Darragh O’Donovan: Derek McGrath hasn't brought this Inter-county mantra nonsense to Doon

AGONY: Darragh O'Donovan in action for Doon. Pic: Tom Beary/Sportsfile

Limerick midfielder Darragh O’Donovan has credited his Doon manager Derek McGrath for not foistering inter-county standards on the club team.

The former Waterford manager guided Doon to their first ever senior championship title last year and they will look to defend the John Daly Cup when they again meet Na Piarsaigh in the final in TUS Gaelic Grounds on Sunday week.

O’Donovan reveals part of McGrath’s winning formula is recognising he’s managing and coaching a club.

“I love going down to the field to have the craic with these lads. You don't feel that it’s just pressure every night to train and be looking after yourself and all that side of it. You can relax and enjoy it and have a bit of a laugh.

“Derek is great to mix that too as well. He hasn't come in and brought this Inter-county mantra and this nonsense that I see that has gone on previously in our club and probably goes on in other clubs around the country. It's absolute nonsense.

“We enjoy ourselves, we train hard when we have to train, we have fun when we have to have fun and we're developing. We're in the junior final, we won the minor championship, so it's about developing more players, flooding in younger players.”

Defending a title carries obvious expectations but Adam English and Eddie Stokes had some downtime before they knuckled down to championship action. Those breaks were important refreshers, says O’Donovan.

“We're probably trying to get a bit of balance back into ourselves. Adam and Eddie went away and enjoyed themselves for a couple of weeks in America, Pat Ryan was there for two, three weeks playing as well.

“A couple of lads are coming off the back of injuries. We've footballed as a balance too as well. We've three or four lads playing football. They're still in the mix in the championship (Oola play Rathkeale this Saturday).”

The 30-year-old is getting a kick out of playing with returning team-mates and those going into old positions this year.

“Some of my best friends, playing with them, playing since we were U8 with Brother [James] Dormer.

“Dean Coleman is back this year from Australia, he was gone for a year, missed out on his win in the championship last year. He is back, it was a new lease of life. Dino was probably our number one forward for so long until Adam came along.

“Staple [Darragh Stapleton] has gone back into goals this year. That's where he played all the way up along, he was an Inter-county goalie up until 2015. He was probably the second-best goalie in Limerick and then decided he wanted to come out to the field. He was unbelievable there (v Ballybrown). His puck-outs, they were savage.

“It's great to be a part of this club. We're a rural club between Oola and Doon, there are 800-900 people between the two parishes. We all get along, we all enjoy it and I love the club, I absolutely love it.” 

After losing last year’s final to Doon, Na Piarsaigh should be the hungrier team on October 19 but O’Donovan frames it differently.

“There should be no question of hunger in our dressing room either. We’ve only won one championship, Na Piarsaigh have any amount, Munster clubs and an All-Ireland club.

“We're striving to get to a level where we can be consistently every year getting to finals, semi-finals and performing in those. We know what's ahead of us in two weeks's time. It's a Na Piarsaigh team that's going to have a full bill of health and they're going to be absolutely coming for this.

“There's going to be talk of revenge and whatnot in their dressing room, but they are a real professional outfit managed by Shane O'Neill, a real professional guy. We know we will need to go out and perform.”