Johnny Kelly: Borris here on merit, this isn’t bonus territory

Strange though it may seem, particularly when you consider he is an All-Ireland winning club manager, Johnny Kelly has never guided a club team to senior provincial glory.

Kelly’s CV, built up over the past decade and a half through his association with an array of teams in Galway, Offaly, and Tipperary, is most impressive and one that not too many can rival where the club scene is concerned. Yes, he’s been around, but success does tend to follow him wherever he goes.

The Portumna native first made a name for himself when part of Jimmy Heverin’s backroom team that delivered the East Galway club All-Ireland glory in 2006 and 2008. He stepped up to the post of manager following the latter of these wins, spearheading Portumna’s successful defence of the Tommy Moore Cup in 2009.

Since then, he’s coached Kiladangan to the North Tipperary title in 2013, while in a busy 2015, he was manager of the Coolderry side that won the Offaly SHC, a selector with the All-Ireland winning Galway intermediate hurlers, and coach of the Abbeyknockmoy team that annexed Galway and Connacht intermediate hurling titles.

That the Connacht senior club hurling championship had been discontinued by the time he took on the role of Portumna manager in late spring of 2008 — the last Connacht final was 2007 — means Kelly, despite all his success, has never managed a team to provincial senior glory. Of course, he has the opportunity to correct this minor anomaly on Sunday, his Borris-Ileigh side bidding to deny Ballygunner back-to-back Munster crowns.

Kelly has a fine bank of memories from the many final-winning afternoons he has overseen and the hope is to add to that this weekend.

“Winning those All-Irelands with Portumna were very special. We had a very special bunch of players in the club at that time, reaching seven Galway finals in a row,” Kelly recalled.

“I have had special times in Coolderry and Borris-Ileigh, as well, not forgetting Abbeyknockmoy. They are all special, really. The whole community spirit of Portumna stands out for me.”

That same community spirit, he added, has been central in Borris-Ileigh ending the club’s 33-year wait for county honours and moving within one hour of a first provincial title since that same 1986 season.

“Borris-Ileigh is a small, tight-knit rural community, where they live and breed hurling. The player numbers are tight, but there are so many volunteers down there and they work so hard, it is incredible.

“They all really get on with each other. There is a great sense of community, spirit, and camaraderie in Borris-Ileigh. It is an entire community that is driving this on, at the centre of which is a real community spirit.

“There is no better place to be than to be working with people who enjoy the game. That is the key to success: once people are enjoying it, a group of men are enjoying the game, it is easy to be involved.”

Thurles Sarsfields remain the sole Tipperary side to have enjoyed provincial club hurling glory this decade, their Munster final win arriving back in 2012. Kelly has his own theory as to why Tipperary’s senior champions have time and again failed to push on after winning the county.

“Tipperary clubs would probably be disappointed [with their Munster record in recent years], but, then again, the Tipperary championship is quite long and by the time you get to a Munster championship, it does take a bit of time to reset.

“In fairness to the county board, they had a tight window to run off the county championship this year following Tipperary’s All-Ireland final wins, and it was quite demanding, every team played four or five weekends on the trot. It was quite arduous, but we are grateful that we came out on top. I think we’ve managed it pretty well [in terms of being as fresh as we can be for this weekend]. We’ve got the breaks at the right time, we needed the two-week break after the Munster semi-final win over Glen Rovers.

“We are in the final on merit and we don’t see it as bonus territory. We are up against it, but we are not without hope either. We are hoping we will get a good performance out of the lads.”