*Wolfe Tones manager, Barry Keane. Photograph: Ruth Griffin.
MOTIVATION has been easy to source for Wolfe Tones as they bid to bounce back to the senior hurling championship at the first attempt.
Last September, Barry Keane left Newmarket-on-Fergus “dejected and despondent” after St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield relegated Wolfe Tones on a score of 2-16 1-13.
It was also that day (September 23rd) when the idea of becoming Wolfe Tones manager first began fester in Barry’s mind. “It had always been an ambition of mine to get involved at management level, I stewed at home on it for four or five weeks and said why not give it a go”.
After making up his mind, the next target was “getting the right people around me, there’s no point going in being inexperienced as a manager even though I had experience as a coach, being manager is a different kettle of fish and I knew I needed to get the right people around me with the right experience. My first port of call was Alan Cunningham, I enticed him in over a game of golf, we started talking, Alan was still tied up with Limerick at the time and once I had Alan on board it was a case of getting more”.
He continued, “it went back to the whole disappointment of going down, St Joseph’s were far better than us on the day but we were gone down before that, our performances weren’t good enough and hadn’t been up to standard, there is no point apportioning blame to anyone, it just happened and we went down, I felt it was the right time to do it, go in give it a lash, do the best I can and see where it goes, thankfully we are where here now but it has been a lot of hard work but that has been from everyone, that day in Newmarket I felt ‘come on see what you can bring to this’”.
Keane is unsure but he thinks it was Cunningham, the retired secondary school principal who prevailed in that round of golf. “Cunningham is a bit of a shark, I’d say it was him, I don’t even think we finished the round out, it was after the fifth hole when I plucked up the courage to ask him, I was waiting to hit a ball and I said I’ll ask him. He is a brilliant man, his experience, he knows how to manage big matchdays, he has a wealth of experience and knowledge, his calmness around the place has been invaluable”.
Cunningham’s addition is a nice family link as the Limerick mentor previously worked side by side with Barry’s late father Brendan with the All-Ireland winning Féile side of 1988. “Dad was fierce involved with the club before he died, himself and Alan were great friends, they were part of those great Féile days so there is a link with Alan in our house all the time, it is a bit ironic that we are working together all these years on after Dad and Alan were together in the late 1980s, it is a nice link for home. I’m a Wolfe Tones man all my life, I haven’t ventured out of it, I don’t think I will”.
They’ve been joined on this year’s management by Bryan Williams “another brilliant coach, a young guy with really good ideas”, Murroe native Mike Hickey as goalkeeper coach, selector Paul O’Shea who he described as “a really good friend of mine, he has been with me at U14B, U14C and U14D teams, everyone has that one person that they can trust, Paul came with me then and the final piece of the jigsaw was Clem Nihill, good strength and conditioning coaches are hard to get, Darragh Lohan suggested Clem to me because he had been with Clare predominantly as physio but more so rehabbing players so I contacted Clem, met him the following day and I spoke to Tommy (O’Rourke) our Chairman and said we had to do whatever it takes to get this guy on board, whatever about his expertise as an S&C coach, outside of the pitch he is very good with the players and they are well able to talk to him, they have great time for him”.
Coaching experience saw Barry work with the seniors under both Denis Riordan and Ray Diviney while he had also been involved with county development squads including managing the Sonny Walsh and Tony Forrestal teams. Aidan McCarthy, Patrick Crotty, Mark Rodgers, Cian Galvin, Shane Meehan, Adam Hogan and Seán Rynne are just some of the current Clare hurlers to have started their county underage career with Keane. “The one thing I found was when you were coaching at a high level it didn’t matter because they were really talented, it was fiercely enjoyable to coach some very good players and you get a sense of satisfaction when you see a lot of them play, come on or be a part of Clare’s All-Ireland winning squad, I actually met them all here on the Monday after and got a lovely picture with them all, it’s nice that they still remember you but they were great days and I really enjoyed them, learning constantly and always evolving as a coach, I definitely think it moulded a lot of my thoughts on hurling, how it should be played, the conditioning and how lads need to be minding themselves, I really enjoyed the five years I was there”.
Two players that he coached at inter-county level have since passed to their eternal reward, “Tragically we have lost Oisin Cahill and Mikey Hynes who were playing on the first year, I think about the two lads a lot, two young men in their prime, Mikey an absolutely brilliant young fella and Oisin the same”.
In 2006, Barry was a squad member of the Wolfe Tones side to defeat neighbours Newmarket-on-Fergus to win the Clare SHC. “I played Junior predominantly, I played a good bit of Clare Cup but to be honest I wasn’t going to be taking the place of Frank Lohan, BOC or Bobby McPhillips, it was par for the course. We had a decent Junior team but lost three finals in 2005, 2006 and 2007, three in a row was a far sickener, we actually won it in 2008 and I had gone in as a coach with James Carrig and Johnny Markham, I wasn’t as committed as I should have been to be at that level”.
Barry and his management don’t need to do too much to motivate their players as they are keen to atone for the disappointment of getting relegated. “They were hurting, there’s no point in saying they weren’t, it is known the quality of player and they would have felt that last year was a disaster but was it last year we were relegated, had we been doing the work in the years before and we weren’t doing what the top teams were doing, to be in the top four in Clare at senior level you have to be putting in the work and maybe at times we weren’t doing it but I couldn’t fault the lads this year because they have really put their shoulder to the wheel, the three county lads have come back in and gave us a great lift, we needed to be at a level so that they would bring us on another bit, it’s been really good, I couldn’t fault anybody”.
He continued, “We are where we are, we know that, we all have to take responsibility, from the Executive down we said we can’t allow this to happen and we need to be a senior club, at the same time nobody will hand it to us and say there you go, we’re in an intermediate football final and they have serious work put in. It was very much not just the intermediate hurling or football management recognising that we need to do the work, it is the club as a whole which realised we need to fix this, it might not happen instantaneously but we need the structures in place, the Town and Clare GAA needs it, you could see the lift Clare gave hurling all over the county and we needed it here, if we win next weekend it will give another lift to hurling in the town, we need young lads playing hurling and football, girls playing ladies football and camogie, it is about us giving people the reason to want to play hurling, football, camogie and ladies football, that is ultimately another reason why you are involved, you want people to aspire to be Shan, Rory, Darragh or Jayme O’Sullivan, it definitely plays on our mind and we do recognise it, we have to try fix it”.
Their finish to the Clare Cup which included Aron Shanagher’s infamous appearance against Clarecastle which led to him winning back his place on the Clare team was cited by Barry as a turning point in their campaign. “We played Ballyea outside in Ballyea for the Clare Cup, we were six or seven down, we were missing a few, we had a lot of injuries, Ballyea are a battle-hardened senior team, I know they were missing Tony (Kelly) and Paul (Flanagan) but we were seven down at half time, we went in and really turned the screw on them, we drew the game and Cian O’Rourke got a monster of a free, our year took off from there, we finished the Clare Cup really strong, we went up to Whitegate, we were down a few and drafted Daithí O’Connell in, he came on and blitzed a couple of scores, we felt the tide was turning, we had injuries but lads were starting to recover, we had the three lads with Clare and we knew Daithí Lohan was coming back from his injury. We played Clarecastle in the Cup here, again we were six or seven down, we were a bit worried because they were nearly at full-strength except for Cian Galvin and Cian Broderick, we brought Shan (Aron Shanagher) on, that was the famous game where Shan came on, I won’t say anymore on that!
“We really played well and it was a serious performance and statement from us, players realised then that we were going in the right direction, albeit our feet were on the ground and we weren’t going to get too carried away with the Clare Cup but it was nice for the players to see that we could take on Clarecastle who felt were going to be one of four teams there with us, it was definitely the main turning point which pointed us in the direction that we knew we were headed the right way towards championship, if we lost heavily we’d have had to say do we need to revisit what we’re doing but we set out our stall from that. The lads came back off the back of winning an All-Ireland with Clare, a rising tide lifts all ships plus we had a desperate run of injuries but they are all coming back now and Jack Cunningham is coming back from the US for the final which is another player to add to the bench, since that Clarecastle game it has been really positive”.
Having contested Clare SHC quarter-finals in 2021 and 2022, Wolfe Tones have enough quality to be reaching the knockout stages of the senior championship but they must first get back to the grade to show just that. “On paper we have serious hurlers but we have to get back up there to prove we can compete at that level again and that ultimately is the goal to get back up there and compete, there’s new structures next year to change it around but we’d like to think if we’re successful and we do go back up that we will compete, the lads have set a template in terms of what is needed, the training has been outstanding with how they have put themselves about, how they have trained and the work they are doing in the gym which was lacking not just on their behalf but on our behalf as a club, it is so important these days and we have recognised areas to improve, it is all about getting to the next step whether that is winning next weekend which will make us fortunate enough to be in senior next year and keeping there to build on it, it is all about progress”.
Standing in their way of returning to the top tier is a spirited Tubber outfit. “I’ve seen them play twice in the flesh, we’ve seen a lot of video of their matches over the summer, the one thing that strikes me about them is they are a fierce united bunch, they are athletic and strong but they are good hurlers, they play to a system and don’t over elaborate, they have forwards that will hurt you and defensively they are outstanding, Pat O’Connor is the fulcrum for it all and is still hurling at a serious level, we have to be ready for that and if we’re not we’ll be under pressure, we’ve spoke about them and we have worked it into our training, we’re looking forward to taking them on as we’re sure they are looking forward to us, they are a really good side with loads of experience, they’ve been here before and will know how to manage the day which is crucial, we know what is coming and we think we’re ready”.
