Jimmy Meagher: Tackling both sides of a rivalry without borders

Jimmy Meagher worked for the Clare County Board as a Games Promotion Officer in 2018 and 2019 and worked with the county's minors, before returning to his native Kilkenny

Jimmy Meagher at Kilkenny Castle, Kilkenny City. Picture: Patrick Browne

Kilkenny is not such a long way, even by Irish standards, from Clare.

Around 80 miles lie between Freshford and Bunratty. More of a hop than a jump. Yet the two counties, both as a hurling culture and as a place, stand removed. The lack of edge to this evening’s All-Ireland semi-final comes in part because of a distance more psychological than actual. Some rivalries, due to geography, can never find the whetstone of a border.

You could likewise note no sudden death encounter since 2006. Ditto for a mere seven championship contests in total over the decades. Regularity of meeting never became a pressure point.

Jimmy Meagher intimately knows the road involved, the counties involved. The Freshford Parish native worked for the Clare County Board as a Games Promotion Officer in 2018 and 2019. The latter year saw him train the Clare Minor panel.

“I really couldn’t say enough about the county,” he stresses. “Clare hurling people are some of the very best people I have ever met in the game. I’m not saying that to be nice. Nowhere is more in love with hurling than East Clare. There are places equally in love, but nowhere more so.” 

Meagher elaborates: “Personal circumstances had me living around the Cork-Limerick border. So I went working with the Clare County Board for two years. The experience will always be massive for me.

“Came home to Kilkenny in 2019. Richie Mulrooney asked me to come in and train the county Minors for him. So I did that for 2020 and 2021. Richie, as a manager, is top class.” 

He speaks with the same positivity about an equivalent Banner figure: “Fergie Lynch was the Clare Minor manager when I was there for the year. Another top class individual, meticulous out. The whole set up was excellent. Limerick beat us in the Munster Final, and we didn’t get through the subsequent round robin to make an All Ireland semi-final.

“We were probably a touch unlucky. But it’s brilliant to see Shane Meehan and Mark Rodgers featuring with the Clare Seniors. We had them, and they were wonderful young fellas to work with. We also had Cian Galvin, who would probably be featuring as well st Senior only for he is injured.”

Meagher found a double perspective: “Fergie was keen to expose their young fellas to different ways of hurling, different approaches. We ended up going in 2019 with Cian as a seventh defender. Early on, we played a challenge with Kilkenny in Nowlan Park and conceded seven goals. We sat down and discussed what we could do about opposition pouring down the middle.

“You have to be pragmatic about what works best for a specific group. You can’t be rigid. Playing Cian as a sweeper didn’t sit well in some quarters. But we felt it got more out of that group, and we didn’t concede too many goals after that decision.” 

This native underlines progress at juvenile level in his home county: “I looked in on a few development squad sessions in Dunmore over the last while. A lot of important work is now getting done. I see coaches showing young players how to take on a packed defence, how to create space, see them working on puckouts.

“Maybe there was a gap in Kilkenny with Clare and a few other counties. But that gap is closing, and I think will be closed. The recent U20 All-Ireland win, under Derek Lyng, gave everyone a huge lift. Derek wasn’t afraid to innovate. You also have a Review Committee, with Ned Quinn and Michael Dempsey on it, that is going to look into hurling at every single level in the county. That’s a great move.” 

Born in 1983, Jimmy Meagher attended Coláiste Mhuire, Johnstown. He progressed to a diploma in Business, Sport and Recreational Management at WIT. His coaching journey had begun. For this season, he is joint trainer with Niall Lacey of Ballyhale Shamrocks’ Senior panel under the management of Pat Hoban.

Meagher’s temperament remains a major asset. Naturally affable and a fluent communicator, he stays popular with players with whom he works. But he insists on ordinariness: “I would have grown up, like any youngster in the county, with a love of hurling. Really enjoyed going to matches and watching matches, really enjoyed hearing all the stories of what it was like back in the Forties and Fifties, when my grandfather was hurling.” 

That grandfather was John Meagher, who hurled at centre back for Kilkenny when they lost 1945’s Senior Final to Tipperary. Various influences gathered for the grandson. “My father is from the town, an O’Loughlin Gaels man,” he notes. “My mother is from Freshford, which is how they came to settle there. I am very proud of my club, St Lachtain’s.” 

This factor tightened the weave. Jimmy Meagher was 15 when Michael Kavanagh began hurling with Kilkenny in 1998. His clubmate counted as a prodigy, accomplished enough at 19 to hurl in that season’s Senior Final loss to Offaly.

“Michael would be a big friend of mine,” Meagher relates. “He showed us all in the club what it took. Michael bought into every aspect of hurling for Kilkenny. If you could watch a player going through his career in exactly the right way, you’d be watching Michael Kavanagh. He was so committed, focused, dedicated.

“Michael was one of the best hurlers in Ireland for years. But you realised that even if you weren’t personally one of the best hurlers, like me, you could still apply yourself. If you did, you would get a chance with coaching, if you could get your ideals and methods across to players. Dedication gives you a chance.” 

Jimmy Meagher won an U21 All Ireland medal in 2004 as part of the extended panel when Kilkenny beat Tipperary. A crucial swerve arrived after college. As Meagher glosses: “I was just in pure luck. [Seán] ‘Georgie’ Leahy had stepped down as Coaching and Games Promotion Officer for South Kilkenny, and the County Board were looking for a replacement. I started the dream job for me in 2005.

“I worked at a time in Kilkenny, from 2005 to 2017, when an unbelievable amount of All-Ireland titles were won. I worked at a time when hurling in the county went to an unprecedented height. Wasn’t I incredibly fortunate to be working where I was at that time?” 

Meagher set about assembling a serious portfolio. He began with the Kilkenny Intermediates in 2007, which initiated a close relationship with Pat Hoban. He moved to the U21s under Michael Walsh’s management for 2008 and 2009. “We won the All Ireland against Tipperary the first year,” he recalls. “But lost the second year to Clare in the All-Ireland Final. 15 points to 14…” 

A formative experience? Being on the hurls for the Kilkenny Senior team during 2005: “You’re in the dressing room, taking in everything, soaking in everything. You’re learning all the time. It was watching how players applied themselves the day of a game. On the bus, in the dressing room.

“You were taking in a lesson: ‘This is what your team needs to be like when you train a team.’ No better man than Brian Cody to set the standards required.” 

A serious portfolio. WIT’s camogie players got led to three in a row Ashbourne Cup success between 2009 and 2011. St Lachtain’s were trained to win a Club Intermediate All Ireland in 2010. Meagher trained Kilkenny’s Minors between 2013 and 2015, with an All-Ireland landed against Limerick in the middle season.

His enthusiasm never waned: “I absolutely loved all the schools in South Kilkenny. Going from Ballyfacey over to Templeorum. There were areas in South Kilkenny that I didn’t know, as a North Kilkenny man, even existed! They were so welcoming, and the same with the clubs. If I run into the youngsters I coached, starting off, we always stop and have a chat.” 

He continues: “I am working with Mooncoin at the moment as a Games Promotion Officer. I give a hand with underage down there and in the primary schools. If I was to look at the model, the club GPO model, I would say: one hundred per cent it works in the primary schools. It definitely does.

“Where you could see potential difficulties with the GPO role is within a club. Am I there to coach the coaches? Or am I there to take a specific session with a panel? I’ve said this from the outset with every coach I met within any club: ‘I’m not here to tell you what to do. And I’m not here to tell you how to coach.’ 

“It’s very hard to go in and say: ‘You’re not doing this right. You’re not doing that right.’ I am just there, as a coach, to promote hurling at all levels throughout a club.” 

Today’s clash? Meagher holds optimistic: “I feel Kilkenny will win, but it will be a mighty challenge. You know what you will always get with a Brian Cody team, a Brian Lohan team. There will be all-out effort from every player. They will die, Kilkenny and Clare, with their boots on.

“So it should come down, as a contest, to specific match-ups and possession off puckouts, and to how Kilkenny react to Clare rejigging during the game. Kilkenny need to be ready for Clare changing their approach as the stages unfold.

“But I think we’re going to see an absolute belter of a game.”