Michael Quinlivan: Buzz was great after Nemo Rangers win

Fame wasn’t something Michael Quinlivan was all too familiar with even around his native Clonmel. That was until November 29 last when his last-gasp goal torpedoed Nemo Rangers and annexed a Munster Club SFC title for Commercials.

“People stopping you in the street, people coming up to you, that sort of stuff doesn’t happen to footballers, especially in Tipperary let alone in Clonmel,”he says.

“That doesn’t happen. The buzz around the place for two or three days was incredible. There were cameras down, the place was just hopping and everybody wanted to be a part of it.

“Hopefully, in maybe 10 years’ time, a little lad who is six or seven will look at that and think ‘I want to play football now’ instead of something else. That might be the legacy of what we’ve done hopefully.

“That’s the way I’d like to look at it.”

As for that defeat-defying goal in the second and final minute of additional time against the kingpins of club football, Quinlivan’s real time recollection of it isn’t the same as when he looked back on it afterwards.

“I don’t really remember what happened after the goal — I’ve seen a lot of pictures of me with a big stupid head on me! The goal seems a lot quicker to me in my head than it does when I watch it again on the telly, which is strange.

“A lot of people say it’s the other way around. Then sure it was just mayhem. The place went haywire.”

Given the majority of the team had played soccer at some stage or another, it was appropriate Quinlivan should have remembered some sagely advice from his Clonmel Town days as he was about to pull the trigger with his weaker left leg — “keep it on the ground, keep it low, ‘keeper won’t get down to it — that’s the motto”.

Soccer has played a fundamental part in Commercials’ success with former Finn Harps and Sligo Rovers’ Charlie McGeever having guided them to this stage while leading Tipperary’s minor footballers to last year’s All-Ireland final. Quinlivan is well acquainted with the Donegal man as a mentor.

“His son, Cathal, is my age and he’s involved as well so I would have known Charlie. Growing up, I was predominantly a soccer player and he was in charge of Clonmel Town at the time so I would have come across him now and again.

“Obviously, I got to know him properly the last five or six years when he started to get involved with the under-age teams coming through so he has been involved with 90% of players we’ve brought into that senior team. A lot of lads my age, he’d have been responsible for bringing them through.”

Quinlivan is still in communication with his former club-mate and fellow 2011 All-Ireland minor winning colleague Colman Kennedy who, with Killenaule’s Greg Kennedy, is studying and playing soccer in Philadelphia’s La Salle University.

“I saw him a couple of times over Christmas. He’s been a massive loss to us. Jack, his brother, has been super for us. He might come back to us at some stage and if he did, we’d welcome him back with open arms.”

For now, Quinlivan is only concerned with who is available to Commercials as they vie with Ballyboden for a trip to Croke Park on St Patrick’s Day. They are no longer an unknown entity, he concedes.

“I don’t think there is any hiding place now anyway anymore. We announced ourselves at this stage having beaten Nemo and gone away to London and done that as well. We play a style of football that is our own, it’s actually pretty similar to Nemo’s and a lot of people saw that in the game. We’ll try and impose that on Ballyboden and whether or not that works we’ll see and try and nullify them as well.”