“Never in the (Sigerson) Cup’s history had a college turned around its fortunes so dramatically. Its only prior honours had come through a narrow win over UCC’s second team in the Freshers division two league final of 1996,” – Dónal McAnallen, The Cups That Cheered.
The above description was applied to Tralee RTC (later IT Tralee), which in 1997 won the college’s first Sigerson, defeating UL in the final in Coleraine one wet day in March.
McAnallen’s definitive history of the third-level GAA competition’s adds to the Tralee story by way of explanation: “To team manager Val Andrews and trainer Pat Flanagan, both lecturers in the college, went the credit for assembling and fortifying such a team.”
Andrews, from Ballymun Kickhams in Dublin, went on to manage Cavan and Louth, whereas Flanagan, an athletics specialist, worked with Jack O’Connor in his early All-Ireland victories with Kerry.
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This Sunday O’Connor is on his third tour of duty with Kerry and back in an All-Ireland final. His Galway counterpart Pádraic Joyce, was part of the TRTC breakthrough and when they retained the Sigerson a year later another future All-Ireland manager, Donegal’s Jim McGuinness, was on board.
There were a host of players on the verge of the big time. Meath’s Mark O’Reilly had already won an All-Ireland, Barry O’Shea and William Kirby would later in 1997 win one with Kerry, as did Séamus Moynihan, who had been persuaded to do a masters in Tralee after a stellar Sigerson career with UCC.
“If you were lining them up, that team, that generation,” remembers Andrews, “I probably would have picked Joyce out as prime managerial material – ahead of McGuinness even though he was mad about football and worked really hard to better himself. It’s also incredible how great a footballer Séamus Moynihan was and yet he has not become a manager.
“He’s an obvious one because he’s a really good fella, a very bright guy and a grá for Kerry that was Páidí-esque!”
Moynihan was involved in pitching for the Kerry job when O’Connor was appointed and may be again in the future. According to Andrews, even as a young man Joyce was precociously shrewd.
“Tactically Joyce was very good. He knows footballers, knows what they’re good at. He’d tell you things about opposition players. Derek Savage played for UCD – very strong on his left or some fella he remembered from playing in Jarlath’s. He was astute and had an eye for it. Hugely talented but he worked hard enough.
“Not that we didn’t have our differences. I wanted to drop him for missing training one night and was persuaded not to by John Kelleher, a Cork man who was our development officer so I played him left corner back as a punishment! He was marking David Nestor, the Mayo corner forward. They both scored four points!”
That match marked the end of Tralee’ first Sigerson campaign. The opening match he remembers caused quite a stir in the locality.
“In 1996 we played Maynooth – first ever Sigerson game in Kerry: two and a half thousand! It’s a college game! We beat them and then lost to UCD, who had Trevor Giles, Larry Finnerty (father of Galway’s Rob), John Divilly (Galway coach) and went on to win it that year.”
Andrews had worked on interesting local sponsors in backing scholarships so that they could compete with the scholarship schemes emerging in other colleges, like UCD where Trevor Giles had become the first recipient.
Moynihan was offered one and decided to accept. His demeanour and dedication played a major role in the success that followed. Even by the standards of third-level games with their players’ ability to focus on playing, Moynihan had a professional approach.
“We had a good team but it was all over once we got him,” says Andrews.
In the 2000 All-Ireland, Tralee team-mates Joyce and Moynihan, who were also friends, were in direct opposition, with Moynihan winning out after a replay.
The RTC became IT Tralee but their success continued with a home victory to retain the trophy in 1998 by which stage new Galway manager John O’Mahony had called Joyce up to the county panel for what would a first All-Ireland title in 32 years.
Andrews had by then acquired another Galway prodigy Michael Donnellan and McGuinness as well as Kerry’s Michael Russell. A year later the three-in-a-row was completed in Queen’s Belfast under the captaincy of McGuinness.
Not long after Andrews had relocated to Dublin to take up a position in Blanchardstown IT. He left Tralee with good memories and admiration for Joyce endures.
“He was an original with us. There were no scholarships when he enrolled. He’s intelligent. He’s a huge student of the game and knows a good footballer, their attitudes, their behaviour. He knows what it takes. He scored his 10 points against Meath (2001 All-Ireland final), four off his right foot, which was the first I’d seen of it. Because he’d worked so hard at it and he had a wand of a left foot.
“He also had a very defined focus on winning. When we were starting on the Sigerson that season he was the one saying, ‘yeah, we can do it’. That’s the way he was. He could be opinionated, brash, stubborn – you have to be though. Calculated and talented.”
On Sunday he will take his learning to a new level.
