Munster club SF final: Nire manager leaves no stone unturned to topple Stacks

No manager likes to admit to doing a thorough psychological profiling of their opposition. It can be a sign of weakness, or uncertainty, which is why you’ll nearly always hear them admit they’re just concentrating on their own game.

For Benji Whelan, manager of The Nire, there’s no point pretending otherwise. When you’re in charge of small football club in north Waterford, in the shadow of the Comeragh Mountains, and you’re taking on the Kerry champions in Sunday’s Munster club final, full knowledge of the opposition is an absolute necessity.

“It’s probably one of the cornerstones of the way we manage the thing, to look at the opposition and find out exactly how they tick, what makes them tick, and how to stop them ticking,” says Whelan.

The tactic has already served Whelan well. In his first year in charge, he’s guided the Ballymacarbry club to a first Waterford title in six years, after they’d lost two finals, two semi-finals and a quarter-final since 2008. He’s also been serving with the hurling side of the club – Fourmilewater – and considers himself more a hurling man when it comes to coaching experience.

But Sunday’s showdown with Austin Stacks – now fixed for Páirc Uí Chaoimh – is pure football, not least because it means coming up against Kerry’s All Star forward Kieran Donaghy. Again, Whelan has no problem admitting that trying to stop Donaghy from ticking is central to their tactics.

“Yeah, Kieran obviously comes into the equation that way. We’ll be looking at it more and more over the week, with the players. But then he’s just one Stacks player. I mean Daniel Bohane goes through a tremendous amount of ball each game. And he’s fiercely important for them, too.

“They’ve got big players all over the pitch. It’s a big, big job for us. We’re under no illusions as to how big a job this is. But our year has been built on hard work and graft, backing each other, and, again, working on curtailing the opposition.”

It’s no secret that most of The Nire footballers, such as of Liam and Shane Lawlor and Jamie Barron, are more renowned as hurlers, but they arguably boast the best minor footballer in the country in Conor Gleeson, who’s proved his worth with goals in the quarter-final against Ballylanders and then the semi-final win over Cratloe.

Primed for victory

Whelan has no problem admitting that, given their double run in Munster, he sought to exploit Cratloe’s likely tiredness, and that once the game spilled into extra-time The Nire were more primed for victory.

“Absolutely,” he says. “Because we know the further it went on, the better chance we’d have. It was about staying in the game as long as possible, and we were hugely conscious of that.”

Despite having to split their time between football and hurling for much of the season (13 of The Nire players also play hurling with Fourmilewater), they have one advantage over Stacks going into Sunday’s final – nine players survive from the 2006 Munster final defeat, also to Kerry opponents, Dr Crokes, who held out against a late challenge to win by three points.

“Yeah, that’s nine players who still have that sour taste in their mouth,” says Whelan. “If everyone was coming in green it would be a completely different proposition. But we’ve spoken about this, how players probably went down there, in 2006, not knowing what to expect, and maybe not really putting a lot of emphasis or expectation on it.

“They found themselves 2-4 to 0-2 down at half-time, and got back to three by the finish. I think Dr Crokes only got a point in the second-half. It was only then, from talking to the players, that they realised ‘Jeez, we were really in this, we should have come down with a different attitude. We’re working on making sure that doesn’t happen this year.”

The sad reality is that win or lose on Sunday, football in Waterford will always plays second fiddle to hurling, and players like Gleeson will never get the chance to shine for his county in football, as he is now with his club.

Rocket science

“In all likelihood, yeah, he will go with hurling. Look at it honestly, the hurlers are in division two this year, and were probably disappointed with the way some results went this year. But as a young fella, would you rather division two hurling or division four football? It’s not rocket science to work out the answer there.

“But there’s no doubt in my mind if you got the best 15 Waterford footballers out on the pitch, they would be very competitive. They’d have to graft hard, but I really think they are underachieving. It’s just the pool of players is so small. And if you go into any of the internet forums on Waterford GAA, there’s not a mention of football. It’s hurling, hurling, hurling. It’s just the way the mindset is in the county.”

No manager likes to admit that even winning a Munster club football title is unlikely to change that.