Management comes naturally to Colin
November 27, 2011Louth great Colin Kelly is gearing up for a busy 2012 after committing himself to managing both the O'Raghallaigh's senior and Louth U21 football teams.
While he still occasionally lines out for his adopted Dreadnots, who he joined from Newtown Blues in 2002, Kelly's main focus nowadays is on management. And after guiding O'Raghallaigh's to Seamus Flood Cup glory this year, many see him as a future Louth senior football manager. However, the only thing on his mind right now is ensuring that his O'Raghallaigh's and Louth U21 teams are prepared as best they can possibly be for the new season.
"There is a big year coming up for both teams and my job is to have them ready for it," says Colin, who remains a household name in Louth GAA circles.
"O'Raghallaigh's had a great year last year and I didn't want to leave them because I know just how big of a step-up it is from intermediate to senior football. I've spent the last two years with them and it has taken me that long to get to know the players. They've made a lot of progress and they'll need to make further progress next year. They need a bit of stability and that's why I've decided to stay with them for another year. The club couldn't afford to lose any time looking for a new manager with such a big year coming year.
"I have the Louth U21s as well next year, but I don't see a conflict of interest because the U21 championship is run off early in the year," he adds.
Colin was appointed Louth U21 boss in succession to Kieran Maguire just days after O'Raghallaigh's county final victory over Clan na Gael. His selectors will be former county team-mates JP Rooney, Colm Nally and Christy Grimes. The Wee County have been drawn against minnows Kilkenny in the first round of the Leinster championship, and assuming they win that, they will face a Longford team that will be able to call on many of the same players who were unlucky to lose this year's Leinster final to Wexford.
O'Raghallaigh's have given the former Railway Cup star a good grounding in management. Not surprisingly, he has taken great satisfaction from their progress over the past two seasons. Last year, the Drogheda outfit defeated no fewer than eight senior clubs en route to winning the ACC Cup, which was their first piece of senior silverware since 1969. They also reached the IFC final, only to lose to Young Irelands. However, they made amends this year when overcoming Clan na Gael by 0-9 to 0-6 in the decider.
"The lads have given me everything they have in the last two years and winning the intermediate championship was just reward for their efforts. When we started out in January 2010, we set our goal to be senior on all fronts in three years and to achieve it in two has been great," he enthuses.
"When I started with these lads, they had no consistency in terms of league form but you could see they had the ability to put that right. Our aim was to win as many games as we could in all competitions and the ACC Cup success last year was an important stepping stone. The whole thing has mushroomed since then - it reminds me a lot of Newtown Blues in 1997."
O'Raghallaigh's were slow to find their feet in this year's IFC final at Haggardstown, and their supporters must have feared a repeat of last year when they fell 0-1 to 0-3 in arrears inside the first quarter. But they steadied themselves with points from Ruairi Moore (two) and Ben Rogan to ensure parity at half-time (0-4 piece).
The Drogheda Hopes continued where they left off at the start of the second half when Craig McEnteggart and Rogan both raised white flags to push them into a 0-6 to 0-4 lead after 38 minutes. Paul Martin replied for Clans before Barry Flanagan restored O'Raghallaigh's two-point lead. Another Rogan scores from a 30-metre free put three points between the sides for the first time in the 47th minute.
The Clans responded once more with a Mark McGeown point, but in a tense finish, Ruairi Moore restored O'Raghallaigh's three-point advantage to ensure the Seamus Flood Cup was destined for the Gaelic Grounds.
Kelly is fulsome in his praise of his selectors Martin McKenna, Paul Moore, Johnny Clerkin and Eoin Farrelly, as well as those who have put some much work into the O'Raghaillaigh's underage structure over the years.
"If I hadn't surrounded myself with good people, this success would never have materialised. Martin, Paul, Johnny and Eoin were a fantastic help to me and so too were a lot of other people in the background. This win was for those who put in the work with the underage - dedicated people like Mark O'Neill, Josh Carling and Peter Moore. They did all the groundwork and made my job very easy."
He continues: "Our aim for next year will be to consolidate our position in the senior championship. It's going to be a massive step-up for such a young team, but we'll work as hard as we can and see where it takes us."
Despite being one of the top forwards and free-takers in the country throughout the 1990s, the only honours Kelly won with Louth were All-Ireland 'B' and National League Division 2 medals. However, he's not one for looking back in anger.
"As someone who lost seven Leinster semi-finals, I obviously have a fair few regrets but overall my time with Louth was very enjoyable and I made some great friends from all over Ireland," the Irish Cement employee says.
"I have been a huge Louth fan all of my life and for me there was no bigger thrill than pulling on your county jersey on the day of a Leinster championship game. It's a massive honour for any player. We got to play in Division 1 and won an All-Ireland 'B' championship in 1997. The other highlight was being selected to play for Leinster and winning Railway Cup medals in 1996 and '97. When we won in '97, there were two other Louth players on the starting team with me - Seamus O'Hanlon and John Donaldson."
A county minor for three years (1987-'89) and county U21 for five years (1988 to '92), Colin made his senior debut for Louth in 1988 against Mayo in a National League game at Dundalk, and was a virtual ever-present over the next 14 years. Sadly for Colin, the All-Ireland qualifiers weren't introduced until 2001 - a year before he retired from inter-county football.
"If the backdoor was around in the 1990s, there's a chance Louth would have played in a few All-Ireland quarter-final or semi-finals. We had a good team, but personally speaking, we probably didn't work as hard as we could have. We lost seven Leinster semi-finals and most of them were by a point or two. At that stage, the teams that were beating us were going on to win All-Irelands. Leinster football was very strong, and it's just a pity there was no second chance for us back then. There were a lot of hard luck stories," he ruefully reflects.
Colin enjoyed a lot more success at club level. He won three Louth SFC titles with Newtown Blues (1988, 2000 and 2001) and also collected two IFC medals with Dreadnots (2004 and 2008).
With a glamour Leinster SFC quarter-final against All-Ireland champions Dublin in the offing, Kelly feels Louth should be concentrating their efforts on retaining their NFL Division 2 status in 2012.
"They have a massively tough Division 2 campaign coming up and it will take a huge effort to stay up," he predicts.
"Even though we won promotion from Division 3 this year, our league and championship form wasn't great and we'll need to improve. We're capable of beating Westmeath in the first round of the Leinster championship, but I'm not sure if we're good enough to beat Dublin who are on a high after winning the All-Ireland. We'll see how the league goes first."
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