Micheál Aodh Martin: Nemo Rangers using Slaughtneil reference point for 'strange' build-up

Martin has overcome a knock in the Munster final on Cork duty earlier in the summer to be fit for the 2020 Cork Premier SFC final against Castlehaven

Micheál Aodh Martin: Now fully fit after Munster final knock. Picture: INPHO/Bryan Keane

Starting your season with a final from the previous season? The pandemic has messed with a lot of verities, and fixtures scheduling is one.

Nemo Rangers captain Micheál Aodh Martin acknowledges the strangeness of playing the 2020 county final against Castlehaven this Sunday just six days before they begin their 2021 campaign.

First things first. Sunday’s county final comes 11 months after the semi-finals...

“What we’re using as a reference point as much as we can is the Slaughtneil game a couple of years ago after we played a Munster club final in November.

“We had a down period and then you got back up for the semi-final in February — the old calendar — so there was a 10-week build-up.

“That’s what we’ve tried to use as a reference point. We played league games without Cork players but it was a slow build-up, then into a different gear about six weeks ago with training.

“It’s very strange, no doubt about it.”

Are they at the right level now?

“Hopefully, but you never know. I’ve thought that going into games before — 2018 was another year I thought we were going really well — but you never know until the day.

“Everyone’s fit, which is the main thing — there’s not much of an injury list, and any time you have that going into a game you have to be happy.”

Martin himself overcame a knock in the Munster final on Cork duty earlier in the summer.

“I got a shoulder after five minutes, maybe, and I knew I was in trouble. I didn’t have to do much else than pick the ball out of the net, unfortunately, but I gave two handpasses during the first half and knew I was in trouble.

“(It happened) early, getting up after a save. That was it, really. A minute and a half later it started to come at me, but I’m 100% now.”

He tried to use the lockdown to sharpen up on some aspects of his play rather than switching off for months at a time: “I would have done the opposite and said, ‘there’s a spell here where we won’t be doing anything’, so I took a totally individual approach. I got on to a few coaches and asked them what they thought I should work on, and worked off that.

“Kick-outs, trying to improve my left off the hand and off the tee — zoning in on things like that, specific skills. That kept me going.

“There are four of us living together in a house, one was injured but three of the four of us had a routine where we trained every Tuesday and Sunday in Tramore Valley (Park).

“I enjoyed that, away from the pressure of high-intensity training with Cork or Nemo, getting the chance to work on skills is rare, and I enjoyed the couple of months for that reason.

“I got onto the S&C guys with Cork to see if there was anything else I could be doing, small extra things, for those skills. I’m lucky to have those resources available to me.”

He also looked to soccer keepers for hints: “I’d follow technical things in soccer, even though it’s a very different sport — how the different types of keepers have changed because it’s all about distribution now in soccer.

“It’s similar in football, though I made that transition at an awkward time, I was a minor when Stephen Cluxton started to go to that different level around 2012 — now you see U14 keepers and they’re all working on those kick-outs first, whereas when I came in I’d built in a lot of habits from underage.

“At this point there mightn’t be that massive gap between other top keepers and Cluxton, but he was the one that changed the game. You have to credit him for that, that he was the one who changed the game.

“But I’d follow those soccer keepers very closely, the top guys’ technical stuff like one-on-ones, I find that fascinating.”

Castlehaven will ask serious questions. He knows their forwards well from county training sessions.

“I train with Brian and Michael (Hurley) with Cork, they know me and I know them.

“But top guys adjust. The reality is they have the ability to change in a split-second and I have to be able to do the same. Those top guys have the ability to change.”

The trainee accountant doesn’t think Páirc Uí Chaoimh will be a factor this weekend, though he hopes his side will do a better job of closing out the game if they get the chance.

“It is what it is (venue) for both teams. We both like to play football, the forwards on the Castlehaven team, their names jump off the sheet, and we like to think our forwards are strong as well.

“We won there in 2017 in a high-scoring replay with the Barrs, but the previous week it was a low-scoring draw.

“We had strong leads in our last two games and took our foot off the gas, probably. You’d like to think if we’re in a similar situation we’ll do a better job of closing it out, but it’s something to draw on.

“For most of us this is not our first county final, which is great.”