Redoubtable Seán Quigley still more than capable of having the final say for Fermanagh

This is not how it’s supposed to end.

Not with Seán Quigley, the master of the finale, for the last two weeks he has been a punk-band drummer bashing out trash-can endings, he has been the dramatic late twist in the plot, the stone in somebody else’s shoe.

And yet this is the downcast footing we find ourselves on in the closing moments of our conversation.

“You’re starting to depress me a wee bit,” Quigley offers, albeit lightheartedly. “What silverware has there been with Fermanagh? Absolutely nothing.”

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Surely, you figure, at some point over the last 13 years Fermanagh must have mined a McKenna Cup at the outset of a season when the Tyrone boys were away topping up their tans on a team holiday? Or in the years before the Donegal party crew traded the Vengabus for the McGuinness Express?

Or the countless Januarys Monaghan spent preoccupied with self-flagellation in a bid to satisfy their obsession of surviving in Division One? Or perhaps Fermanagh plundered a Division Three or Four league title? No. Nada.

“We got beat in a Division Four final [2012 v Wicklow], we got beat in two Division Three finals [2015, 2018 both v Armagh], we got beat in an Ulster final [2018 v Donegal], beat in them all,” says Quigley.

Nonetheless, he’s still here, still shaking the tree, pulling up roots, knocking in goals. He’s off to Enniskillen for training after our chat. He was up at six this morning, in work at the cement plant in Cavan for seven and will get back home after 10.

Not that he’s complaining. He chooses to play for Fermanagh. He’s not looking for a medal, which is probably just as well, all things considered.

But while there hasn’t been any silverware during his intercounty career so far – he has won four Fermanagh titles with Roslea – the garlands have rightfully been cast in Quigley’s direction over the last fortnight. Forever off-Broadway, yet never far from centre stage.

Fermanagh have played four games in Division Three this season and currently sit second after three wins and one defeat. In their last two matches, against Down and Antrim, Quigley came off the bench and scored match-winning injury-time goals.

Down led by two when an effort by Garvan Jones dropped short. As Down goalkeeper Niall Kane rose to meet the ball, Quigley planted himself in front of the goal, like a canny pet dog parked beneath the family dinner-table, anticipating tasty morsels would soon be falling his way. No sooner had Kane patted the ball down than Quigley pounced. Goal.

He was at it again last weekend, against Antrim, this time getting a fist on a long delivery to earn Fermanagh another stoppage-time victory.

“It’s always a good buzz scoring goals, and it probably even feels slightly better as you get older,” he smiles.

“But then that’s your job, to be in the right place at the right time. And while it feels good to win games like that, you probably wouldn’t want to be making a habit out of it because your luck will eventually run out.”

But those goals weren’t just luck, they were possible because of experience, know-how, game-smarts. They were possible because Quigley continues to be an imposing, obstinate presence in the Fermanagh attack, a player who refuses to bend to convention.

He knows the preconceptions people have about him, not that he necessarily feels the need to rail against them. He doesn’t get obsessed with football, still it would be wrong to confuse that with not caring. No player survives this long at this level without being both committed and bloody talented.

He’s 30 now. Made his Fermanagh senior debut while still in school, against Leitrim on a Sunday in March 2011. On the Friday night he had been playing for St Michael’s College Enniskillen in a MacRory Cup semi-final. On the Sunday he was off to Carrick-on-Shannon with Fermanagh.

Over the years he has seen all class of player enter the Fermanagh dressingroom. But those who lasted long enough to carve out a space all had one common trait – they could play ball.

“I always say, some county players can often be great athletes, great in the gym, strength and conditioning and that, but they might not be great footballers,” he says.

“Give me a man that can drop the ball on his weaker foot in a position where he is under pressure, and he gets himself out of trouble, rather than giving me somebody who can do 50 pull-ups with 30kg wrapped around their waist, but they can’t solo with their left foot.

“And I actually think that is probably coming back to the game now, you are seeing more traditional type footballers again, more kicking of the ball, teams are becoming a bit more expansive compared to four or five years ago where it was very robotic, when it was athletes more than footballers.”

Of all the skills, Quigley sees an ability to kick off right and left as a genuine lethal weapon.

“People talk about modern coaching and drills, for me I think there’s one simple basic exercise to start with, which is literally giving a child a ball and getting them used to banging it against a wall off their left and right foot.”

Not that he is professing to be an exemplary trainer. It’s certainly not his favourite part of the week.

“If you find me somebody that enjoys training more than playing matches, I would question what they are doing there,” he counters.

“If you are ever talking to my girlfriend, she would probably say I have an awful head on me going to training most nights, and I come home with an even worse head on me, giving out. But thankfully that all passes.”

Having started Fermanagh’s first two games – and scoring in both – there are some who might have reacted to a sub role for the last two matches by reaching for some toys and a pram. Players are never too old to act like toddlers.

But he didn’t, because when Quigley scans the dressingroom he sees the future. And the present.

St Michael’s won the Hogan Cup in 2019. Four of that side – Sean McNally, Luke Flanagan, Brandon Horan, Josh Largo Ellis – started against Antrim last weekend. There are others pushing through as well, all fine athletes of course, but decent at the other thing as well.

“Fortunately, the lads are both very intelligent footballers and phenomenal athletes, they have come in primed for county football.

“I would try my best to help them along as much as I can, but a lot of time they probably don’t pass any remarks to me or aren’t listening! Funnily, the older boys are probably learning more from them than they are learning from us.

“Sometimes you just have to use your players the best way you can, and I have been able to come off the bench in the last two games and have some sort of an impact, which I am more than happy to do.”

He’d rather be starting, obviously, but if the last year has taught him anything, it’s that the body needs minding too. He carried a groin injury with him throughout much of 2022, getting injections before every game, just to play.

Only for Monday morning to arrive when Quigley would have to peel himself out of bed feeling like a herd of buffalo trampled over him during his slumber.

“When the injections wore off you were in agony,” he recalls. “There were days last year, especially after club games, where you were going to work and you’d been barely fit to get out of bed with the pain.

“When you are 22 or 23, you think you are invincible, you think you are going to be like you are then forever. You can go out and train three or four nights a week, then go out and party at the weekend, before doing it all again during the week. But it’s just not like that any longer.”

Thankfully, the osteitis pubis injury is under control for now.

If Fermanagh can beat Tipperary on Sunday, they will be in a strong position for promotion.

A little further down the track, realistically the Ernesiders will be participating in the Tailteann Cup this summer as their path to an Ulster final would necessitate them beating Derry in a provincial quarter-final and then overcoming either Tyrone or Monaghan.

“We would be looking at that Derry game as a chance to upset the odds, but we know it will be very tough,” admits Quigley.

“I think the Tailteann Cup can be a really good platform for counties like Fermanagh to push on and play competitive games in a championship structure where you can have a realistic goal of winning it.”

Not that satisfaction can only come in victory.

Quigley scored 1-8 in Fermanagh’s 2015 All-Ireland quarter-final defeat to Dublin at Croke Park. It was the Dubs in their pomp, a defence that included Rory O’Carroll, Jonny Cooper, Philly McMahon, James McCarthy.

His goal? It might sound familiar. A high ball flung in on the square. Again, Quigley was primed in front of the goal, watching it drop. Old dog for the hard road, and all that. On this occasion, Stephen Cluxton won the ball. But Quigley won the battle. The Fermanagh forward met the outcoming Dublin goalkeeper like a prop swatting a tackle bag. If you award Quigley that goal, rather than deem it an OG, then he was top scorer in the 2015 championship.

“I wouldn’t get too down if you get beaten in a match,” he explains. “I would have a mindset that it’s only a game of football.

“Don’t get me wrong, you’d be hurt after losing games, but there are other things in life for everybody to worry about that can take you back down to earth, so I wouldn’t get too caught up in it. There’s always another game.”

Since making his debut in 2011, Quigley has already done enough to ensure history won’t forget his contribution to Fermanagh, not to mention fuelling a wider enduring belief the game still belongs to footballers. As for fandom, well he hasn’t noticed much of a change over the years.

“No, I don’t be getting mobbed on the street when I’m going for a coffee,” he jokes.

The future is unwritten, but there is a season of possibilities beginning to stretch out in front of both Quigley and his Fermanagh teammates.

“For the most part, I’d have to say I’ve enjoyed it over the years, I’ve made some great friends, great memories. Obviously there have been some bad days too, but thankfully we are having a decent run of it at the minute and there is a good buzz around.”

And while he doesn’t need any for validation, he certainly wouldn’t turn his nose up at some silverware. So, we agree to reconvene later in the year when Fermanagh tick that box. Most likely after Quigley nabs another late goal.

“I look forward to that,” he smiles.

Yes, that’s how this is supposed to end. Sean Quigley, a master at having the final say these days.