Fermanagh Football & Hurling

[haranguerer]

Good to see reality setting in amongst the Gaels fans at last!  But sure when Kinawly beat youse you can always shout for the other Enniskillen men that will be togging out for Coa and Belnaleck in the Intermediate!

True.  True.

At least we do ot delude ourselves every year by Saying
(1) that we have the best young team in fermanagh and its only a matter of time
(2) After being put out again in the first round, sure there is always next year 

P.S Caid are there not a few Tempo men playing For Coa this weather too

In fairness, not really a delusion 

[FermGael]

Again true.but i remember tempo men telling me about how tempo were going to dominate fermanagh football for the next 10 years.i have a feeling i will be waiting a while yet

[118cmal]

Personally I think Belcoo have the best group of players in the 20-24 years category and could be a real force in the Championship.

James McGrath, Ciaran Flaherty, Kieran Leonard, the twins, Johnny Feely, Paul McGrath are all very good club players.  They also have experience with the likes of Stephen Maguire there.

Again, anyone know of anyone who'll give odds on the Fermanagh Club championship?

[blewuporstuffed]

Who would be the strongest 2 or 3 minor teams in fermanagh

[Caid]

Personally I think Belcoo have the best group of players in the 20-24 years category and could be a real force in the Championship.

James McGrath, Ciaran Flaherty, Kieran Leonard, the twins, Johnny Feely, Paul McGrath are all very good club players.  They also have experience with the likes of Stephen Maguire there.

Again, anyone know of anyone who'll give odds on the Fermanagh Club championship?

There's a bookies in Irvinestowns opposite Mahons that would do it I think

[ONeill]

What happened with Gallagher in 04? Sort of missed that episode..

The Big Interview: Ronan Gallagher

By Declan Bogue

IT'S the Monday after a team training weekend and Ronan Gallagher is slumping back on the seat. On Saturday, he and the rest of the Fermanagh panel had two running sessions completed before 9am, with another couple of 'fun' exercises planned later in the day. With an All-Ireland semi-final coming up with his club, St Gall's and another year of the inter-county treadmill stretching out in front of him, he doesn't have time to get tired, as he tells Declan Bogue...


Declan Bogue: In a family like yours, there was no choice over whether you were going to play football, was there?

Ronan Gallagher: Yeah, Dad would have has us [Ronan and older brother Rory] out on the front lawn, like any father would, preaching the basics. He was always big into the high catch, I suppose because he played midfield himself. Raymond [Gallagher, cousin] would have knocked about with Rory a lot, if we weren't allowed on the front lawn we headed off to the field in Belleek through the back fields.


DB: With Raymond being a bit of a child prodigy, how did that impact on you?

RG: Even before the MacRory Cup and that with Raymond, I can remember Erne Gaels [Belleek, the home club] winning an under 12 championship when he was the main man. He was brilliant that day and I remember wanting to get back to the house and play with him, but he was too tired.


DB: And there was also a bit of soccer played with Rory and Raymond too...

RG: Aye, Rory was an excellent soccer player. I played a bit with Kesh outfield, but I wasn't very good. I was actually playing this winter in Armagh with a team called the Armagh Hammers! It was good fun, but it will go on the back foot now that we are back with the county.


DB: You had a lot to live up to, with those pair that wee bit older than you...

RG: Well, Rory played county minors at corner-back when he was only 14 and Raymond was on the county senior team as a minor. The thing about Rory was that he was always so central to any team he played on and most teams he played on he won something.


DB: So what way did your underage career go?

RG: Well, I was on the Fermanagh minors training panel when I was 17 and my father was the manager. He cut me off it after a few trainings and it didn't go down too well back at home! That year, Dad tried both Ronan McCabe and Colm Bradley at wing-half back and we got a draw against Cavan in the Championship, but it was the days before the 'attacking' wing backs and his tactics weren't well-received.

I was midfield the following year, donkeying about and we lost to Cavan again. We had our chances to win, Sean Quinn missed a couple, but it wasn't to be.


DB: When did the switch to goals come about?

RG: I always played for the team in the age group above me, in goals. I would have fancied myself as an outfield man, but never had the pace. Even after that, I would have done OK for Erne Gaels, but was better in nets.

DB: When did you make your senior debut?

RG: I played when I was 16 and we actually won the league that year, 1996. My uncle, Raymond Gallagher senior, was the manager and we destroyed Lisnaskea who were the best team in the county at that time.

The year after, we got to the Championship semi-final against 'Skea, but it was Eddie O'Reilly's [full-forward] wedding the day before. That put an end to those hopes. We had boys living in Belfast and the travelling was a bit too much and when lads headed off to America for the Summer, the thing went downhill.


DB: When were you drafted onto the senior county panel?

RG: I was working in the diesel station in Belleek and Martin McGloin who's passed away now, he came up to me and said, 'congratulations, you're on the training panel.' I didn't know what he was on about, but it was in the Irish News. I was 17 at the time and on my third training session, it was my 18th birthday and I was trailing round St Michael's with men like Collie Curran, Tony Collins and Paddy McGuinness.

It was a different game then, though. After training, we would go to The Railway Hotel and everyone would sit down to chicken and chips, the odd man would have been taking a pint with it. We would have been given a pair of boots just before the championship, maybe a T-shirt out of the boot of a car.

At that time, I was a bit in awe of these men, when I felt like a boy. Men like Collie Curran, Kieran Gallagher, Tommy Callaghan. They were going back home to their wives and I was going back to mess about with my mates.

With Rory and Raymond there though, they kept me right and taught me a lot. Number one, you don't drop out of training. Ever. They were always on time for training. Nobody trained harder than Rory and he and Raymond instilled that in me.

I got one league game against Louth in the '98 season and the year after that, I went to Australia for the year.


DB: That was before it became fashionable to go Down Under?

RG: Yeah, I was friendly with Brian McCauley and he was a joiner out there. I suppose now everybody goes at some time, but we found our feet. I lived in Bondi Junction, just down by the Oval and trained with Clann na nGael, done a bit of labouring on the sites, it seems like a lifetime ago now.

DB: You came back in 2001 and went straight back into the panel when John Maughan was there.

RG: Yeah and straight away we were very close to going on strike, before the first league match against Mayo. We had players who went to the County Board, because we weren't getting the full mileage rate, all we wanted was to be treated the same as other counties, but we were receiving something like 18p a mile, when other counties were set at 30p a mile, something like that.

Rory was only young, but he done a bit of talking about it, Raymond wasn't afraid to speak his mind either, as was Paul Brewster. In fairness, it shouldn't have got to that stage, but we got word on the morning of the match that everything was going to be sorted out.


DB: How was the John Maughan year?

RG: I took him 100 percent. I had just come back from Australia and called him up to ask for a trial. Went to training and made it.

People can say what they want about him, but he's straight as a dice. OK, things didn't work out, but...


DB: After you beat Donegal in a replay, you had Monaghan coming up the next week and he had a training session of endless running?

RG: I remember that Wednesday night. That was his way, he believed in it and as a player you done what your manager said.

One thing about him though, he was a stickler for punctuality. We trained at St Michael's at the time and a few latecomers came running down the hill, he just said, 'next time you're late, you won't be back.'

I don't think he was treated fairly. Yes, he had shortcomings, but he brought a lot to the table in terms of preparation. In fairness to him and Mickey McGeehan, his trainer who is now with Donegal, they had huge appetite and enthusiasm. Given a bit more time, he could have done a lot.


DB: But it ended in tears?

RG: Something strange happened that year though. We were meant to have a meeting with him, it was in Enniskillen at half six and I only got word of it at 6pm that evening. I was in Belleek and knew nothing about it, until Paul Brewster called me. It hadn't been communicated to the players.


DB: The following year, you got your first sighting of The Gooch, when Kerry gave you a heavy beating in the qualifiers.

RG: They do the basics of the game really, really well - the hand pass, the kicking, the high catch. Noel Kennelly burst through in the first few minutes and buried in a goal. Then the Gooch popped up and lobbed me with an exquisite goal, it really was a peach.


DB: Tommy Carr came and talked to the Fermanagh panel before that game, how did that go down?

RG: Ah, it was a mistake. Some might have thought it would give us a lift, but I don't know. Tommy Carr told us that Kerry were on their way out, their players were done and that they had a schoolboy playing for them. The schoolboy turned out to be The Gooch. But he was lecturing us about Cooper being in school and Ryan Keenan was sitting close by me and he was still at school himself!


DB: In just over a year though, you got to play in Croke Park twice.

RG: I really enjoyed 2003. Martin McElkennon set our attitude right from day one. Dom [Corrigan, manager] had us away on a training camp and it was all different for Fermanagh.

Players began to take things on board. Another man who was involved was Brendan Hackett, the Westmeath manager, who done a lot of psychology with us. I remember at one training he asked us to grade ourselves as an 'A', 'B', or 'C' team and showed us what the 'A' teams were doing and so on. We made improvements, no messing in training. I was coaching in Derry during the Summer and would meet Martin McElkennon in Ballygawley to go down to training; Marty's attitude and the way he conducted himself was first class.

We bought into the proper honesty and it was the first time I heard coaches or managers saying to players, 'when are you going to start playing?' - 'when are you going to perform?' Before that there was a lot of walking on eggshells.


DB: You should have beat Down in that Ulster semi-final...

RG: People don't remember that Down scored a penalty that day. It hit the underside of my arm after I guessed right, but it went in anyway. Did we get cowed by the Down reputation? Maybe we did.


DB: It all led to a serious run afterwards.

RG: Yeah, we deserved it and played great games against Cavan, Meath and Mayo.


DB: When people talk of that Mayo game, they talk of Stevie Maguire roasting David Heaney, or Tom Brewster's point from the sideline, but you made a save from Brian Maloney that was the winning of it. You'd never be asked about it though.

RG: Yeah, that's the life of a goalkeeper. He was a good player, Maloney, he won a Sigerson with our Rory for Sligo IT as well.


DB: Were you fed up that it was Tyrone that you ended up playing in the end?

RG: We were over-run by a team on a mission. They were so good. After twenty minutes, the game was over, we just couldn't compete.

At half-time, we said a few things, I said we had to go out and win the second half, but everyone's heads were down. We had no answer. There probably was an element among some players that, 'we've done alright getting here'. No point dancing round that fact.


DB: You missed out on a starting place for the 2004 campaign.

RG: I played in the league games, but then dislocated my shoulder in a league game against Lamh Dearg in a club game. I got injured, Dermot Feely got an injury, Sean Boyle also and Niall Tinney and Fergal Murphy were called in.

Niall played exceptionally well and should have got an All-Star, but the selectors probably felt two was enough for Fermanagh. Make no mistake, Niall was the best goalkeeper in Ireland that year.

[ONeill]

DB: Tony Scullion came up to take a team talk a few weeks before the Championship and only twenty players were there. There was a lot of unrest at the time?

RG: I got in trouble that year and was called up before the county board, as I expressed my opinion in an 'undiplomatic manner' to the Chairman. A lot of things were unacceptable, the behaviour of the management team was unacceptable. Two of the selectors didn't even bother going to away league matches. I paid the price when I was left off the panel the following year, with no explanation and when I asked what I needed to work on to get back in, I got no answers. It was a personality thing.

In terms of the way things are done, is there a blueprint for success? Not really, but the way things were done that year certainly wasn't. One night I drove from Belfast to training, it was meant to start at 7.30pm and at 7.35pm there were three players on the pitch. Another few came up and then the management followed. They called us in and asked, 'what will we do tonight?'

It doesn't add up and the ironic thing was, when I looked over at the other pitch at Lissan, about 30 Fermanagh hurlers were putting in a real hard session. They sent us off on a couple of laps to warm up, I done a lap, left and went down to the leisure centre to do a weights session.


DB: So where did the back-door run come out of, considering the league form was abysmal and there were so many retirements?

RG: Maybe we got a bit of luck that we were lacking in previous years, but the players were having a brilliant year.


DB: Do you feel detached a bit from that year?

RG: I probably didn't feel part of it. I was completely removed from it and what happened since, broadened that gap. 2004 doesn't mean anything to me; in terms of being a fan, yes, it was great to be in an All-Ireland semi-final, but not as a player. That's not sour grapes for being dropped, but it was the way things were being done.

I'm quite happy to talk to anyone who was involved in '04 about what went on, but at the end of the day nobody wants to hear me say it, because the average Fermanagh fan was caught up in it. I was outspoken and probably burned my bridges with the management of that time, but I can live with that, anything I ever said or done was to get the best for Fermanagh.


DB: After you got cut from the panel, St Gall's filled the gap for you though.

RG: I really enjoy it up there and we have a super team. The first year it took a while to settle, but I feel privileged to play for a club who believe in a way of football, the way it's meant to be played.

Take Sean Kelly. I would always have seen him play for Queen's, but when you play along with him, you realise that he really would get on any team in Ireland. He's the best player I have played with and I don't say that lightly.


DB: How was it when your brother Rory joined?

RG: Well, work took him up here at the time and it was well received by all the players. It's just a band of brothers in St Gall's and it's a treat to be a Gall's man.


DB: You got back onto the county panel when you called Malachy O'Rourke up and asked for a trial?

RG: Yeah, we went to the Ulster Club final that year and the night after Cross beat us, I was training with Fermanagh. I'd missed it when I wasn't there.


DB: Was the set-up to your liking when you got back in?

RG: Absolutely top-class. The attitude and approach that the management brought to weights, to preparing for games, the whole package was there.


DB: On reflection, considering how close you came to the Ulster title with Fermanagh in 2008, what could have been done differently, or does it just come down to rotten luck?

RG: The way I see it, is that we didn't win Ulster, so we could have worked harder. We could have been more honest with ourselves. But when you look back and ask yourself did we give everything we had? I think we did.


DB: Everything was thrown at the bid to win Ulster and it could seem that it was the huge effort that might have finished some players?

RG: But it always is with Fermanagh! Rightly so, there's very little respect for Fermanagh throughout Ulster, because we have won nothing. We won't get respect in my playing days, mightn't even be in my lifetime, but we have to stand up and win things. Until then, we are the underdogs.


DB: Still, you were underdogs in two massive games against Monaghan and Derry...

RG: With Monaghan, we were in Brewster Park and we have a good record there. We had an energy about us, this energy that winning teams have and we refused to be beaten.


DB: The theme that was adopted for the Derry game at half time was, 'get out, win the game and get back in and don't get caught celebrating with supporters'...


RG: It was strictly business that day in Omagh. The Ulster final wasn't mentioned, we were just focusing on the processes, what we had to do to win the next game. Kieran Shannon [Gaelic Games Editor of The Sunday Tribune and Sports Psychologist] had been in with us and used Rosa Parks as an example of how we should stand up for ourselves.

The energy was there that night and we weren't going to lose. Kieran told us the door was always shut in our face and it was time to walk through it.


DB: When you saved the penalty, you must have had a serious rush?

RG: Look, if the penalty had have went in, we were still going to beat Derry regardless. Nine times out of ten they would have beaten us, but that night, no way.


DB: How were you when Barry Owens got his fist to that ball and it flew into the net?

RG: Definitely got a bit of a kick, but then we had players around you, Peter Sherry, Ryan McCluskey, who were roaring at you to get the next ball, get the next score.


DB: What was it like back in the dressing room?

RG: I couldn't wait to get back home to be honest. It was uncle Raymond's Anniversary Mass, so none of them, Mum or Dad or any of them got to the match. I got back to auntie Mary's house and we had tea and sandwiches and sat down to watch the game on video. You have to enjoy your victories too!


DB: How did you find the build-up to the Ulster final?

RG: Malachy kept everyone grounded, nobody got carried away. Kieran [Shannon] was there and with his connections to the media, he was able to guide us and he advised us that there was no harm in talking to the media, but that if you were doing a Sunday paper, do one of them, don't do three or four. There was never a media ban or anything, but we got good advice.

It could be easy enough to get carried away. I remember in 2004 there was a media night and we were meant to be actually training. There were cameras all around us and taking up space at the cones. This was ten days before an All-Ireland semi-final!


DB: And to the game itself...

RG: Armagh were possibly out of sorts, Aaron Kernan lost balls that he would never normally have and we found that energy in our legs again. We were possibly overawed, but we were focussing on the process, trying to get a win.


DB: The missed free-kicks are what everyone talks about, though...

RG: Players put themselves in that position of taking them, they back themselves and we have to trust them. If they go over, they go over, if they don't - they don't. That's looking for excuses, really. We weren't good enough to win it.

Had we a good enough team to win it? Yes, we did, but did we deserve to win it on the day? No, we didn't have that unbreakable spirit that refuses to lose games. For a while the first day we had it and we reeled them in, but when they asked questions of us in the replay, we didn't answer them.


DB: How much of that was down to losing the figurehead of Barry Owens?

RG: Again, blame Barry, it's just another excuse. Bottom line is, we weren't good enough, we didn't deserve to win it. If you want it hard enough, you will find a way.


DB: Did that sinking feeling continue into 2009?

RG: Concerns were expressed about our attitude heading into the year, but bottom line, the players have to take huge responsibility for it. The management were as hard-working as ever, in fact in terms of looking at opposition, they even upped their workload. It came down to players. You choose your own attitude, you take ownership of yourself and too many wrong choices were made by players.


DB: So how has it been going this year, first impressions of Johnny McBride?

RG: Very hands-on, he said that he's not there to make friends and reputations will mean nothing with him. I would have great respect for him as a player and throughout Ulster he would be respected.


DB: The panel has been much-changed from last year...

RG: We are in a place where we are better to have a group of players who are giving it 100 percent. If we do everything this year, give everything we can, that's fine. If others want to commit next year, that's fine too. At the end of the day, the players that went before won nothing for Fermanagh. What have they won? We need to have people who are focussed on playing for the county and nothing else.


DB: Is Rory being seen as a 'cure-all' for the team's shooting woes?

RG: I don't know, I think there's a lot of scepticism about whether he can still perform or not. Who knows, the league will tell a tale. He's been good and poor in the Ulster club, but I certainly wouldn't be banking on one player to make the difference for us.


DB: With all the football you have to cram in, what else can you manage?

RG: A small bit of reading, any sports books really. Would you believe I even read Ashley Cole's autobiography! He's a spoon and why I bought that book I will never know...

[haranguerer]

Just what it says there, between injury and not being happy at the set up, which you couldn't blame him for.

04 was the most successful year Fermanagh have ever had, but it definitely was shambolic, just everything came together at the right time. While trainers etc all talk about being professional, I think what benefitted Fermanagh in the championship that year was almost the opposite -  the relaxed attitude, and everything being a bit winged. Fermanagh never handle pressure well - that year there was no pressure at all, and the players were free to play.

Add into that that there were good players there, and also new players, and there had been decent runs in the previous few years, plus the fact that a lot of the top teams did have a bit of a dip, and everything worked out well.

Ronan cant be blamed for not being there however, I think hes always been a good servant to Fermanagh, and a sound lad too.

I've noticed lately that some of the negative atitudes towards Rory seem to be rubbing off on him  - a lot of the stories about the Gallagher bros being available/unavailable and then allusions to controversial pasts, lump them in together, which is unfair.

While Rory has attracted much criticism, some of which is deserved (and much not), I'd draw a distinct line between the pair of them - Ronan deserves only credit for his role for Fermangh over the years.

[unitedireland]

1. ronan didn't seem to like mulgrew like many of the players
2. Good to see fermanagh players having a challenging training weekend
3. Coa and Belnaleck have both entered two teams this year
4. Bridge are back to senior football
5. The under 21 final is finally set for next Friday in Brookeboro between Tempo & Belcoo

[118cmal]

Team for tomorrow night:

C Breen
M Jones, S Lyons, N Bogue
P Sherry, B Mulrone, T McElroy
J Sherry (c), R Jones
T O'Flanaghan, M Keenan, C Flaherty
A McCarron, R Carson, D Keenan

What ye make of it?

[FermGael]

Firstly where is Shane Goan??   Is he injured??
O'Flanaghan was hauled off after 20 minutes against Offally.  Can't see him starting.
Would be surprised if that team started.  Surley Damien Kelly is due a game as well

[sammymaguire]

what time is throw in? 7.30 catch ya's later

very poor performance, did not deserve the 2 points and on this display will be lucky to win another game in the league

[haranguerer]

Shocking stuff. Relegation fight on our hands I reckon - that was the most undeserved win I think I've ever seen, against a team that were hammered by a team that was subsequently hammered by our next opponents.

Blobby looked lively, and was our best player - should have been moved out to midfield earlier, we couldnt get anything there. Chrissy Breen is usually aware of options, but tonight noone had any interest in looking for the short one, or pretending to look for the short one to leave space behind them, so he had to hit it down the middle, where our return was brutal.

Defence all over the place - very slack, though Niall Bogue tried hard, but had just to many men to cover. Mulrone at chb didnt know what to be at, tried to play the space rather than the man, but there has to be a balance there which he never got, besides which you have to be covering the right space, which he rarely was.

Midfield - James Sherry looked good in patches, Jones kicked the ball away a lot, neither Cosgrove had any positive impact while on. Noone on our side was a presence on kick-outs.

Forwards: Blobby, on this evidence only himself and James Sherry will be starting in the summer, he looked dangerous, and was comfortable on the ball. Still over-reliant on his left though -  had to turn inside to try to get a shot away and was easily blocked down. Good defenders will be well aware of this. The original goal shot was lovely, pity it hit the cross bar - very cool. The rest - ineffective. Lad flaherty hit at least one decent point though, but needs to relax a bit I reckon - was lucky didnt get the line towards the end. Thought Ryan Keenan was poor when he came on too, expected more.

The rest - ineffective at best.

[FermGael]

well put Haranguerer.

People after were talking about the men that were missing.
Realistically all we were missing was M McGrath, E Maguire(getting married) and P Sherry(whom i assume was unfit because he was doing waterboy).Rory and Ronnie were with St Gall's.
Lyttle is gone, Quigley is gone, McDermott has retired, Brady has quit the panel.
McCluskey is injured(and may not be back because of his soccer commitments).
Owens will do well to play again.

If i was Malachy(can't believe i am typing this), i would try to get Frog back to partner Sherry at midfield.
Brady should be spoken to again as well. 
Would love to know what S Goan has done wrong??  He has been one of our best defenders for the last 2 years.

In defence we were so poor.  Mulrone did not mark the space or his man, and left us completely open down the middle.
The full back line was in trouble from the start because of the quality of the ball comming in from Roscommon.
They got no protection.  Our work rate was poor and the swarm defence system we used seems to have been nullified by teams.  They have worked out how to play against us

Up front Flaherty from Belcoo scored two nice points this week and will improve.  Just needs to have a bit more confidence in his ability.  Blobby is a handful at Full forward.  That's about all the positives we have up there.
I did not see the point in bringing Keenan on.  He spent most of the time in our full back line.
Through O'Brien showed a bit of promise when he came on.  He is direct and his run led to Sherry's goal.
D Keenan was good last week but there was very little ball going to him tonight.

Our basic ball handling skills were poor.   We did not execute the basics right.
Antrim could be a masacre.  Lets hope that this result is a turning point of our year

[Caid]

Got the post-match analysis from my Dad on the phone last night.  He sounded like he was nearly in tears they were that bad!   Shocking stuff