Franny Kelly rues Clonmel Commercials’ long quest to reach Munster's Promised Land
Having to sit on the bench doesn’t bother him much, though.
At 53-years young, he’s simply thankful for the rude health which allows him lace his boots and pull on the green and gold of Clonmel Commercials nearly four decades after making his senior debut for the club.
His son Graham is expected to feature at full-forward for the penultimate round clash against Galtee Rovers at Cahir; the fixture being very much the appetiser on an important weekend for the Kelly clan, and, indeed, Clonmel.
“Sunday is the main course,” quips Kelly of the Munster senior final meeting with Nemo Rangers.
It has been 21-years since Commercials last appeared in the provincial decider; Castlehaven dishing out a heavy beating on that winter afternoon in ’94.
In total, the club has reached the Munster final on four occasions.
Each time they’ve left empty-handed.
Of the four defeats, Sunday, December 16, 1990 is the result that continues to stick in their craw. For Franny Kelly, the regret which hung over him as he limped out of Fermoy 25-years ago still lingers.
For the full story, though, we need to return to the happenings in Fermoy seven days previously, Clonmel and Dr Crokes playing out an 0-8 all draw.
‘Commercials denied in club final cracker’ read the headline in the following morning’s Cork Examiner.
“And we were denied,” asserts Kelly. “How we didn’t win that game, I just don’t know.”
The corner-forward, who finished with three points, levelled proceedings with a quarter of an hour remaining before Peter Kilkenny, according to reporter Michael Ellard, ‘soloed up the left wing, beat off three tackles and kicked over a truly marvellous point from an acute angle’.
Noel O’Leary would equalise for the Kerry champions and while Commercials had a late chance to snatch victory, the kick drifted wide. Back to Fermoy they went a week later.
“There are two stories to the second day. Criostoir McGrath was sent off and I had the misfortune to do the ligaments in my ankle before the end of normal time.
“Criostoir and one of the O’Shea’s (Sean) were the two players dismissed. They had their homework done on Criostoir.
He was such a gentleman, and he was lording it at midfield.
“They got him on the ground and they wouldn’t let him up. They were willing to sacrifice a man to get Criostoir out of the game.
“We had two frees then after I had to go off and I might have got one of them and we would have won. Both frees were missed and we went to extra-time.
“They were extremely difficult frees, but you never know, I might have been lucky enough to get one of them.” Down two of their marquee men, Commercials lost by five points (0-15 to 0-10).
“Every time we look at a Munster club match we know we had our opportunity to win it out and we didn’t take it. When we were beaten by Castlehaven in 1994, they were the stronger outfit and we had few complaints.
The Dr Crokes game is definitely the one that got away. There is no doubt that was the time for a Tipperary club to make the breakthrough in Munster.”
Hard to fathom that since the inception of the Munster club SFC 40-years ago, no Tipperary club has ever achieved outright success.
Fethard and Moyle Rovers went close either side of the millennium, but, similar to Commercials, had to be content with moral victories.
“We beat St Finbarr’s in the 1990 Munster semi-final and that was a famous win for us below in Ballyclough. Four years later, we beat Austin Stacks below in Tralee which was another famous victory. We drew with Laune Rangers below in Killorglin another year.
We had a fair record against the Cork and Kerry teams.
“It wouldn’t have been a shock for us to beat Crokes as we believed in ourselves. We didn’t care that we were from Tipperary. We had a great record at the All-Ireland 7’s in Dublin. We were regulars at the semi-final stage of that competition and we were more than able to hold our own against the best in the country. The players themselves believed. The neutral in Tipperary and elsewhere, though, would find it a shock when we beat a Cork or Kerry club.”
And Kelly, who was top-scorer in the 1992 national league, reckons the lines of symmetry between his crew back in the early nineties and the current crop extends well beyond family ties – Martin Quinlivan, full-forward in 1990, is father to Michael, Willie Peters is father to Jamie and Ross, while Franny’s son Niall is among the subs and his nephew Ian Barnes is corner-forward.
Indeed, the latter two served as mascots during the two Munster final games of 1990, with a certain Colm Cooper taking up the role for Crokes.
“They have the same belief we have. They are winners true and true. We must remember that they have achieved All-Ireland underage success that we could never achieve.
“Clonmel has won the last six Tipperary U16 football titles and we’re going for six-in-a-row in the minor too. They have the backbone of success which is a massive thing.”
And what of tomorrow’s game in Cahir. Could he see action? “I’ll tog anyway. We’ll keep it going for as long as we can. You never retire up here.”
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