Kilcoo family dilemma a familiar tale for Mick Lillis and Portlaoise

The week is undoubtedly dragging for Jerome Johnston, as he waits restlessly for Ballybay and Kilcoo to sort out the business at hand. Just get it over with, these affairs of the heart determined by the kick of a ball.

It is certainly an unusual quandary - the team Johnston is joint manager of facing his home club, whose side include his three sons and six nephews. But it is not a unique dilemma.

On an otherwise unremarkable Saturday evening in October 2015, Mick Lillis found himself in O’Moore Park watching his son, Kieran, captain Portlaoise to a 2-13 to 0-7 Laois SFC final replay victory over Emo. But the following afternoon at Dr Cullen Park, Mick was managing Palatine against Portlaoise in the first round of the Leinster club football championship.

“I suppose you were always aware that down the line there was the potential for a clash, and that is how it transpired,” recalls Mick.

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“On a certain level, of course you wanted Portlaoise to come out of Laois, they are my club. At the same time you are saying to yourself, if they win it is going to be a little bit of an awkward one going up against your own.”

[ Ballybay manager Jerome Johnston Sr to sit out family reunion with Kilcoo ]

Palatine won the Carlow final on October 11th, while Portlaoise and Emo played out a draw in Laois on October 18th. With the Carlow and Laois champions scheduled to meet in Leinster on Sunday, October 25th, the window for the Laois winners to squeeze through was closing rapidly. So the replay took place on Saturday evening, October 24th, and less than 24 hours later Portlaoise were jogging out in Carlow.

For Mick, who played for and managed Portlaoise, the quick turnaround was an open release valve that prevented any pressure building ahead of the fixture.

“The fact it was such an immediate turnaround, that made it much easier,” he says.

“There was no chat ahead of the game, no time for media attention. That was helpful and ultimately any conversation around me managing against Portlaoise was very much post-mortem conversation, it was after the event.”

Mick, who managed the Laois senior footballers in 2016, had a successful stint guiding Portlaoise – during which time they won three championships in what would become a nine-in-a-row run by the club. As a player, Mick was a member of Portlaoise’s 1983 All-Ireland club winning side.

He managed Palatine to a county title in 2006, and having stepped away from Portlaoise after their 2013 campaign, the Carlow outfit approached about a possible return.

“The only reason you leave your own club is if you feel it is best for everybody that you move on. It’s not that you don’t want to do it,” says Mick.

“We had lost two Leinster finals in two years, lost by very small margins. We felt at that stage maybe somebody else could just get that extra little percentage to get them over the line. I had been with Palatine previously, always enjoyed my time there, so it was an easy one for me when they asked.”

Still, knowing what was potentially coming in the Leinster championship, the preamble to the Laois final in 2015 cannot have been straightforward for the Lillis family – not that the Palatine manager and the Portlaoise captain discussed the father vs son scenario on the horizon.

“The thing about Kieran,” says Mick. “Regardless of whether I had anything to do with the opposition or not, he doesn’t really talk the week before games. Kieran keeps himself to himself, he does his own motivational stuff and he just quietens down. So there was nothing different that week.”

Jerome Johnston has three sons involved with Kilcoo - Shealan, Ryan and Jerome Junior – and six nephews. He has stepped away as joint Ballybay manager for the week as the Monaghan champions prepare for Sunday’s Ulster club quarter-final against Kilcoo, leaving Mark Doran in sole charge.

“I’ve had messages from both sets of players, messages that I value so much I cannot even explain. But, how could I manage against my own children?” Johnston said to the BBC.

Johnston’s situation is different to what Mick and Kieran Lillis encountered because of the timeline involved.

“Our turnaround was immediate, whereas this one is a little bit more in the public arena,” says Mick.

After Portlaoise’s victory in that 2015 county final replay, Mick chatted briefly with some of the players, offering his congratulations as he had managed most of the squad and knew them since they were kids. The following day he was in the opposition dressing room as Portlaoise completed an extraordinary 24 hours, beating Palatine 0-15 to 1-8.

“During the game you want to try do the best for the team you are with but when it’s over, it’s over,” says Mick. “And that was how it went. I was a Portlaoise supporter for the rest of the campaign.”

And he believes eventually the Johnston clan will look back fondly on what is currently a testing period.

“At the end of it all, it will be a great experience,” says Mick. “Both teams will be as competitive as hell on the day, which you’d expect even if you were playing golf with your friends. But it will be an occasion that will probably produce some good memories and hopefully they’ll all be able to chat about it over a drink at Christmas.”