Around Nemo, they no longer refer to Robbie O'Dwyer as 'Micko's son'

O'Dwyer has learned that transition is not in the Nemo Rangers lexicon. 

Robbie O'Dwyer during the McCarthy Insurance Football League Division 1 final against Carrigaline. Picture: Jim Coughlan.

In the club of Billy Morgan, their flagship side is managed by the son of Mick O’Dwyer.

Now there's an unlikely sentence and unlikely happening.

Not so to those down around Trabeg. The footballing locals stopped referring to him as Micko’s son years ago. Robbie O’Dwyer has been part of the club long enough, helped out with enough teams, and helped to bring in a bit of silverware along the way to be his own man and stand on his own two feet.

There was no trading off a surname. Not in a club already packed with standout surnames. Doesn’t matter who you are, what you’ve done, or where you’ve come from. In Nemo, you put in the work and give back the same as everyone else.

Robbie, whose initial link to the famed Cork city club was to marry a sister of John Coogan’s wife, began with the juvenile section. Then he managed the club’s minors, and the U21s after that.

The list of current senior panelists who passed through his hands as teenagers and emerging adults is not a short one. There’s Mark Cronin, Eoin Nation, Barry Cripps, Brian Murphy, Luke Horgan, Ronan Dalton, Colm Kiely, Jack Coogan, Conor Shalloe, Shane O’Dwyer, and Andrew McGowan. And there’s probably one or two more unintentionally omitted.

There was also a stint coaching the seniors when they went all the way to the All-Ireland club final on St Patrick’s Day 2018.

And so when Paul O’Donovan called time on a six-season tenure as senior manager following last year’s county final defeat to Castlehaven, Robbie felt it was time to throw his hat into the ring for the main gig. He already knew the players and knew what he'd be getting into. But he didn’t know who he’d have to make do without.

Nemo Rangers manager Robbie O'Dwyer eyes the action on the pitch in Round 1 of the Cork  Premier SFC against Ballincollig. Pic: Larry Cummins

Ten months later and Nemo have, as expected, negotiated the group stages. They negotiated the early fences without Luke Connolly (retired), Kieran Histon (abroad), Barry O’Driscoll (injured), and Oran McElligott (moved back to Monaghan).

But it doesn’t matter who’s available or that two of the most reliable Nemo forwards of recent campaigns and beyond are not available, expectations remain the same. Talk of transition isn’t tolerated because transition isn’t part of the Nemo vernacular.

That is one fact of Nemo life O’Dwyer picked up from very early on in his association with the club.

“The fact that Nemo Rangers are who Nemo Rangers are, it is the next fella up for the jersey really,” O’Dwyer explains.

The team that overcame Newcestown in their final group outing two weeks ago showed six personnel changes from the side that fell to the Haven in the county final 11 months ago. There’s been enforced changes and there’s been the new management, which also features Jimmy Kerrigan, Dinny Allen, and Larry Kavanagh, wanting to put their stamp on the team.

“When you come into a job like this, there are expectations. From last year, fellas have moved on, retired, went abroad, lads transferred back to their home club. You are looking at the minors and U21s coming through and trying to get a bit of freshness to it.

“Luckily enough, there are players coming through. With the minors and U21s, you hope there are two or three that will be able to step up and carry that tradition forward.

“We were disappointed with how the league final went, but we were still introducing a couple of new players which was good. I am trying to change a little bit in how we play.

“We are doing enough to get to where we are at the moment. There is improvement there and hopefully they will improve. Hopefully that improvement will come Sunday.” 

Sunday is a second successive quarter-final against Clon at Bandon’s Charlie Hurley Park. Last year’s quarter-final was a 0-5 to 0-4 flood. This will be similarly close, if not similarly low-scoring.

We began with reference to Micko. We’ll finish with him too. What does the Nemo manager reckon he picked up from dad?

“He was always a players’ man. Just encouraging players and trying to get them to perform to the best of their ability. To be calm on the line, to assess things, and not do things in the spur of the moment. Think before acting.

“Players give you what they give you and you have to respect that. They don't go out to make mistakes or play badly. Just encourage them and try to get them to play football the way it should be played.” 

The latter point has never been an issue down around Robbie’s adopted football home.