*Eoin O’Brien.
NINE-time Clare Cup champion Eoin O’Brien is bidding to win his first as Newmarket Celtic manager.
Injury marked the end of Eoin’s playing career and the start of his management career with Newmarket Celtic at the end of 2022. Before this he had coached hurling teams with Newmarket-on-Fergus and Clare plus rugby sides with St Munchin’s College.
O’Brien never hesitated in succeeding Paddy Purcell as manager of Celtic. “The one thing that used to annoy me as a player was the uncertainty if somebody was finishing up and then there was a lull, that lack of clarity affects the squad during off-season and pre-season, I met Paddy late on and in my mind if I was taking it I knew I’d start immediately once I had plans in place because firstly you have to maintain the squad you have and then you see who you can bring in”.
“I was very lucky to inherit a squad that had won a lot and won a lot of trophies, we were very unlucky not to win the Cup last year, we lost on penalties. Maintaining who you have is the first thing. The day to day things like where are you going to train, the battle around Newmarket-on-Fergus, Shannon and Ennis for Astro-turf space from November to February, that to be sorted out early otherwise we would be playing catch up,” the two-time Oscar Traynor winner added.
He decided to put an emphasis on development within the club. “I knew there was good experience in the group. A lot of guys at the other end of the group coming to the end of their careers would not be able to play every single game, I was conscious of that and even from the end of my playing days that the focus in Newmarket has to be to try and develop players a little better than we have been and I am really pleased we managed to do that this year, not only with guys coming into the team but with youths and seventeen year olds a taste and we have four or five of them training with us every night, they are the future A team players”.
Ian Collins’ return from Australia plus Dean Hegarty’s recovery from injury has strengthened their side. “Freshness is important, its amateur football so you’ve no choice, there will be comings and goings all the time, emigration is a big factor at the moment not only in the GAA but also for soccer clubs, you can’t blame young fellas going to Australia, that’s a problem for clubs, we were lucky on the other side to get Ian back and Dean back from injury, they have provided a freshness but also they are two top guys driving the standard”.
Eoin said his first stint in charge has been “very enjoyable, it’s been a long season. We’re into month eleven now and we are exactly where we want to be domestically, in the showpiece event in the last game of the season, it’s set up to be a cracking game”.
He added, “every game is competitive, the constant dilemma is trying to balance games for lads. You don’t want to wrap them up in cotton wool. We have some lads who played all games, while we have some coming back from physio and keeping in touch with physio Martin Cooney”.
Christmas came at an important time, he reflected. “Aaron Ryan, joined the management team in November and he has been a massive addition in terms of physical preparation. We weren’t finishing games at the start of the season, we were letting teams back into it, we addressed that at the Christmas break and I am very happy with it”.
“Our goal is always to be competitive in Munster and FAI competitions and we weren’t this year, our sights are always set on the Premier League and the Clare Cup, that remains the target and has to be for the club every season otherwise you are underperforming. When you drop any points you are under pressure in the Clare league then you are really under pressure with the quality of teams that are in the league. If you have a bad result the worst thing is to compound it with another or even a third one because you could be out of the running and be finished. Christmas came at a good time, we had two poor results before that, we worked really hard over the Christmas break despite all the distractions. I’d firmly put that as the turning point in our season because we went fourteen wins out of fifteen from there which is no mean feat”.
Working alongside Paddy Purcell brought plenty of learnings. “It’s all about consistency. Three points picked up at start of the season in the second week of September are exactly worth the same as in the last game. Some people might say the big game is Newmarket vs Avenue or Bridge and Tulla but there’s a lot more to it than that and getting lads up for games against what are deemed as lesser opposition is a challenge for management. You learn from experience and I was very lucky to be involved with Paddy Purcell for the last couple of years and get a taste of what is involved in the day to day running of these teams”.
“Having been there before as a player and in management you know how to manage the week coming up to it, guys especially young players can get distracted, you remind them it’s 90 minutes, the pitch is the same size for both, we’ve played the opposition before, you have to keep doing all the things that brought us to this level before, he said.
