Tommy McGovern has been acclaimed as one of Down footballs best ever defenders and doesnt his roll of honour say as much! Hogan Stand talks to the Burren clubman about a career which brought him a bucketful of medals. The much-decorated Tommy McGovern swears he has no regrets as he reflects on a glittering career with club, county and province. That said, the Down man does concede though that he went through all sorts of emotional turmoil when the Mournemen climbed Everest to win the All-Ireland senior title in 1991. "I was delighted for the players and the team-management but there was a bit of me which said that maybe I could have been there. "I suppose it was a bit of self-pity. I had played with the county for over ten years and hadn't managed to get to an All-Ireland final. That feeling didn't last too long though once I thought of great players like Dermot Earley and Tony McManus and others who hadn't won an All-Ireland either," Tommy explains. In a way, the former Burren stalwart could well stand accused of being greedy. That would be the ultimate irony though given that he was such a great team player and a man adept at covering the tracks of some team-mates who weren't quite blessed with the same football brain. Still, McGovern could be accused of wanting jam on it. After all, what modern-day footballers can boast of having won two All-Ireland club medals, three Railway Cup, two senior provincial championship, one national league and seven senior county championship medals . . .plus a replacement All-Star award? "I had a good enough innings but only for a virusand developing M.E. when I was 33 I could have played on for another bit. I would have loved to have been involved with Down when they beat Meath but you can't have everything." That the former ace club midfielder and staunch county and provincial full back enjoyed some rare 'oul times on the field of play, there can be no doubt. Born into a GAA-mad family, the young McGovern and his nine brothers were nephews of the great John McClorey (his mother's brother), the first Burren footballer to play for Ulster and, as such, the big ball game was always going to be part of their growing up. It's no surprise that this pedigree has been carried on as latter-day countymen Miceal Magill and Sean Ward are both nephews of Tommy. It seems there were many more good days than bad ones on the football field around Burren as Tommy and his siblings developed their skills. For one, Tommy was on hand to captain the club team to a refreshing county minor championship title in 1974 and with other would-be starlets about such as Paddy O'Rourke, and his own brother Brendan, the odds were always short that Burren were going to make an impression at senior level sooner rather than later. "We were extremely well looked after and tutored at underage level by a man called Sean Murdock. He had a fierce interest in football and I remember him taking us away to matches in an old van he had. He was Mister Burren back then and was responsible for nurturing the talents of a lot of young fellas over the years, including myself." So the writing was on the wall, as regards the impending success in '81? "I'd say so. We were knocking on the door for a few years before we actually made the breakthrough to win the senior title in 1981. For some time before that, we always had a solid enough team but we lacked the sharpness up front to really make it pay when push came to shove. Then the likes of 'Shorty' Treanor and Tony McArdle came along and the balance in the team came right." And what a balance! Although Tommy and co. crashed out of the championship in '82 at the hands of division two side Teconnacht, they were back with a bang the following year. In all, they proceeded to win the next six senior county championship titles. Apart from the balance of the team, what else had Burren got going for themselves then? "There was a great team spirit, a great sense of commitment among the players and a good mix of youth and experience, particularly by the time 1986 came around. In 1986 Burren were arguably at their best. Captained by Tommy, the Down kingpins had first to bypass the challenge of determined and highly-rated Monaghan champions Scotstown. "Scotstown had a very good team back then with quite a few of them being regulars on the Monaghan county team. Players like Gerry and Jack McCarville and Fergus Caulfield were great players and I remember telling the lads that if we were able to beat them (Scotstown) we were able to go the whole way." And so it came to pass that the fledgling All-Ireland club champions did indeed beat the best of the rest to land the national title with a terrific win over a Charlie Nelligan-bolstered Castleisland Desmonds team from Kerry. Burren's glory days didn't end there though. The team was back in the winner's enclosure in 1988 when crack Roscommon side Clann Na Gael - the McManuses et al - were defeated in the All-Ireland decider. Earlier, in the semi-final, Burren had upset the odds by defeating competition kingpins Nemo Rangers. For good measure, Tommy remembers having a decent enough game marking the great Dinny Allen in that penultimate encounter. "Those were tremendous days for Burren. To see grown men cry after those victories really brought it home to the players just what the titles meant to seasoned veterans in the club. "The fact that Burren picks from such a small area made such success all the sweeter and winning such a prestigious competition really put the village on the map. "I remember those wins created a real buzz about the football club which lasted a long time," adds the father of current Burren starlets Damien, Eunan and Andrew and university student Rachel. Meanwhile, Tommy enjoyed equally thrilling days on the county and provincial fronts during his prime. For instance, in 1981 he captained his county to victory over Armagh in the Ulster SFC final although he shared the grave disappointment of his brother and team-mate Brendan when the side subsequently lost out to champions-elect Offaly in the All-Ireland semi-final. "Brendan missed a penalty that day but I've long since forgiven him," Tommy quips. Three years earlier, the disappointment was no less intense as Tommy featured on a Down team which made it through to the All-Ireland semi-final where they led Dublin by four points early on only to be pegged back by the metropolitans. "That was a great Dublin team. You had men like Brian Mullins, Jimmy Keaveney and Tony Hanahoe. There was no shame in losing out to them." No shame either was attached to Tommy being named as a replacement All-Star on the trip to the USA in 1978/79. The visit then to New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles is a memory Tommy says he will never forget. Now 45 years of age, Tommy is feeling the aches and pains that are inevitable by-products of amassing so many miles on the playing fields of Ireland. A nasty and 'oftimes recurring virus brought an untimely end to his playing career in 1988 when he was just 33. He has worked at Warrenpoint Docks for the past 26 years as a supervisor which has kept his body and his mind occupied. Sometimes talk at work does come around to All-Irelands. Sore point? Not a bit. Taken from Hogan Stand magazine May 2001 Tweet

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