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*Kilmaley manager, Brian Culbert. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
IN FOUR YEARS, Brian Culbert has helped to make Kilmaley’s senior hurlers one of the toughest tribes in the county but their biggest endurance test lies ahead this Sunday.
Involved with the Kilmaley senior hurlers for the last four years, Culbert in the past two seasons has helped to run The Toughest Tribe, the nine kilometre endurance race across the bogs, forest and lands of the parish where 8ft walls, containers and silage bale hurdles had to be scaled.
Facing neighbours Inagh/Kilnamona in Sunday’s county final will be their biggest test to date, Culbert outlined. “Sunday is going to be the toughest tribe we’ve taken on this year because they are the best team to come out of the either side, they have come out of that side pulling up would be an honest answer. We’ve had a few battles along the way even Newmarket-on-Fergus the first day was a different type of game, there was plenty of emotion that day which made it tougher, Wolfe Tones and Sixmilebridge were different obstacles, if Clonlara beat us then they might be here in a county final, that is how close things are. We’ll meet the toughest tribe and go as hard as we can, whoever wins the race wins the race”.
Initially coach in 2023 and 2024 to Conor McMahon, Brian took over as manager for 2025 and 2026. McMahon a Clare SHC winner with Kilmaley in 2004 was among the key figures to get the Sixmilebridge man involved. “At the time any of the big jobs in Sixmilebridge were taken up at the time, it suited and the personnel and the fellas, Conor McMahon would have been big in it to know who was here at the time, all you hear is how highly lads are spoken of, I haven’t one regret because of the group of fellas that are here and the lads that have joined us since and during the four years, I haven’t a bad word to say about any of them, I’ve no regrets and I’ve enjoyed every minute of the four years, I’ve got more comfortable as the years have gone on. People are unbelievable to support things here, the boxing night a few years ago I’ve never seen anything like the support we got, the senior team have gone out and fundraised every year, there is no end game, there’s facilities to be upgraded the whole time between the tarmac, the astro, the lights, the pitches, the community here has been excellent, since we won the semi-final everyone is looking to help, to give a hand and give a digout, that is part of it too, you can only love being a part of a club like that”.
Before agreeing to come on board, he knew Kilmaley had “an excellent bunch of hurlers and an excellent group of guys” having coached both Mikey O’Malley and Tommy Barry in LIT. “You know from coming up against them that they had everything but there is nothing that I’ve come in and said that is the reason were in the final now, they had years of great trainers like Colin Lynch, John Carmody, PJ Kennedy, they have had everyone and learned from them. Daire Keane has had eighteen years of playing senior, this is his first county final but he is one of the toughest lads I’ve seen to train, he trains to his max all the time, the same with Mikey O’Neill and Mikey O’Malley they train to their max all the time but that doesn’t mean you win county championships all the time because they are so hard to win, they have put themselves in this position, they have to try and take it”.
Whatever happens this weekend and however things pan out, Kilmaley will “definitely” always hold a soft spot for the Garda. “They have been so good to me that I will have friends here forevermore, it is the type of place I love coming to and hate going away from when training is over, you’re looking forward to the next training and that is all you can ask for, unless they kick me out I could be back next year for all we know”. His current management team includes coach Eoin O’Malley, selectors Kevin McNamara, Kieran Dillon, Padraic McGough, Conor Neylon with Liam Buckley on stats and Ruth Hassett the team physio.
Meeting his native Sixmilebridge for the last two seasons while in the Kilmaley camp “is never nice,” he admitted. “The people in The Bridge are mature enough to know that I have gone out to gain experience in other places and see what it is like, all that I knew before that was The Bridge, I’m still doing the underage so it’s not like I’m gone anyplace, they still see me every weekday and weekend down there with the kids. It was difficult and this year the fact that I had learned so much from John (O’Meara) when I was coaching back in the day, it was difficult and I’ve a good personal bond with those players, we won U21s and seniors with all those players so it was hard but they are all men, everyone of them shook my hand after and said well done and best of luck. They may not say it loudly but I think they are silently supporting us this weekend, they are all men, they know Kilmaley won the games for whatever reasons they were and they are ready to battle next year”.
As a player, Brian won Clare SHC medals with Sixmilebridge in 2000 and 2002 while he was coach to the John O’Meara Bridge managed side that reigned supreme in 2013, 2015 and 2017. In 2021 he waa manager of Offaly side Coolderry when they lost the county final to St Rynaghs.
On what it takes to succeed in county championships, he told The Clare Echo, “There’s no winning formula because if there is a winning formula everyone would know it and do it, it would be boring then. Every team is different, Sixmilebridge is a different experience, even playing we just went out and I had a great group of players alongside me, I was young at the time with the likes of John O’Connell, Sox (Kevin McInerney), Rusty (Christy Chaplin), you’re only following what they are doing but you learn from them. Coaching with John for those few years, you had the basis of Jamie Shanahan, Brian Carey, Shane Golden coming up from underage who were driving it on, I was just pulling in and coaching as best I could, they go through the white lines and do all the work, I learned loads from that. Coolderry was completely different altogether, I met Martin Bennett there and he changed my outlook on a few things, when I came here then he was the first man I brought down because he brought a new outlook and gave me a new outlook as to the way things need to be done, there’s different formulas for different teams, you have to change and go with whatever suits a particular club, it takes you a few months to see may suit, even each year we’ve been here we’ve changed and adapted. I’d love to know the winning formula for Sunday week but that doesn’t happen so we’ll go and give it our best shot, if it’s good enough and we win then great, if not then so be it”.
Speed coach Martin Bennett, a native of Offaly who worked with Liam Cahill’s Waterford when they reached the 2020 All-Ireland SHC final, has worked with an array of GAA stars but he has how shaped how Culbert’s coaching philosophy. “The simplest thing is every time you meet you train hard, we got rid of the gym sessions and the dancing sessions as we call them with bands and that kind of stuff, players did that stuff on their own if they wanted. Every time you meet you go hard and train hard, no matter what it is, even if it is a recovery session you train hard, he had a way about him, he has such an influence on players. You see teams doing boxing training but when you see Martin doing it, it is different, there’s boxing training and then there’s Martin Bennett boxing training, that is what we try to uphold here, is that the formula to win? Certainly not but it suits these guys and they love it, it makes them play as hard as they can. They are always accepting of the fact that if they try hard and lose then that means you were beaten by a better team and that is it”.
So does this mean he has gone old school. “I had cones out on the field tonight (Thursday) and the lads were slagging because we don’t do cones. The last thing a player needs is a crutch of a tactics board where they have something to hide on and say ‘hold on you told me the ball was going to go here and this play would happen’, it is like as Mike Tyson said ‘you go into the ring and you have a plan until you get boxed in the face’, that is what hurling is like so it definitely is old-school, it is more player-led to let them lead it as best they can, they have done this, they have gone coaching underage teams for the last few years. All the small things matter, we’ve met different people, we spoke to Gizzy Lyng one time, he gave us a different outlook, you pick things off different people, Noel Marshall came in and enlightened lads last year to his sessions, it brings another element, they have taken all these bits and pieces to put them together, does that mean you will win on Sunday, maybe not and you could be back again next year but that is the joys of what we are doing”.
Kilmaley are unique in that they have no strength and conditioning coach. “We have a fitness coach, the S&C word is gone away and people seem to forget about the C word (conditioning) which is the fitness, that is what Martin Bennett brought from the start, Conor Neylon has taken over that mantra for the last two years and again changed it by bringing another extra thing for them that was different, players do the gym stuff on their own but the conditioning is a big part, sprinting hard and boxing has a lot to do with that, you don’t have to do twenty laps of the field to get fit, you have to make it enjoyable too which is the main thing”.
For their semi-final win over Scariff, the number 22 was written on Culbert’s hand and that of the majority of Kilmaley hurlers. It wasn’t due to a secret affection for Taylor Swift but underlined that were placing importance on ending their twenty two year to make a Clare SHC final.“I must have fell on a marker inside in the dressing room,” he quipped. “We’re not going to hide behind anything, it is no secret, it was such a big thing, we put such a big emphasis on it, it is reality and a fact that it has been twenty two years since the club has been in a county final, there’s no point in pretending it wasn’t happening or that we hadn’t lost semi-finals, we openly said it, we faced it up and we got on with it by trying to put it to bed, if we didn’t then they’d be back again next year and it would be twenty three years but so be it, it was what it was, we put it to them and mentioned it all the time that it was twenty two years, that is what we spoke about, we were focusing on our own performance and they did put it to bed but there’s a different animal coming on Sunday, it could be twenty three years since they won it next year”.
Management have yet to decide what will be written on the hands for Sunday but performance coach John Carey from Sixmilebridge is likely to have a big input on the message. “It was something we had to embed in them, they have answered every challenge. Every time they come to us, to train or to play, they have given us everything, that is all you can ask out of any team, all I want and all the management want is for them to bring everything they possibly can, if it is good enough and they win then great, if they give it and they don’t win then they can walk off the pitch as men and say it wasn’t good enough”.
Striking moves of key personnel like All-Ireland winning defender Conor Cleary to attack have formed part of Culbert’s tenure. Explaining the rationale for the switch, he outlined, “Some people and even Conor wasn’t too happy, when we first took over we moved Conor in the forwards at the very start, it was only last year that people recognised that he was in the forwards so he was saying ‘was I that bad the first two years that people didn’t realise’, he was still some outlet the first year in the forwards, he is the type of player you can play anywhere, he can go centre back the next day and centre forward the day after, it doesn’t matter to him, if you ask him to play in goals he’d be there and there would be no cribbing, that is the type of fella he is and he is getting better as he is going. He has always been fit but he is at a level of fitness I’ve never seen him as fit, whatever he is doing aerobically, he is week in week out with top class games for Miltown and for us. Never mind the ball winning, he is chasing down the goalkeeper when the goalkeeper gets a loose ball back and he is chasing down lost causes which sets the mantra for the rest of the team”.
Though he said there’s no winning formula for county championships, Brian felt the 2026 champions would be the team that works the hardest. “That is the way it is going to be, that is the same in any game. Inagh/Kilnamona if you don’t match their workrate they will hurt you which we saw in the semi-final, they are an excellent team, we’ve to credit ourselves for getting there, we’ve done well, people have differing views as to who the better team is and who might win but I think both teams will go at it and the beauty of it like the Clonlara match there will be no sweepers, no hiding places, no fancy plus ones, just two teams going at it with hopefully their best players and let the best team win, there will be craic here on Sunday and Monday regardless of who wins”.
