As Éire Óg prepare for their third senior football final in four years this Sunday, it’s not any of the previous wins in 2021 or ’22 that Paul Madden attributes as the making of this current team.
No, in what is his eighth year in charge of his native club, it’s his first championship crown at senior B level in 2019 that he pinpoints as the real turning point for the current crop.
“When I was asked to be manager by Pat Treacy and the late Des Neylon, I said that the time was right for me but that there was a huge body of work to be done. There was a transition period and while there were some good Under 21 teams, most senior managers will attend to the fact that Under 21 is great but it doesn’t make any immediate senior players.
“I originally thought I’d be in the role for a few years and to be fair if there was a perception that it was my time to be finished, one hundred per cent I’d be gone.
“It’s a big commitment obviously and a big commitment in terms of my personal workload at the time. However, I’m an all or nothing type of guy so once I went in I immediately set about putting a good backroom team together full of dual players that played for the club in both codes which is really important for Éire Óg that there was a strong focus that this is a dual club. And we gradually built from there and I suppose a good body of those younger players came through and then COVID hit and affected things more so it took a bit of time.
“Overall though, there were many moments where I was saying ‘are we going in the right direction?’. We brought ten Under 21’s to a quarter-final in 2019 against Doonbeg in Miltown when we were odds-on favourites and we lost in heartbreaking circumstances after extra-time.
“I took great resolve from that personally in that we had a team good enough to get to a semi-final but we just couldn’t get over that quarter-final barrier.
“It’s funny though, one of the things that we prioritised actually after that was the Senior B Final that year. We had ten Under 21’s that had played and lost against Doonbeg and normally no-one has an appetitive for Senior B but I really had and I convinced the management team that we had to.
“The final was on in Cusack Park before the Kilmurry and Miltown final, the same day as our 25 year anniversary of the Faughs. So the chance to play on county final day in Cusack Park was just too good to pass up. Okay it’s not the final you want to be in but for the development of these young players it was a route I felt we had to take.
“We played Kilmihil in the final and it was a really good game of football, probably a better spectacle than the senior final which was a derby and therefore very cagey. Our game was a bit more open, probably because there was no real pressure.
“I felt that win was important for the trajectory of our players to realise that they could win a title and it was from that moment onwards that we really started to click and players began to say to each other that we could be back here for a bigger game.
“COVID hit the following year but the year after that we went on to win it and here we are now today.”
The rest is history as once they broke their quarter-final hex against Ennistymon in 2021, they never looked back over their shoulders, annexing a first senior crown in 15 years that season against holders Kilmurry Ibrickane before repeating the dose in even more emphatic fashion against Ennistymon twelve months later.
“Look, you need reassurance that you’re doing the right things and I think the best reassurance is in the form of wins and especially final wins. In 2021, it was a fully merited win as I often say that if Carlsberg did county final Sundays, this would be it.
“You know, the sun was shining, we had a great send off from the club, there was a great atmosphere in the Park which I expect again this Sunday and we eventually got over the line. For most of that game, it could have gone either way and then we just pulled away at the end and definitely it was the reassurance we needed.”
The wheels did come off the wagon momentarily against Cratloe after extra-time and penalties at the penultimate stage but akin to poking the bear, it has only sharpened their hunger to leave no stone unturned once more to wrestle back the title.
“We’ve had a full year since we lost to Cratloe in last year’s semi-final and there are no qualms from me or anyone else in Éire Óg that we lost that match by means of a penalty shoot-out. Cratloe won it fair and square and went on to be worthy champions.
“Our issue as a management team and as a player group was that we that game possible won twice in normal time and extra-time and couldn’t see it out.
“And one thing in any set-up that I’m involved in or any of the management team for that matter, we’re not excuse makers but you have to analyse where it went wrong if you want to come back and redress it. And maybe, just maybe there was a little bit of physical/mental fatigue after being on the go for a long time.
I mean there hasn’t been a three-in-a-row achieved in 40 or 50 years [45 years this year since Kilrush last did so] for a reason. Even our opponents on Sunday, Kilmurry Ibrickane who were the standard-bearers and are always in the shake-up couldn’t do it so there’s a reason it’s so hard to do it.
“Look, there’s no guarantee either that when you lose and you start banging your chest that you’re going to come back and win that you will do so. However, there was a player-driven resolve to give it another crack.
“At the start of this year, we as a management team knew that we were good enough to get back. We knew that if we could get everyone fit and healthy, that we’d had a serious squad and it has worked out well in that regard and the whole set-up has been working in harmony and we’ve nothing achieved yet but we’re back in a county final.”
And the prospect of facing Kilmurry Ibrickane once more?
“I am a firm believer that there is a honest mutual respect between the two clubs and that’s borne out of out of the fact that we’ve had so many battles over the years. Now in saying that, we’ll go to the ends of our ability to get one up on each other on Sunday which is always a good tonic for a big match like this as you have two teams that will go hammer and tongs.
“But there is a respect there and from an Éire Óg perspective, they are the ones that have won Munster clubs and contested an All-Ireland Final. They’ve achieved so much and have players still togging out that have more medals that some of our lads will ever have in their lifetime, even collectively perhaps.
“So we’re well aware of their tradition, we’re very aware of their ability and we’ve played already in this campaign in a game that could have gone either way. We’ve improved since then, so have they so I think we’re in for a real ding-dong final this Sunday.”