Boys of Glenflesk

Like so many things, it happened by chance. Tommy Griffin was at home, recuperating after a minor operation, and happily contemplating a winter undefined by football schedules.

At the age of 32, married and with a young family, he was content to reconcile himself to the inevitable truth that he had achieved all that he could on a football field. From now on, the game would be pleasure and memories.

Then Michael O'Donoghue, lifeblood of the local side, came visiting. Jim O'Shea, after so many seasons on the line for Glenflesk, felt he could offer no more and the club needed management.

"It was the last thing on my mind," recalls Griffin, "and I said I had no real interest in taking on management responsibilities. But I did know what this club was about and said I had no problem in getting the thing off the ground, that I'd give it five or six weeks."

O'Donoghue, whose knowledge of Glenflesk football was amassed through 30 years of struggle and obscurity and isolated bright times, knew a good snare when he saw one. He probably figured that once Griffin got the smell of early spring training, once he put a structure on the club, he wouldn't be able to withdraw. It would not be in his nature.

He went about finding partners for Griffin. Tom Brosnan and Sean O'Donoghue were recruited.

"The first time the three of us actually met was when we were discussing what the objectives would be. Prior to this year, the biggest thing for Glenflesk was winning the junior county title in 1992. We were an intermediate club that had never managed to win that honour.

"I think we all felt that it was a very noble and brave gesture by the Kerry board to open the club championship with the innovative, once-off Millennium Cup and there was a sense that it did afford a club like ourselves an opportunity, however slim.

"We looked at the scene in Kerry and it was apparent that the county team would most likely have a good All-Ireland championship run and that local fixtures would be put back a lot. So we wanted to try and peak around late September or October."

Glenflesk fits the mythical, rose-hued description of the self-contained parish around which the All-Ireland club championships have thrived over the past decade. Yet, Glenflesk is more of a notion than a physical reality; the local village is Darraduff and is centered around the church and local bar. For sure, there is a strong community ethos coursing through the GAA club. And this improbable run, this emerging through the maelstrom of Kerry football to represent the county in Munster football . . . it is the stuff of fireside tales.

The reality is a little more complex. Over half the team travel to the twice-weekly training sessions from Cork city, where some work and others are at college. And Glenflesk is the home of two of football's most gifted practitioners; Seamus Moynihan's feats throughout last summer's All-Ireland championship ended the debate about the footballer of the year. And Johnny Crowley is among the sharpest forwards in the country. O'Donoghue saw the two develop. "I think the pride works two ways; everyone here takes tremendous joy in the way they have excelled at the game and both players have a similar pride in their club. Glenflesk is not the biggest club but I doubt it ever crossed either of their minds to ever play with another side."

It was obvious that the blueprint for the team's game-plan would knit around Glenflesk's most accomplished stars. The difficulty came in building a team around them.

"We have a situation where we have a young fella of 16 (Damien McCarthy) in the squad and also a player of over 40. It was a matter of using what resources we had in the most positive way," says Griffin.

"And, as well as that, we came up with a schedule that would allow us to train effectively while hopefully allowing us some sort of life away from football also." They opted for an 8 p.m. training time to allow locals a chance to get home and the Cork-based players time to commute.

"We built a momentum up over the summer and even though we were going through a long period without games, the interest or attitude in training never dipped."

As O'Donoghue sees it, Glenflesk's season spun in the short space of time between an East Kerry championship defeat to Kilcummin and the Millennium Cup quarter-final against Kerins O'Rahilly's. "The loss woke us up, it was the catalyst really. And there was nothing much expected of us against O'Rahilly's. And, of course, we trailed badly at half-time and clawed our way back in a way that won't be forgotten about here. After that, we began to see things in a new light, that we could cause trouble for bigger clubs."

Tomorrow they will attempt outright anarchy. The contrast between Glenflesk and Nemo Rangers, perhaps the most illustrious club team in history, an urban giant of a football club, could not be better defined.

"Their record itself makes facing them a daunting prospect and history shows that at this stage of the competition, they don't often makes mistakes. This is real uncharted water for us but, at the same time, we will be hoping that our players can maintain this wonderful run," says O'Donoghue.