*Emmet McMahon in action against Seán O’Shea of Kerry in the 2024 Munster final. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
THOUGH many of his teaching colleagues and former college mates are making the most of the Easter holidays, Clare footballer Emmet McMahon is content to confine his travels to Cusack Park as the county enters the championship arena.
Indeed, it’s the dawning of a sixth championship campaign at senior inter-county for Emmet who is expected to partner Brian McNamara at midfield on Saturday when Clare take on Tipperary in the Munster semi-final at 2pm.
Years involved with the county are increasing but so too are the enjoyment levels, he observed. “You always look at other championship players around and how they get into their fifteenth or sixteenth season, you don’t feel them going by but it gets more enjoyable every year and nothing more enjoyable than buzzing out of Cusack Park on Monday evening looking forward to a big championship game this Saturday”.
Particularly over the past two seasons, he has grown into one of the team’s main leaders. “The first two or three years I’d have been a younger player on the panel and it was tough because you’ve to put down two or three years and really work hard to get your place and when you do get the chance you’ve to make it stick and make it happen, it is enjoyable, I know last year we had a big overturn of players and it was the year for some of us that we had to step up as leaders because we had so many new lads in, even though a good few of us might have been on the panel three or four years we found ourselves as the more experienced lads and we had to step up as leaders, it is a great opportunity and you have to see these things as an opportunity and that opportunity is a privilege for a lot of us to grow up into new roles, I think we’ve done it well and a lot of other lads have stepped up which is fantastic”.
This year, he is joined for the first time on an inter-county panel by his older brother, Rory. “It’s brilliant. The first two or three years I was the only Kildysart player on the panel, it has been absolutely brilliant to have myself, Rory, Diarmuid O’Donnell and Fergal Guinane, we’ve been knocking about the last couple of years so it is brilliant to see the mix of other clubs then coming together as one which is a special thing, sharing the pitch with some of your clubmates is brilliant as well. The club scene is far away now and we won’t worry about it, when we’re out there with Clare we’re all putting on that jersey with Clare, it is special and we have really bonded, Peter has really got us bonded together this year, we’re all rolling in together and pulling that rope at once and in the same direction”.
A maths and PE teacher at St Caimin’s Community School in Shannon, the life of an inter-county footballer precludes Emmet from jetting off during the Easter holidays but there’s no complaints from the UL graduate. “It is a privilege to put on the Clare jersey, it is a luxury really, every day you go out you have to remember that, you have to be proud to put on that Clare jersey, that is what it comes back to when you see all your buddies going away or fellas on holidays over the break, there is nothing better than a championship win coming out on the right side of a real big win and you’re in somewhere like Cusack Park with the sun shining with all your teammates, all your brothers in battle at that point in championship, when you have that man beside you that you trust and that you have went to battle with, there is a lot of satisfaction in that to come out on the good side of a championship win”.
This time off gives the chance to experience life as an almost full-time athlete but also poses the risk of overthinking about an upcoming game. “There’s two ways to look at it, you will keep busy, we’ve a good few teachers, I think we might be in double digits on the panel, it’s about finding the balance, a few of us will meet up this week and go for a coffee, a walk or grab lunch, it is about keeping busy, it is brilliant for getting the right amount of sleep but it is important to keep busy over the next week and not think about the game too much. It is like an up and down curve, we have to have full energy and have full preparation right and bring it up for that seventy minutes on Saturday”.
Clare’s league run which for the second year in succession saw them miss out on promotion to Division 2 in the final round brought “lots of learnings”. He reflected, “we had seven league games and five wins, two losses, you will always look back and focus on the losses, that is the way sport goes because people focus on the negatives, there’s learnings we’ve taken for sure. One of the key points is we had four wins from four in Cusack Park, we’re keen to make that as a group and make any game we have in Cusack Park a big fortress, we’d like to make it hard for teams when we’re at home, that is a key positive. The learnings on the negative side, there’s lots to take away, too many to go into but overall positive enough”.
One of Clare’s struggles during the league was to nail down a midfield partner for Cooraclare’s Brian McNamara which by the conclusion of their run was deemed to be Emmet. Moving from the half-forward line to midfield brings “a few differences,” he acknowledged. “With the new rules a lot of the kickouts are going long so you’re contesting a lot more high ball in the middle, primary possession and even secondary possession on the breaks is so important, it is vital. I enjoy it, whatever position I or whoever it is needs to play in, if it is the best for the team and Clare football that has to be the primary goal all the time for us, whatever is best for us or makes us better you go and do it, you do your job and you do it well”.
At minor level in the county colours and with his club Kildysart, Emmet has demonstated his fielding ability which makes him a natural fit to accompany Brian Mc. “Brian has had an excellent league, hopefully he can carry it onto championship, I played a bit with Brian at Sigerson level, we’d be familiar with each other around the middle eight anyway, it was a grand change, I didn’t mind playing up front at the start of the league, I thought I was doing okay but whatever is best for Clare football we put that to the forefront, we’ve struck a nice balance there with mix and matching different positions, that is what the league is all about really, getting your strongest team together, getting your right positions, it is hard for Peter and a new management when you don’t know where players are stronger in certain positions or if they might flourish a bit better somewhere else, we took learnings from the league and hopefully we can bring them into championship”.
Long kickouts has been a consequence of the new rules but the introduction of the two pointer increases the value of a shooter like McMahon. “Tipperary played Waterford and they were up six or seven points, the game can change so quickly we’ve seen that in the league where teams were fifteen or sixteen points down and against the breeze but they come back with the breeze and get a comeback on very quickly, there is a lot of learnings from across the country with the two pointer rule, a one pointer as we call it now is still a good score and that was a key learning, a point is a good score, take your point, go and get your next kickout and go again. We had a decent comeback against Laois, I don’t think we kicked a two pointer at all in a ten or eleven point turnaround, there is a bit of excitement around the two point arc for that reward but the Division 1 average was 25 percent from two pointers, they are one in four shots so we’re playing the percentages as a team to make sure we get the shots off”.
Peter Keane is the third Clare senior manager that Emmet has played under and he is very impressed with the former Kerry boss. “Peter is absolutely excellent, the two managers before him were unbelievable in fairness, Peter has brought serious standards to the entire setup, we’re loving playing under him, we’re absolutely loving it, we’re really playing for him, the standards he brings and his mannerisms, it might be a small chat after training or something to work on or get better on, something you did well, small chats here and there, he really wants to improve you as a player and he believes in us, it is all about us believing in ourselves, couple those two things together and hopefully we’ll have a really good championship campaign”.
He continued, “We had a fantastic training camp last weekend which was absolutely brilliant for the group, we had everything sorted for us, there’s some brilliant work going on in the background, Jim Marrinan has been there for years, Eoin Curtin, Shane O’Rourke, Peter Tormey and Paddy Tiernan are in the background making this jigsaw all fit together, they are giving us the best opportunity to perform and put in a good performance on Saturday and the games onward from that, it works absolutely unbelievable, we did a good pre-season together, we went to the well in our sessions, a lot of hard trainings put down on Caherlohan and on different beaches, there’s been some real tough sessions which steel the mind and bonded us a group, that will come to the fore and our fitness is in a good shape so hopefully we’ll be able to bring that money in the bank out on Saturday at 2pm”.
Saturday’s game has a lot on the line as it determines how the remainder of Clare’s championship pans out be it the All-Ireland series or the Tailteann Cup. “We’re focusing on Saturday at 2pm, by 4pm on Saturday we want to have produced a solid good performance, once we get all them small metrics right like our tackles, shooting efficiency, our turnover loss kept low, kickout retention, if all of them metrics are right I’m sure the result will hopefully look after itself so we’ll work hard on our preparation and hopefully the result will take care of itself on Saturday”.
