Frannie Kelly points the way to Tipperary footballing success So there is a Tipperary man heading the scoring charts in the National League, nothing too surprising about that or is there, well, yes, there is actually, because it is the National FOOTBALL League which boasts a wearer of the blue and gold at the head of it's affairs. Clonmel Commercials star Frannie Kelly is the man in question and he has been keeping one eye on the charts over the recent weeks. "Going into our last league game against Clare I was four points ahead of Liam Carolan and I scored eight while he managed four, so now that we are finished our games I'll have t sweat it out over Cavan's last match" That is not all Frannie and his Tipp teammates have to worry about, as the match at Dungarvan between Waterford and Clare will be watched with anxiety as well. Basically, if Clare wins then they can overtake Tipp at the top of the table and gain promotion to division one next season, as well as a place in the league quarter-finals and thwart Kelly and his comrades of what has been their main ambition this Winter. "I know the championship draw favours the weaker counties this year, but it has been our priority to try and get into division one. You'd get fed up with meeting the Kilkennys, Waterfords, Limericks and Clares and the best way to improve standards is to be competing against the best teams, I'll tell you this much, I'd give up every point I've ever scored for Tipp to ensure promotion to the top flight" A regular on the Tipp side since 1980, a year in which he played minor under 21 and senior, Kelly has vivid memories of what might have been in the Munster minor championship of that year. "We were leading a Kerry team which featured Tom Spillane and Amby O'Donovan by seven points with four minutes to go and still contrived to lose to them. They went on to win the All Ireland easily enough so that was a big disappointment" Disappointment was a word to set to figure regularly in Frannies vocabulary since then, though he recalls clearly an occasion when Tipp had the audacity to take the lead against the great Kerry side of the mid-eighties. "we were playing them in a Munster semi-final in Clonmel and led by 1-2 to 0-1 after a couple of minutes and sure all that did was upset them and we were hammered in the end" Nowadays, things are different with the advent of the opening draw and featuring as they do in the half of the draw that houses Waterford and Clare, Tipp appear to have a realistic chance of making a Munster final appearance at least. "Well, Clare beat us in the league by five points and it could have been more except for our "keeper Philly Ryan made three or four fantastic saves. But one thing is for certain, even that defeat didn't dampen the spirit that was built up after we beat Down". Yes I was wondering when that would get a mention, the shock result of the G.A.A season so far - All Ireland winners Down being humbled by Tipperary in a challenge that drew a crowd of 8,000 to Thurles as part of a double header with Cork versus Tipp hurling challenge, a crowd which certainly got their eyes opened regarding football in the Premier County. "First and foremost let's get this only a challenge theory out of the way, Down like any champions do not like losing and we beat them very easily that day. I scored eight points again and overall we fully deserved our win, Conor Deegan admitted as much in the national newspapers and after that game the crowd, who had come primarily for the hurling, were really buzzing and excited about the football. If we reach the Munster Final, I guarantee you, we'll take as much support to that game as the hurlers would to their final" It certainly makes a change from the post match comment Kelly has had to endure in the past from well meaning Tipperary fans. "After we'd have been beaten by Kerry or Cork lads would come up and say, sure you gave them a good game of it anyway, I used to hate that, I mean what is the point in giving some team a game of it? I know they meant well, but people saying that used to annoy me, as losing is losing, not matter how well we might have played." Married to Alice with three children, Jacqueline, Niall and Louise, Frannie laughs at the claim that the young Niall could possibly be named after a certain Mr. Quinn. "You're joking, he plays for Man. City and I'm a United fan, have been all my life and I still go over fairly often to see them." A regular on the Munster football panel over the years since 1985, Frannie finds the players from the traditionally stronger counties differ in their attitude to those from, say Tipp and Clare. It was against Cork that Frannie suffered his blackest moment in intercounty football managing to get himself sent off in a Munster junior final. In face, Kelly could well have found himself wearing the Cork red if he had to act on a few words that were almost casually whispered in his ear some years back. "I got a little whisper that there was a job available to me in Cork if I wanted it, but without insulting the person I made it fairly clear and fairly quickly at that time I wasn't interested." Always one to say what was on his mind, his forthright opinions have not always found favour with those in authority forcing him to miss a chance of rewriting a little bit of unwanted history in 1989. "Let's just say that myself and the selectors had a bit of a fallout in 1989 with the result I made myself unavailable for selection and that year we actually won the McGrath Cup. I've a record of playing on six losing Tipp teams in that competition and the year they won it I was missing." He has one medal though, an All-Ireland minor hurling, gained from the subs bench in 1980. "That was such a good team that I felt privileged to even get on the bench to watch them." Nicky English featured on that side and Kelly reveals that English and a couple of other well known Tipperary hurlers are good enough to make the grade at football also. "Remember that first minor team I mentioned, well Nick was centre back on that team, while John Leahy and Cormac Bonner are quite good footballers also." On the club scene Kelly is the possessor of four county championship medals with Commercials and argues that he is unlucky not to have added a Munster Club token to his collection, the Clonmel lads going under to Dr. Crokes in 1990. "We were fierce unlucky in that final. It actually went to a replay and extra time. I had to go off injured just before the end of normal time and then Christopher McGrath who was dominating midfield for us was sent off in a nothing-type of incident and still we only lost by three points." Running the show for the Tipp footballers this year is Seamus McCarthy who was in command of the minor team that reached the All-Ireland final in centenary year and his work is made that little bit easier by the recently formed group Friends of Tipperary. "They have been set up exclusively for the footballers an membership is flying. It makes the lads feel great as they have seen hurlers being helped by the supporters clubs and now it is great to see somebody taking an interest in the football end of things." As a freetaker himself, it is perhaps only natural that Kelly should nominate two of the greatest exponents of the art as his favourite ever footballers, though he doesn't model himself on either. "Tony McTeague of Offaly was deadly from a placed ball, but for me Mikey Sheehy was something special. I practice frees a lot in training but other than that I wouldn't do too much. I'm lucky, I support, in that I am naturally two footed, so either side of the pitch suits me fine." So the advice to youngsters is practice makes perfect, but what about penalties - any special secret there? Kelly says not. "I used to place them low, but now I don't decide what way to take them until they happen. I've never missed one for Tipp but I have for Commercials. Mind you, if I miss I miss - it wouldn't stop me taking the next one. Like I said, with frees confidence plays a big role." At all times throughout this conversation Kelly's underlying theme was the urgent need for Tipp's footballers to actually achieve something as he argues strongly that it is the only way that they can be taken seriously inside or outside the county. "As I said, the interest created by the Down win is substantial. We are not entering a phase where we have got to do something positive to sustain that. We have a side now containing the bulk of the minor squad from 1984. So, in some ways it is put up or shut up time. Hopefully things will work out in our favour in the league, but we have the backing and the interest. The ball is now in our court and we just have to do something with it." Now aged thirty, Frannie Kelly has seen a lot of active service in aid of Tipp football. There are, he admits, a lot of miles on the clock, but the man who names Tom Foley of Wexford as his most difficult opponent has no intention of pulling the shutters down on his career just yet. "It's wrong that so many players retire in or around thirty. They do it because the fallacy is that once you hit that age you are going downhill - that's stupid (he didn't say stupid, but this is a family magazine!). I'm as lively as when I was eighteen. I'm enjoying every minute of it and I have no intention of retiring just yet, anyway." A moments hesitation and Frannie's of and running again. "Look, I'm playing for Munster in this year's Railway Cup. I'm representing my county on the provincial team, so I'm still able to do a bit better than just put one leg in front of the other. I love every moment of it. Retire? - you must be joking." There's a few corner backs down in Waterford, Clare and perhaps Cork and Kerry - who will be reading that statement with trepidation. When that statement is relayed to Kelly, the reaction is just what you might expect. A long laugh is followed by just one word - "Good". Thinking about it, that seems an ideal word to sum up Frannie Kelly - one of the GAA's good guys. Taken from Hogan Stand magazine 07-03-1992 Tweet

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