McBrien's passion play the key for Charlestown
Saturday November 21 2009
CHARLESTOWN'S Ciaran McBrien insists he's actually a bit of an 'accidental manager' but, with his boundless enthusiasm, that's hard to believe.
He describes himself as "an ordinary club foot-soldier" and locals attest that he's the first to volunteer to line the pitches, clean dressing-rooms or organise the juveniles.
People like McBrien are what keep every club in the country going through thick and thin, and that was the sort of selfless back-room role he played when Charlestown won their only previous Connacht title back in 2001. But since then he's found himself thrown to the front of the stage.
"We were badly beaten by Ballaghadereen in a county quarter-final in '06," he says. "A lot of people gave off about the players that day. I was in the stand and I wasn't happy with what I heard. We'd had two successive 'outside' managers too, and I didn't agree with that either. So between that -- and me coming out and defending the players -- well it was a case of 'listen, put up or shut up!' and I ended up coming into management unbeknownst to myself!"
It has certainly paid off as the club have since reached three successive county finals.
A bread salesman for O'Hara's, McBrien's unusual working hours no doubt help him indulge his football passion but they, he admits chuckling, are not exactly ideal for his players. "I send texts to the boys at all hours of the morning!" he says. "They don't like that at all."
But, given McBrien's attention to detail, there is nothing random or accidental about their progress to tomorrow's Connacht SFC final (live on TG4).
Players with injuries have been dispatched to cryotherapy chambers for recovery and the weekend before the county final, he got wind that All-Ireland winning manager, Jack O'Connor, would be in Galway on Saturday night.
Contact was swiftly made and, hey presto, the Kerry football mastermind spent an inspirational hour with the Charlestown squad.
"We'd lost the last two county finals and would have been a laughing stock if we'd lost the third," McBrien says.
"I was prepared to do anything we needed and getting Jack O'Connor to talk to the lads was a huge boost."
McBrien, equally, has his homework done on opponents Corofin, the defending Connacht champions who are seeking a fifth provincial title since 1991. "It's no secret how good Corofin are, and they're real cute too at grinding out results," he says.
"They tend to leave just four up and interchange the half-forwards and they can do it at pace, something similar to ourselves."
However, he admits he is not a fan of funnelling wing-forwards back and forth, which has taken over the modern game. "Everybody is at it now, it's something similar to soccer and I think it's spoiling the game because you look at results all around the country, we've a lot more low-scoring matches nowadays," he says.
His side are not short of talent themselves, including former county stars like John Casey and Aidan Higgins and current county midfielder, Tom Parsons.
Since their thrilling extra-time semi-final defeat of Castlerea they've lost their totemic midfield veteran David 'Ginger' Tiernan to injury and half-forward Richard Haran is also battling an injury.
But McBrien feels their bench proved their competitiveness against Castlerea. "The difference for us this year is we really have 20 players all battling for 15 places," he says.
The settling in of Down native, Daragh McMeel, at full-back and the emergence of young wing-back, Colm Maye, this season has really helped and forward, Tony Mulligan, really stepped up to the plate against Castlerea.
Charlestown are also hoping that one other thing might help them topple the champions -- home advantage.
"This is a big day for the whole community, not just the football club," McBrien says.
"This match is bringing people to Charlestown for the day, the television cameras are coming. In a way, there's so much going on that it has helped take the pressure off us and allowed us concentrate on the game."
- Cliona Foley
Irish Independent
