to rediscover their mojo and last month claim a 19th Cork SFC title before progressing to Sunday’s Munster final, their 17th provincial decider.

Out of the spotlight for just as long might have taken some getting used to for a forward once the spearhead of the Cork team but if truth be told, the inter-county game was going one way and he was heading another.

“I didn’t have the greatest work ethic and I suppose the time when the GPS came into the training tops, I began to suffer,” says Masters.

“I actually remember one training session and they actually said to me, ‘you only run fast when you’re getting the ball’.

“The likes of Daniel (Goulding) and Colm (O’Neill) were making the continual three or four runs at 90% and I was making two runs at 40%.

“But, look, everyone is different. My best attributes are that when I get the ball into my hand at close range, I can shoot straight off the bat, no bouncing.

“It does work at times and I think if you go through my record in the Munster club, it’s been phenomenally good. I don’t know why but I seem to love Munster championships.

“Maybe it’s the time of the year and everyone is slowing down a bit. But definitely it’s a time of the year I enjoy. I think I got two Munster club player of the year and I just hope I can play on Sunday and play some part.”

Now 33, there’s only a small part of him that regrets missing out on that Celtic Cross in 2010.

“I’ll be straight up: it probably wouldn’t have meant a whole lot to me if we won and I wasn’t part of it. That’s very selfish but maybe that’s just the way I am.

“I was in the guards too and the days of maybe shift work and labouring and working the buildings and that, I don’t think you can do it anymore.

“I think you have to be a teacher or in college or a cushy number or something like that.”

Having had to put up with an excessive amount of injuries this season, Masters has been in and out of the Nemo team, scoring 1-5 against a jaded Stradbally, only to be an unused substitute in the provincial semi-final over Legion.

“I think it’s gone to a certain extent with club football. You could be on the worst corner-back in the world but you’re trying to push away from him and you’re feeling a six pack while he’s grabbing a bit of (bulge) around your waist! I remember marking your man from Monaghan, Dessie Mone, and (for) the first ball he was grabbing at me and saying, ‘you have a bit of fat there, do ya?’”

Billy Morgan knew how to get the best out of him for both club and county. Prior to the 2006 Munster semi-final against Limerick, where he scored eight points from play, Masters was anything but fit. But Morgan wouldn’t listen. “Billy rang me and I said ‘I love the Gaelic Grounds but I’m half- injured,’ and he said ‘Right, you’re starting’. Even with Nemo, he wanted playing all of the time, which was great for me.”

Current Nemo supremo Steven O’Brien might also have been a club and county disciple of Morgan’s but they wouldn’t be too similar as managers, says Masters.

“Steven started off and he would have been of an era – and this is no disrespect to him – where there would be no problem having a few pints the week before a championship match or the night before championship, once you produce it the next day. It’s much more relaxed with Steven. Billy is extremely intense.”

There has been no let-up in preparations, though, as Masters can testify. “The Nemo lads are phenomenal athletes now as well as footballers.

“That’s probably the good thing about Nemo because you have certain teams in Cork who come up with the tight tops and the muscles but they can’t kick the ball.”

New recruit Tomás Ó Sé certainly doesn’t fall into that category. “Tomás is a saving grace, I think. I wouldn’t chat to Tomás every night or anything but I think he’s like a god in Nemo, as regards the players even.

“We have a Whatsapp group and everything is about Tomás in it. He wouldn’t even be involved in the conversation. Everyone just looks up to him, the younger lads love him and I think he has fit in well with us.

“We had a bit of a gap and Tomás just came in there. Tomás is getting better. I think at the start of the year he was definitely struggling a small bit; now he’s flying it. Once he keeps injury-free, he’s definitely our go-to man.”