Kirby: Lohan served perfect apprenticeship to be Clare boss

Once rivals on the field of play, Limerick's Gary Kirby saw Brian Lohan as the right man to manage Patrickswell

Sat, 30 Apr, 2022 - 07:26

Michael Moynihan

When Patrickswell looked to augment their management team a few years back, Gary Kirby was open to suggestions. The Limerick icon was steering the club senior side and looking for improvement.

But Brian Lohan? The Clare defender who was a rock so many Limerick attacks foundered upon in the nineties?

“I said why not,” says Kirby now. “That a bit of freshness might improve things for us.

“We went out to his house and met him, but there was no tension or anything like that. We might have been rivals on the field when we were playing but we always got on well off the field, there were no problems.

“As a player he would have been one of the better full-backs I came up against, without doubt. He was one of those players who — in many ways he reminded me of our own Leonard Enright here — once he got a ball and drove it up the field he lifted the crowd.

“Brian had that about him too — he’d bend down and gather the ball and drive it 70 or 80 yards down the field — but he was also a very good defender apart from that, very hard to get past.”

Lohan manages Clare tomorrow against Cork (Semple Stadium, 2pm), having served a searching apprenticeship. Kirby says his reputation as a player was the obvious starting point: “He had the respect from that. Patrickswell would be a club with a good hurling tradition, and the players wouldn’t be fooled by someone who didn’t know his business.

“It was probably a challenge for him coming in because Patrickswell isn’t a club that settles for second best. Coming in the way Brian did - you’re coaching very good players, intercounty players from a different county. Those lads are in with Limerick and have the best of the best in terms of facilities, resources and so on, so you're working in comparison with an inter-county set-up.

“I had the same experience myself when I was with Bruff, and it adds pressure. But Brian was very good, we got to a county semi-final while he was involved and though we lost there wasn’t much in it.

“He had the respect of the players, absolutely, and was very good dealing with them, very good at man-management.”

Lohan’s playing persona was that of a forbidding gatekeeper, but he learned other crucial management skills from Ger Loughnane, Clare boss in the nineties.

Years after he finished playing Lohan told the Sunday Independent: “He (Loughnane) used to do this thing after a game where he would come around to people and he would say well done and thank people for what they did for Clare and if you got a thank you from him it was nearly better than winning the bloody thing . . .”

Those lessons served Lohan particularly well in the next stage of his management career, at the University of Limerick. Kirby wasn’t far away.

“When Brian was over the Fitzgibbon team I was managing the Freshers.

“I saw his approach - he’s very well organised when it comes to his teams but he also has the ability to get through to different players, which is a big part of inter-county management.”

Managing a good Fitzgibbon team would “have to help in terms of getting someone ready for inter-county management,” says Kirby.

“If a manager isn’t doing it at club level even a club player won’t be long in letting him know. That’s a given. Inter-county is another level again, obviously, but when you’re dealing with a Fitzgibbon team you’re dealing with fellas from different counties, which complicates it even more.

“What that does show you is fellas’ attitude. That was something I certainly took on board from my experience — when I was over the Freshers in UL Padraig Walsh from Kilkenny was there, and his attitude showed you he was going to make it, his commitment, his willingness to work.

“I saw other good players and would think ‘he’ll be alright but he won’t be a top player’.”

Lohan’s players only had to see the manager’s attitude, which was never in doubt. In Hurling The Revolution Years by Denis Walsh, his Clare teammate Clare colleague Anthony Daly describes Lohan as being like an ‘antichrist’ in training; when Tipperary were awarded a hugely contentious penalty against his Clare side in last year’s championship Lohan didn’t mask his anger with the press afterwards.

(“Tell me, am I out of order here, what did ye see?” he said. “Everyone had a good view of it. It is so frustrating to have to deal with that.”)

Kirby points to the club and college preparation as being ideal for an inter-county boss.

“Between the two they’re a good help, particularly in that order, because you’re dealing with better and better players who are looking to improve all the time.

“They’re great preparation for intercounty management, and I’m sure they’ve stood to Brian since he took over as Clare boss.”