Glenn Ryan: Hard work, fun and achievement - why we'll always remember Micko in Kildare

He might have reached greater heights with the Kingdom but when he came to Kildare we were on our knees - and it was some adventure.

THE MISSION: Kildare manager Mick O'Dwyer with team captain Glenn Ryan at a Kildare senior football squad training session at St Conleth's Park in Newbridge. Pic: David Maher/Sportsfile

I have heard people say Micko was an out-and-out football man and nothing else mattered to him. That all he was interested in was what could you give him.

I can categorically say that wasn’t the case. In 2002, Kildare were down on a training camp in Waterville. I was 29 at the time and my ankle injury just wasn’t improving. Halfway through the session, I had to come off the field. I went up to the far end of the field, waited until everybody drove away afterwards and bawled my eyes out.

As far as I knew, that was the end of Kildare for me. I was going to get my gear and head on up the road. Just as I was limping away, Micko appeared from a little tunnel and said, “What’s wrong with ya?” I said, “Micko, I’m fucked. I’m finished.” He came back, “You’re not finished. We’ve a lot to get out of you yet. I’m telling you, you’re going to play a big part for us.” I nodded my head and told him what he wanted to hear but I was still intending on heading home. I was packing my bag in the room when he came in and said, “I told you, you’re not going anywhere.” That was his intuition. Based on that conversation, I got another few years out of playing for Kildare and after he had gone to Laois. He didn’t want to lose me and he made me feel that way.

Any time you got to see Micko or speak to him, it was an honour. You always felt like you were fortunate to be in his presence. When I was made Kildare manager in 2021, the few of us who were in the management team that played under him went down to see him. We had a great chat and some of us were down again with him recently and it meant a lot to us.

From the first night I saw him walking into a dressing room, I was sold on Micko. That moment is one that will forever stick with me. They talk about people having an aura – Micko’s presence filled the room. My jaw nearly hit the floor, just to see a man of such legendary status.

I had only got the call to go in for a trial the night before. It would have been 1990 and I was a minor. Micko was good friends with the chairman in my club Round Towers, Mick Leavy. I think he spoke to Mick about me not being in for a trial and Mick said, "He’s only 17," to which Micko said as he has done so very often, "Bring him in, bring him in."

The stories about the slogging in The Curragh are famous but we used to train in Clane at one stage, a small pitch and there were hardly lights on it. There were lads jumping in the ditch beside it as we were doing laps and shouting out how many more were left.

Rather than weeding people out, he was trying to find the people that he needed. He wanted the men who were ready to do what had to be done. There were plenty of fellas who tried and failed for one reason or another. Some of their bodies just gave up but if you put the work in, the rewards were massive. You knew you were going to be a better footballer but also a better man for being involved with Micko.

He ran a serious show but there was always a great sense of fun about it. If there was a bit of messing or craic, Micko wanted to be part of it. You knew you couldn’t cross him but he always wanted a laugh. Behind that roguish smile, there was always some divilment.

If I was to distinguish Micko’s second spell in charge of Kildare to the first, I’d say it was our maturity. When Micko came initially, he had a core of players who had been committed to Kildare through the barren years – the likes of John Crofton, Paddy O’Donoghue, Sos Dowling, Davy Dalton. They were still prepared to do the hard work after so many years without success. Otherwise, we were a bunch of kids. We got to a league final with Micko in ’91. I was playing in it, Martin Lynch was 19, Jarlath Gilroy, Anthony Rainbow, Ronan Quinn, Brian Fahy. All young fellas.

There was no such thing as strength and conditioning back then to bring lads up to a physical advantage. You just had to allow for age and maturity to bring you to that level. We were playing Dublin at the time and they were a hardened team and it was men against boys in many ways but by the time Micko returned we were men. I don’t think we were any hungrier in the latter 1990s, I don’t think we trained any harder, I think the bulk of that team had grown and matured and were at a stage where we more than hoped we could win and in 1998 we won Leinster.

Micko achieved greater things with Kerry than with us but there was an expectation in Kerry. When he came to Kildare, we hadn’t been in a Leinster final since 1978 and within two years of him being there we were back in one. He was coming into a county on its knees and he got great satisfaction from his success in Kildare particularly with his son, Karl being involved as well.

I really felt he got enjoyment out of Kildare more than it just being a sense of achievement. Karl proved a lot of people wrong in Kerry with the football that he played, the footballer he became and Micko got a kick out of that. The people of Kildare took Micko into their hearts as well. I’m sure they did in Laois and Wicklow too but he seemed to have a great affinity with Kildare people and that added to the thing.

There probably was some eyebrows raised when the likes of Karl, Brian Lacey from Tipp and Brian Murphy from Cork played for us but for Micko it didn’t matter if you were from Round Towers or Bishopstown or Waterville. If you worked hard and committed, you were golden.

Micko never made it about himself and certainly not when we beat Kerry in the 1998 All-Ireland semi-final. It was never him versus Páidí. It was like any other game and he had a great ability to make the next game no different to the last one. He’d have you brimming with confidence and in no doubt you were ready. It was no different an occasion and he made you believe all you had to do was play the game in front of you.

There are still regrets about losing to Galway in the All-Ireland final and there’s no point in saying any differently. But it was certainly worth the journey to be involved with Micko to get to that stage. The regret of losing an All-Ireland final is balanced by the time we spent together and the appreciation for football Micko brought to us. We were exposed to so much greatness along that way.