Cork City: A day in the life
At the start of another day at the club’s training ground and office in Bishopstown, Tommy Dunne, Timmy Murphy and Éanna Buckley, the three full-time staffers at the club, can’t help chuckling as the question is posed.
And little wonder. Two years ago this month, Cork City ceased to exist, wound up by the High Court on foot of an application by the tax man. The story of the fall and rise of the old club has been well-documented: the financial turmoil which brought it to its knees, its re-emergence as a supporters-run club in the second tier and then, last season, the fairytale ending of a First Division title secured with a goal in the last minute of the last game away to rivals Shelbourne at Tolka Park.
Now, with the reality of promotion back to the Premier Division comes all the extra demands which are keeping manager Dunne, chief executive Murphy and club administrator Buckley busy on this typical morning in the run-up to the new season.
Buckley has already begun the day with a security firm meeting in the head office, the walls of which play host to images from the club’s storied past, including a framed photograph of skipper Dan Murray lifting the league trophy back in 2005. Next, he will turn his attentions to writing up the press release confirming Tadhg Purcell as City’s final signing ahead of the new season.
Manager Dunne, who has arrived in his new sponsored car, picks up a package containing a DVD of the team’s most recent friendly game. He will edit the action down to a 20-minute package and screen it for the players in the team meeting room next to his office.
Timmy Murphy is the new man on the block, just coming up to two months into his job as CEO. Today, as on many other days, his car will double as his office, taking him around the city for a series of business meetings, one of which will see him officially sign off on the contract with the club’s main sponsors Clonakilty Black Pudding.
And the volunteers are busy too, a brace from the ten-person board arriving in to be trained up on the computerised ticketing system. After the years of boom and bust, sustainability is now the buzzword at the club.
“I think it’s probably the way forward for the league,” says Timmy Murphy, “because when you have, pardon the expression, ordinary people running things they have a total understanding that you can’t really spend what you don’t have.
“Especially in this recessionary climate, you have to be very mindful of it. So the budget is strictly adhered to which means that you’re not going to spend any more unless you bring more money in. And that’s assessed on a weekly and monthly basis and if we’re not hitting targets then stuff is readjusted.”
Sponsorship and fundraising are important sources of revenue for Cork City but gates make all the difference.
“Crowds last year averaged 2,200 and we’re hoping that will go up now that we’re in the Premier Division,” said Murphy. “I would like to think that crowds would go above the 3,000 mark in the short-term and, long-term the aim would be that Turner’s Cross, with a capacity of 7,000, would be full for most games. And I don’t think that’s beyond the bounds of possibility.”
And, of course, the football and the business are inextricably linked.
“If Tommy’s side of things doesn’t perform then I’m under pressure,” said the chief executive, “because once the team are doing well the commercial and media side can run a lot smoother. And, likewise, if I don’t produce the goods from the commercial end, then Tommy’s hands are tied in terms of getting players and so on. It’s hand in hand stuff.”
On the wall of his office, Tommy Dunne has his squad list written up in marker, ticks next to those currently nursing knocks. Striker Purcell is the latest addition and potentially a very significant one, given the club have lost last year’s top scorer, Graham Cummins, to Preston.
“And we’ll need a few others to weigh in with goals from around the park as well,” Dunne observed. “But we’re done now. Tadhg coming in is, budget-wise, the final player. We think we have a strong enough group. Not so big but it has good quality in it. No disrespect to anyone in the First Division but every week now will be a tough game. You’ll have to be at it all the time, and what toll that might take, I don’t know. But, listen, this is a club where there’s always going to be expectation. And that’s fine: I’d rather it be like that.”
The squad is a mix of the old and the new, among the latter Donegal-born Irish U21 cap John Dunleavy, whose time at Wolves was disrupted by repeated injury setbacks. Eventually, Mick McCarthy had to break the bad news that he was being let go.
“He took me into his office, told me I hadn’t played enough and that, while I’d been out, others had passed me by,” the player recalled.
“And I said to him, ‘Thanks but I hope I prove you wrong.’ And he said: ‘I do too’. And that’s where we left it. I did like him. He’s a very solid man, straight down the line. You could tell he didn’t like saying it almost as much as I didn’t like hearing it. Because it was a devastating day for me, I was gutted. But then you should be. I’d be a lot more worried if I wasn’t.”
Now, after a recommendation to Tommy Dunne from McCarthy, Dunleavy is looking to make up for lost time at Cork City.
“Because I was injured so much and didn’t play, I don’t think anyone knows how good I can be,” he reflected. “I don’t know either. From what I’ve seen here so far, I’m absolutely delighted. We’ve got a very solid squad and they’re a great group of lads as well.
“In terms of the club, it’s very well run. I have a fair idea that things weren’t good here not so long ago but they’ve resurrected themselves and everything now feels very solid. Now, I just want to go out and get as many games as I can under my belt and do as well as I can for Cork this year.”
By contrast with Dunleavy, skipper Dan Murray has rather more than a fair idea of how bad things got before the club hit the wall. Now, after a hugely successful two-year spell at Shamrock Rovers, he’s back with City and relishing a new chapter at the club with which he experienced some of the highest highs and lowest lows of his career.
“Compared to the dark days when I left here, there seems to be a massive buzz back around the city and the county,” he said. “And it seems to be the way to go, especially in this country, to have the supporters running the club because they have the best interests of the club at heart. There are no outside influences, no-one just trying to get money out of it for themselves. All the Cork supporters wanted was a team back in the Premier Division competing again. That’s where we’re at now and that’s where the club should be too.”
While Murray is speaking, just before a squad session at the all-weather pitch in Carrigtwohill, club stalwart Jerry Harris is busy laying out the training gear. “Talk about workrate,” observed Tommy Dunne of the secretary, “if he was a player he’d be a Keane.”
When Dunne speaks admiringly about the team behind Cork City, he’s not just talking about the men who cross the white line.
“It’s been a real group effort,” the manager said. “From where we’ve come from, it’s a huge satisfaction to be here now. The night we won the league at Tolka you saw grown men and women crying on the pitch. That said everything about how much it meant to them and how much they’d put into it. To win the league, and get back to the Premier Division – it was a just reward. The 29th of October 2011 will never be taken away from any Cork City supporter or player or manager or coach or secretary. That night will live with these people forever.”
Listening to the passion and pride in the manager’s voice, you can’t help thinking of another somewhat bigger and better-known supporters-run outfit, the one whose famous motto is: more than a club.
“Listen,” says Tommy Dunne with a smile, “for me, for them, this is our Barcelona”.
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