Mick Galwey: 'If Ireland didn’t have GAA we would wipe the board with New Zealand every day'
Mick Galwey - pictured for Heartburn Awareness Week. ©INPHO/Morgan Treacy
Jack O’Shea could have been one of the world’s greatest rugby players, attests his former Kerry teammate, Mick Galwey.
Galwey, who won an All-Ireland with Kerry as well as earning 41 Ireland caps, has likened O’Shea, holder of seven All-Ireland medals, to renowned All Blacks number 8 Kieran Read, twice a World Cup winner.
And Galwey argues that Ireland would be a dominant force in international rugby, if so much talent wasn’t drawn instead to GAA.
Speaking on the podcast, Galwey said: “Jacko was called ‘the king’ in Kerry. He had an engine on him, he had everything. I look at Jack O’Shea and I compare him to someone like one of the great New Zealand wing forwards — he’d go on forever — Kieran Read or someone like that. Jacko had that temperament, that toughness about him, he had everything.
“You think of all the great Dubs, even the hurlers, the Kilkenny hurlers, all the Limerick, Cork lads. If Ireland was a rugby playing nation and we didn’t have GAA we would wipe the board with New Zealand every day. I have no doubt about that.”
Considering the rugby potential of other former Kerry stars, Galwey added: “Paul Galvin would have had the temperament and the toughness. It’s not really about the toughness, it’s about having the temperament.
“(Pat) Spillane would have been a great rugby player. Jimmy Deenihan, Ogie Moran, all these lads played a bit of rugby. The likes of Mikey Sheehy would have been a bit of a Rog, you’d have to mind him. But at the same time he’d kick all the important scores.
"The likes of Maurice Fitzgerald, my God, if you had them on a rugby pitch they’d be phenomenal.”
Having won his All-Ireland medal in 1986, Galwey combined both sports for several seasons before devoting himself to rugby.
“When I won the All-Ireland with Kerry I was still only 19 and I had got the grá for the rugby.
“And looking back, I wasn’t as thick as fellas thought I was, because Kerry didn't win another All-Ireland for 11 years. And I doubt if I’d have made any difference if I stuck with them. And by the time Kerry won their next All-Ireland I was a professional rugby player.
“I was still knocking around with Kerry, I played the odd league match and I played championship with Kerry in ‘89, captained Kerry.
“I’m not saying I turned my back on Kerry football, but I wanted to play for Munster, and that was back in the amateur days. It was a game that probably suited me. I was heading for 17 or 18 stones and apart from the Bomber maybe, there were no big lads that survived.
“I could see myself progressing every time I played it. From ‘85, the first time I caught a rugby ball to ‘91 when I first played for Ireland, it was an amazing six years.
“The great thing about rugby, you always learn something about yourself. It intrigued me and I just loved it.”
Eventually combining both sports became more difficult.
“I could train with Kerry on Monday and they would be running around the pitch trying to knock the weight off you, and then go down to Shannon on a Tuesday and they are trying to bulk you up. Weights and God knows what. My body didn’t know what was happening, I just kept going.”
Galwey won six AIL titles with Shannon, to add to his football All-Ireland, before earning a professional contract with Munster.
“I was lucky to be around at the height of club rugby. That was back in the day when the AIL was massive. Playing for Munster there could be 300 people there, when Shannon played Young Munster or Garryowen in Limerick, there could be 15,000 at it.
“I was nearly 30 when I became a professional sportsperson. Myself and Claw (Peter Clohessy), saw the game was going professional and we got another seven years out of it. They were seven one-year contracts, mind you, to keep us on our toes.
“I often see lads now getting three-year contracts. If I got a three-year contract back in the day, I'd have thrown in the towel. You were playing for your livelihood.”
His long international career wasn’t without controversy, being continually dropped and recalled to Ireland sides. Exclusion from Ireland’s 1995 World Cup squad was the low point, an omission he found out about on Teletext.
“I still to this day wonder. In ‘93 I was good enough to be picked for the Lions. In ‘94 Shannon won the AIL, Munster won the interpros. I could honestly say I was never playing better. To be dropped for the ‘95 World Cup was one of the hardest things to take.
“It’s something I look back and think what did I do wrong there. From ‘95 to 2000, I didn't get a start in the Six Nations, from 2000 to 2002 I got 20 odd more caps.
“There was a few didn’t like me. Maybe it was a Shannon thing, maybe it was a Munster thing, but certainly I can look back and say, hand on heart, I was never playing better. I was made captain of ireland seven years later when I wasn’t half the player.”
On his Ireland recall against Scotland in 2000, Galwey was famously pictured with his arms around debutants Peter Stringer and Ronan O’Gara.
“I can look back on that and say it was my contribution. I was able to talk to the boys and tell him they were good enough to do this.
“I looked around and one side was Stringer, one side was O’Gara. I’d have been used to holding onto Claw and maybe Woody (Keith Wood), being aggressive and it dawned on me, maybe, ‘I have to look after these lads’. Maybe there was a bit of nervousness in them.
“It was a nature thing. I remember the same day, that was their first cap, I’d got my first start in five years. I was thinking to myself, don’t fuck up this time, because you won’t get another chance. And thankfully it worked out good.”
Galwey captained Munster in two Heineken Cup final defeats, to Northampton in 2000 and Leicester in 2002 – the latter infamous for Neil Back’s sleight of hand at a Munster scrum in the final moments.
However, he now admits he's angrier over Back's apology than the act itself.
“We’ve all done it. If it were one of our lads, we’d be patting him on the back.
“I remember it came out in the papers, he said he did what he had to do for his team and that’s fair enough. But, what annoyed me about Neil Back was – and this is being straight up – four months later he apologised about it.
“It was like turning the knife, it really stuck the dagger in. I know he was twisting it, and that’s what upset me more.
“I remember coming home after 2002, I threw my bag in the hall and it was there for two months.
“Eventually I had to pick it up because there was a smell coming out of it. I didn’t even want to wash my gear.
“I did meet him (Back) afterwards at some old function in Dublin. I’ve been great friends with him. But, if I saw him now, I’d say hello to him – that would be about it.
“To come around four months later and apologise, that to me was the worst! That’s what got me. But, as for the act itself, we’ll get over it.”
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