'Incredible six months of learning' but David Meyler wants to banish relegation 'regrets' with FAI Cup glory
DAVID VS GOLIATH: Cork City assistant manager David Meyler celebrates. Pic: ©INPHO/James Lawlor.
Asked to contrast coaching his youths at Hull City with the seniors at Cork City, David Meyler’s reply carries all the crunch of one of his tackles.
“Senior players answer you back,” asserts Ger Nash’s assistant.
The Corkman can associate with that, as he was renowned for his questioning of methods.
Signed by Roy Keane from his hometown club in 2008, he made his Premier League debut at Sunderland and announced his retirement 11 years later.
Coaching was the natural antidote to being idle and at just 36, he has returned to three entities he played for, the FAI, Hull City and Cork City.
While most footballers usually return to the Alma Mater in their twilight of their path, Meyler chose the Leesider for his first sample of senior management.
It’s been quite the six-month crash-course, ending the campaign with relegation but gracing Lansdowne Road on Sunday for an FAI Cup final.
“I’ve no regrets about my decision, only regrets about us being relegated,” he said. “We knew the situation coming being where the team was positioned. We gave it everything, having to throw the kitchen sink at it to stay up but there’s no excuses for coming up short.
“I was relegated from the Premier League with Hull and this hurt in a different way. But we have the chance on Sunday to do something magical.”
Meyler and Nash were strangers when tasked by owners Dermot Usher and David Cronin with embarking on that rescue mission.
As a professional development coach with the Tigers, he was in secure employment, surrounded by his young family.
Then came the call from home. He wanted to know what was getting himself into and with whom. This was new to Nash as well, for he’d never held a standalone senior post.
“Other offers were presented but there was the emotional side of this one being Cork City,” Meyler said about the proposition.
“If it was from somewhere else like Dublin or Derry, I probably wouldn’t have felt the same way. I was brought up in Cork and my parents still live here.
“Moving into coaching, I’d looked around countries to see what Irish coaches were achieving. Ger has been with the FAI, Ipswich Town, Aston Villa and then in Sweden.
“I’d been aware of his journey and was more than thrilled to join him. If I felt that I couldn’t learn from Ger, I wouldn’t have taken the job.
“No situation is perfect but I’ve had an incredible six months of learning.
“Academies are about development, helping youngsters along the journey, whereas all that matters at senior level is the end product.”
In the league at least, that criteria doesn’t reflect well. City’s fate seemed inevitable from late summer, leading to a third relegation in six years.
“When we came in, confidence within the squad was low but there was a feeling that we could turn things around,” he explained.
“There were certain parts of the internal operation which weren’t being done right, based on my experience. They wouldn’t have aligned with my opinion.
“I’m not saying there were massive issues but, for example, certainly the intensity of training needed to be raised.
“Cork City should be in the Premier Division every season but ultimately we’re not.
"The lack of continuity over the last few seasons has cost us but having 17 players under contract for next season is part of the solution.
“We believe those players are good enough to compete in the Premier and the objective is to come straight back up. If we do that, the team must establish itself”.
Bizarrely, they could mount that comeback quest from the First Division as FAI Cup winners and while being Ireland’s sole representative in the Europa League.
The team that failed to win away in the league all season hurdled four rounds to the final to get a shot at the best team in the country.
Producing an upset such as the 3-0 hammering of St Patrick’s Athletic in the semi-final was out of kilter, highlighting a degree of revisionism.
“The only frustrating aspect of that great night was it showing how capable we are of that performance level,” Meyler reasoned.
“As Seáni Maguire said this week, our biggest challenge is to repeat those levels against a team that has an inspiration to us all in the league.”
Meyler is adamant their recent trip to the stadium, a detour on the way to Drogheda United, was worth it for the familiarity it provided to the greener protagonists.
“You have someone with the depth of experience Greg Bolger has to others who’ve never been to the venue,” he outlined.
“I had the privilege of playing on the pitch and know how big it is.
“These are the days you live for as a footballer. As a youngster, I was part of City’s 2007 Cup final winning squad and though we lost to Arsenal at Wembley, it's still a fond memory.
“Our players can write history on Sunday. Everybody knows the strength of Shamrock Rovers but all that matters is what happens inside our four walls.”
All they’ve to do is break down the hooped wall in the pitch to become the first team in 23 years to lift the Blue Riband in the same year as the drop.
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