Frankie Sheahan: Gaillimh set the bar for the dressing room speech

He's now seeking inspirational words for his Pendulum Summits, but Frankie Sheahan can recall plenty of powerful speeches from his days in the Munster dressing room.

Fri, 08 Apr, 2022 - 22:58

Simon Lewis

Just as in years gone by, this is a busy time of year for Frankie Sheahan. When once that would have meant the Munster front row targeting another trophy bid, now the former Ireland hooker is putting the finishing touches to the return of a post-lockdown, in-person Pendulum Summit at the RDS later this month.

From listening to inspirational leaders in dressing rooms as Munster developed into Heineken Cup heavyweights to booking similarly strong and effective voices to address what is now styled as the “World’s No.1 Leadership and Empowerment Summit”, Sheahan has always been willing to lend an ear to anyone who can help him realise his potential. And what he looks for now in booking luminaries for the 2021 Pendulum Summit on April 26-27 is very similar to the speakers that inspired him to thrive on Munster’s journey to the European summit.

What will now be Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and leading motivational speaker Les Brown, or Susan Hechter, Steve Redgrave and Ranulph Fiennes addressing industry leaders from every sector of business, was once Mick Gawley and Paul O’Connell delivering concise, powerful and extremely effective messages in meeting rooms and under packed grandstands.

“It’s not an exact science but we’re trying to push people to firstly not hear from average speakers because time is the scarcest resource of all,” Sheahan told the Irish Examiner. “It’s a case of getting busy people in and getting the most impact from their time in the room by hearing from the best speakers delivering their best bits in a very short amount of time.

“There are no two-hour speeches, just 40 minutes, let’s go, bang!

“I grew up with Mick Galwey as captain and he really set the bar for outstanding dressing-room presentations. That’s not to take from anybody who came after him but he had an incredible passion for finding any sort of an angle or opportunity to maximise the motivation out of anyone in the room.

“He was great, very articulate and very well able to build the passion. It could be what might be perceived as a Mickey Mouse match but Christ, he’d have a tear in his eye as he spoke. So looking back, he set the bar.

“So there was Gaillimh, and Claw (Peter Clohessy) was there, a fantastic leader in his own way as well. He might not have been THE person in the dressing room for the speeches but he would go out and there was nothing, absolutely nothing that the Claw would fear. And then you had Axel (Anthony Foley) at No.8 and a bit younger than them but they gave a serious backbone of experience and the rest of the team kind of filled in around it.

“There was never ever a day when you were fearing anything with characters around like that… I certainly think Paul O’Connell then took that baton and moved it on. Paul was outstanding in the dressing room as well, there’s no doubt about that. In fairness, those two were pretty exceptional.”

Sheahan is also looking forward to what Shaun Edwards, the former Wales and current France defence coach, will bring to the table at Pendulum, fresh from becoming the first person to win two Grand Slams with different countries.

“We’ve had a great chat and he has shared what he’s going to be talking about, ‘being the best you’. What an amazing guy, adapting to different cultures, he went to France and learned the language, making sure to give his first speech in French. He said it was all about how do you have the greatest impact in the shortest period of time.

“I have to give credit to Paul O’Connell, who spoke at Pendulum and rang me after and said a guy he was really impressed with and admired was Shaun Edwards and we should get him. So I chased Shaun up on the back of that. If it’s Paul O’Connell recommending someone I can’t ignore that.”

One of Sheahan’s great memories in a Munster shirt also involved O’Connell one one of his favourite away days in England, when vengeance was gained on Leicester for their 2002 final victory by beating them at Welford Road in the following season’s quarter-final.

Graham Rowntree, Sheahan’s old front-row adversary from that 2002 final is now offering much-needed continuity to next season from a Munster coaching ticket that will otherwise depart this summer. Sheahan believes the former England and Lions assistant coach, who now covets a promotion from forwards to head coach as Johann van Graan’s replacement, could do worse than surround himself with homegrown coaching talent.

“Graham was a great player and he’s a great coach now,” Sheahan said. “When I heard he was coming over to Munster I was delighted because I think there’s a lot of similarities between Leicester and Munster and I’m delighted he’s still going to be involved.

“He seems a popular guy who goes about his business well and I think he’s good for Munster because of those values that both Leicester and Munster have, they’re very much aligned. He’s a good guy and delighted to see him there.

“It will be interesting to see what dynamic they will go with going forward. There are so many good Irish coaches out there now as well. You’ve O’Connell and O’Gara, and it’s unlikely they will be the ones but the likes of Ian Costello running the academy, a very good operator, Mike Prendergast, Jerry Flannery, James Coughlan down in France with Toulon and the likes of Denis Leamy as well. There’s other guys like that and you’d love to see Munster pulling together a panel of guys back in around Rowntree.

“That would be great because I think it would be good to get back to a few homegrown guys in that team of coaches. And it’s important that they are all proven coaches now, and I think they all did the right thing by going away. You earn your badges more and a bit more respect when you go away perhaps and learn new ways of doing things. Then even if you go back to the original way of doing it at least you did it differently and had that experience.”

Sheahan, meanwhile, is happy to build a different coaching CV in parallel with running the Pendulum Summit. Family ties to Presentation Brothers Cork run deep with two of his nephews, sons of different brothers, playing in the Senior Cup team that reached the Munster Schools final last month. Hooker Danny Sheahan and his cousin Jacob, the Pres captain and No.8, are both on the Irish Schools panel and their uncle is now involved in the Cork City school’s rugby programme.

“I’m coaching four different teams at the moment: the first and second years at Pres because I have two young fellas there. The second years won the McCarthy Cup and my own son on that team sat on the bench in the Junior Cup final and got a medal against Christians.

“The other fella is in first year and I’m coaching both their teams but I’m helping out the Under-14s in Cork Con as well and then my smallest fella is with the Under-8s in Con and I help there when I can as well.

“So I am coaching. It’s mad. I’ve five kids and it means 17 round trips every weekend, starting with Nemo on a Friday evening and then soccer - Frankie Óg is captain of Cobh Ramblers, playing League of Ireland, he was over in Burnley for a trial for a week a month ago, we had a great week. So it’s busy, busy but as regards being a professional coach, not for me anyway. Not anytime soon.”