Like almost them all now, he’s back giving a hand, móling an óige, at times with the two Ógs.
For some time now Tom Kenny has quietly been helping out some old cause or another of his.
Back when he was still playing for Cork and all the madness that entailed on and off the field he still made the time in his modest, low-key way to coach the club’s U21s for a couple of seasons.
Home is still where his heart is: even with his coaching commitments having grown considerably, he’ll still give a dig out with the Grenagh U7s, he and Norleen having moved back to his home parish a few years ago and their eldest of two boys, Tomás, being already mad about almost every sport (“He even sat down to watch the whole of last year’s Ulster football final,” smiles Kenny, “something that was beyond me, and stuck with it and enjoyed it”).
A couple of years then after he finished up playing with Cork, his alma mater rang. He’s been coaching UCC freshers teams since.
And whenever Cork has called, he’s always answered. When Kevin O’Donovan asked him to help out with a few young development squads. When John Meyler in his final months as county senior manager felt the set-up could do with a bit of freshness and inspiration; while others wouldn’t have risked their first summer being the manager’s last, Kenny still obliged, for Cork.
When Dónal Óg Cusack was finally welcomed out of the cold and back into the Cork system as manager of the 2020 minors, and asked him to be a selector. And now, most recently, when Donal O’Mahony as Cork U20 manager asked to come on board as a selector and provide a link to that minor class of 2020.
In a way it’s no surprise they turned to Kenny, just like more and more teams from Cork and within Cork have tapped into the know-how of so many of his former teammates. They weren’t just any team. They were deep thinkers of the game. In a way they changed the game. And Kenny was literally central to that. With his athleticism and intelligence, attributes that saw him make his senior championship debut in 2003 for the county footballers as well as hurlers, he was made for the running-possession game that Donal O’Grady championed, helping them become the first post-war Munster team to reach four consecutive All-Ireland finals.
“Donal O’Grady at the time probably recognised either one of two things: that we were all supremely athletic, or at least that we were better athletes than hurlers, so we’ll just run with the ball when we can. The way in American football a team can become a running team, in a way so did we.
“There was never an out-and-out discussion that this was the way we were going to play, at least not collectively. It just happened organically on the training ground: If you’re in trouble, handpass the ball to someone in a better position. If you can move the ball quickly, move it quickly. If there’s space in front of you, run into it. There was never that big sitdown or Eureka moment: This is the way we’re going to play. It just seemed to evolve and everyone bought into it.
“Nowadays [a] possession [game] is the norm. In a way it’s almost like football; football seemed to develop quicker that way. You go to a game now, even at club level, and if someone plays the ball down the line and an opposing player gets it, you’ll hear people shouting, ‘Hold on to the ball!’ But, that said, you’ll have vice-versa! If someone holds on to the ball, you’ll still hear traditionalists, ‘Let it into the full forward line!’
“As a player though it’s very much a case of play it as you see it. And that’s how you’ve to approach it as a coach. You encourage players to play it as they see it. You can’t be overly-prescriptive. It’s very easy for me on the sideline to say ‘You should be going here’ when in a match it could be totally different. All you can do is give them tools and options they can use going onto the pitch.”
He's always tried to see things from the perspective of the player. You could argue that for possibly a time there a dozen or so years ago that outlook invited trouble for him and his teammates, but it’s one he’s maintained as a coach now himself. Put the player, indeed the person that is the player, first. It’s why he’s so suited to and so enjoys taking the first years in UCC.
“We generally don’t put any huge pressure on them in terms of the freshers All Ireland being the be-all-and-end-all. Obviously you’d love to win it but there’s a much broader aspect to it. You’re coming from just finishing secondary school so there’s a lot more onus on you in terms of your responsibilities and making your own way of life, so this is an avenue for you to socially meet other like-minded people.
“I always think of someone like Shane Conway coming up from Kerry, the way he’s flourished as a hurler and as a person. You see lads as first-years walking across the Mardyke on their own and then they get to know other lads and soon they’re best buddies and you’ll have a Galway lad and a Kerry lad and a Cork lad living in the same house.
“Equally you might never play hurling beyond freshers. You might decide that you’re going to enjoy the social life that can come with third-level and that’s fine too, but you’ll always have the knowledge and fallback that there is a GAA club for you in UCC.”
It’s quite the change from when Kenny himself was a fresher, way back at the turn of the millennium. These days you can’t play freshers and Fitzgibbon while, unless you’re a special case like Jack Cahalane, you’ll hardly play both football and hurling too. Kenny in his day played for all four teams: freshers hurling and football, and Sigerson and Fitzgibbon.
His fellow freshers coach, Seán Óg Ó hAilpín, was the same up in DCU. There’s still a certain lunacy to third-level GAA, highlighted by Tommy Conroy’s cruciate injury this week, with the national league — a championship in itself for most counties now — overlapping with the height of the third-level championships, but Kenny can see how it is better and how it can be even better for players.
“When I look back on it now it was madness, all the teams I played with in first year. Someone should probably have said to me, ‘Look, you’re just playing freshers hurling and football this year, worry about Fitzgibbon and Sigerson next year.’ And in fairness there is that greater awareness now throughout third-level and the GAA.
“But back then it was almost the exception to be already on a senior county panel whereas now a lot of lads are coming in as freshers and they’re already on a senior county panel or an extended panel. And by getting involved at such a young age, they’re nearly shortening their county career by missing out on a part of life.
“I remember when I was in UCC and being on a freshers team with the likes of Tommy Walsh, John Tennyson, Michael Rice, and Cha Fitzpatrick. The craic we had with those teams and after Fitzgibbon matches is something we’ll always cherish. Whereas now, I don’t know if they can have the same sense of fun. Yeah, their recovery is probably physiologically better, but in a way it’s a pity that they can become consumed with being on a senior inter-county panel and all that demands. I sometimes think it should nearly work the other way around: give them this [first] year to settle into college and grow as people and then bring them in [to a senior county panel].
“I’d often says to the lads if we’re training on a Monday night and then have a match on Thursday, ‘Look, I’m not going to say you have to mind yourselves between now and Thursday. If you want to have a night out, have a night out. If you want to chill out back at the house, chill out back at the house. Have that downside off the pitch and meet up during the day and get to know each other.’
“We don’t push gym sessions or nutrition with them in first year; there’ll be time enough for that. In a way it’s a bit like going back to the days where you have a training session and have your game and have a bit of fun.
Even in training, we’ll make sure there’s that fun element, maybe finishing with a shooting competition or even bringing out a rope and doing a bit of skipping.
“John Grainger [UCC GAA development officer] always reminds the lads that when you’re going to college you’ve to be mindful that ultimately you want to walk out of here in three or four years’ time with your degree in your hand. And likewise we’re mindful that hurling and sport is supposed to be a release for them and a break from the rigours of life before life becomes even more serious for them. Whatever level of hurling they go on to play afterwards — Fitzgibbon, with their club, county, or if they never play again — you want them to be able to look back and say they found hurling for us was an enjoyable year.”
He’s seen his share of players progress from fresher to elite senior county player: someone like Mark Coleman, for instance. He even worked with Coleman briefly with the Cork seniors when Kenny joined John Meyler’s coaching team in the summer of 2019. There’s an old dictum in coaching circles that you should try to ensure your first year isn’t the manager’s last as it could be yours too but Kenny refused to play the cute game.
“Fraggie [Kieran Murphy, a former teammate and a then Cork selector-coach] had been on to me a few times to give him a bit of a hand with the coaching and though the kids were very young I just felt I couldn’t keep saying no to him and John. And also I felt it wouldn’t be right to be critical of the players and the setup either in my seat or in the paper or on the radio when I’d been asked to contribute. So I felt it was better to go in and give it a go rather than sitting on the fence. And though it was short lived, I thoroughly enjoyed it.”
It wasn’t long though before he was asked to be part of another Cork setup. In early 2020, he was a selector to a Cork minor management led by Dónal Óg Cusack and also featured Seán Óg Ó hAilpín, his partner with so many recent UCC freshers teams.
A few years earlier such a ticket would have been unimaginable or at least unacceptable, to the powers-that-be. Cusack and Ó hAilpín would have been persona non grata in certain circles for their prominence with the GPA and the three strikes, and though Kenny would have been a less offensive figure, it would have been remembered by some how he’d have fronted up and done his bit of media obligations for the group during those awful winters.
But times had changed, not least with the emergence of Kevin O’Donovan. Within a year of Kenny’s last game for Cork — the 2013 All-Ireland final replay against Clare, a full 10 years on from him making his senior championship debut against the same county — Kevin O’Donovan, then a games development and coaching officer, asked him to help out with the odd development squad session. When O’Donovan ascended to being county CEO, he similarly felt it was time to live by the mantra of One Cork.
Was there a time Kenny thought they would never be asked to contribute to Cork setups? Possibly. Now though it would seem Cork is at peace with them, just as they seem more at peace with Cork.
“Back then [during the latter strikes] I wouldn’t have really been thinking of it like that. But then a few years after that it would sometimes come up in the back of your mind would we be wanted or not wanted and you’d kind of say, ‘Well maybe after all that went on someone else is a better fit for it at the moment.’
“But I think to be fair to Kevin O’Donovan, he came through the ranks, he was on the ground and he went about mending bridges and getting people involved: be it at U13 level for a few years and getting them on the ladder. And I think after a while people saw, ‘Look, in fairness, it’s not easy to get people wanting to help out and they’re prepared to help out.’ We weren’t trying to radicalise anyone! We were just lads who grew up loving the game and were ready to impart some of the knowledge we’d have learned to help kids enjoy and improve in the game.
“To me it’s about giving back. The game has given us so much, so we’re willing to get involved and help out along the way. It might not necessarily lead to any success but it’s about giving back to something that gave you so much.”
The year with Dónal Óg and the minor one had its challenges, not least because it coincided with Covid and culminated in a convincing loss to Limerick. But ask any of the players or their parents how they remember the experience and they’ll say it was a positive one that will serve them well for years to come.
That’s why Kenny has been asked on board by Donal O’Mahony with the U20s. It’s why Ó hAilpín, as charismatic and as passionate as ever Kenny can testify, still coaches and resonates with the freshers in UCC and the kids teams he takes in Na Piarsaigh.
They’re willing to contribute and people can see that and they have so much to contribute. Pat Mulcahy along with Sully are now in with Kieran Kingston and the seniors.
Wayne Sherlock was a selector with the victorious U20s. Niall McCarthy was a key figure in last year’s minor success, his insights about preparation and playing for such a special team helping in the development of potentially another one. Fergal Ryan coached Blackrock to several county finals and a county title. Ben O’Connor has proven himself to be one of the finest coaching minds in the county with how he led Charleville and then Midleton to county titles. Pat Ryan likewise with his success at All-Ireland level with the 20s and Munster success with the seniors. Ronan Curran has been over the Barrs. Dónal Óg is back in charge of the Cloyne seniors. Joe Deane is helping develop some nice underage teams and players down in Killeagh, including his own son.
They wouldn’t get to meet up much these days, and other former All-Ireland-winning teams would have more active Whats App groups, but Kenny finds they still share an unbreakable bond over what they went through and did together.
And they also have in common what they’re at now: fathers, coaches, sometimes crossing paths on the sidelines of the quiet fields.
Giving back, as Kenny might say, to a game that not only gave them so much as players but they gave so much to too.
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