*Wolfe Tones manager, John Riordan. Photograph: Ruthie Griffin
THIRTY YEARS on from winning a championship double with Wolfe Tones, John Riordan is sixty minutes from guiding the Shannon club back to the top tier of Clare football.
Wing forward on the Wolfe Tones’ side that won the club’s first Clare senior hurling championship in 1996 when defeated Clarecastle 1-11 0-8 in front of a record attendance of the time of 12,560, John was joined on the team by his brother Denis who was midfield. The Alan Cunningham managed side when on to win the Munster club and reached the All-Ireland decider, losing to Athenry.
That same year, John also won the Clare intermediate football championship when Wolfe Tones claimed the title for the fourth time. If they can reclaim the Talty Stores Cup on Saturday, they will move top of the Clare IFC roll of honour.
Time has flown in thirty years, John noted. “We will always remember our year in 1996 when we won our first senior hurling championship, I would have played on that (wing forward), Denis my brother was on the team. This year was thirty years since then, it feels like only a few days ago. We also won the intermediate football championship that year, we have a lot of underage success in both cods”.
Demands on dual players have increased but he maintained Wolfe Tones can thrive as a senior dual club if it is handled appropriately. “It is harder for players these days because the fitness standards have gone up so high, it is a case of managing it, if the managers work with the players and manage their game time properly and their training time properly then it can be done, it is done in other clubs but when you see that happening it is proper management of the players, less bickering, working with the players and stopping the bickering”.
This is his second stint in charge of the Tones’ flagship football side, having managed them at senior level in 2016 and 2017. “We beat St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield after extra time but lost the third round to Cooraclare in 2016, the following year we struggled because we lost of players through emigration but we survived with a last-minute goal from Johnny Bridges against Kilkee above in Ennistymon, we stayed up and I decided to step away. I was concentrating a lot on the underage, a lot of the current squad that is there, myself, Frank Casey, Fergal O’Donnell, Terry O’Neill who is a current selector and my brother Mick, we’ve brought these young lads up from seven or eight years old so I stuck to that and my own young lads were involved in Clare development squads. For the last three years, I was involved with the junior team, our second team, we won the Junior B Premier, we transitioned a lot of lads out of that to our first team, we went up to Junior A last year and are still in Junior A”.
Bringing in youth has been a big focus for Riordan’s second coming with the Tones. “Craig (Riordan) is only just back (from ACL injury), we were very wary of putting him all along this year, he was giving out about not getting game time, we gave him fifteen minutes against Liscannor, we didn’t play him against Killimer but we decided the last day that he was going well in training so we felt it was time to let him loose to see was he up for it and he scored 1-13 but we have a load of lads like Darragh Leahy has been exceptional, his tackling and tracking particularly the latter half of the second half when it went to extra time. Colin carried us during the league, I think he scored 4-47, he has had a lot of pressure on him, Kevin Hanley has come in for a few games and been really impactful, he will hate me saying that he is an impact but he is nineteen and really stepping up, Shay Waller another lad that is nineteen, Damien Lyne is also nineteen, they have really come on this year. We have transitioned a lot, our average age is twenty two to twenty three, we tried to change things this year and transition players in, we’re not getting rid of the old lads but we had to build a panel. We were happy this year to consolidate where we were in the league, try get to a championship semi-final which we did and now we’re in a final so our goals have been achieved”.
Adding the youth would make the Tones a stronger senior force if they were to return to the top flight, John believed. “We’ll see if we can get over Saturday first. It has been a transition period, it is about getting these games, we’ve had a good year in the league and we performed well so that is two good years in row that we’ve done well in the Garry Cup where we’re playing four or five senior teams. It is about getting more and more game time into the younger lads, getting used to playing together, some of them are only on the panel a year or two so they’re still getting used to playing with lads that have been here a long time. It takes time to build that relationship and getting used to playing with each other, knowing each other’s movements, knowing where players go. If we could get over Saturday, I’d be looking towards getting out of the group next year if that happened”.
A former treasurer and assistant treasurer with the club, John spent twelve years on the club executive committee until stepping aside at the beginning of this year. “When I was on the committee I was still with a lot of underage teams, I did a lot of coaching but in the last year or two I decided that lads are sick of listening to the same voices so it is time to move on and let someone else do the coaching, in fairness the last three years we had Kieran Ryan coaching and he was good, very structured. Last year was a case of having a couple of injuries which didn’t help us, key players like my son Craig, we had some bad injuries, they impacted our season”.
Along with his two sons, Craig and Colin, John has two nephews Niall and Tadhg Fitzgerald battling for starting jerseys. His brother Mike is part of the management team which also includes Terry O’Neill, Barry Murphy, Mark O’Sullivan, Seán Kelly, Derek Grainger and Seán Flanagan.
An accountant who has worked with Engine Lease Finance Corporation for twenty six years, he pointed out that the global engine leasing company has “a very good track record”.
Despite the strong track record of Wolfe Tones when they compete in the Clare IFC, early performances certainly didn’t suggest they would be in a final, he acknowledged. “The Clondegad game was an eye opener, we had a good league campaign, we were happy with that, we nearly made the Garry Cup semi-finals and we weren’t far off it but we had a bad last game against Kildysart, they progressed to the semi-finals and lost the final. Clondegad was a bad game for us, we weren’t at the races, we didn’t react to any breaking ball, we weren’t together, we were way off it but it gave us an opportunity to reset. Having said all that, I don’t think we have put a sixty minute performance together yet, we’ve been hit and miss, particularly in the first half of games but don’t ask me why. I will say our players are a very resilient bunch, even when it was bad against Clondegad we still scored 3-9 which other days will win matches, our players are very resilient, they don’t give in and don’t give up, they are young so I’ve to be mindful of that. They have progressed well as we’ve gone on, we seem to be getting better and better”.
Evident in both the second round win over Shannon Gaels and their extra time success over Naomh Eoin has been the impact off the bench and the options they possess. “It’s not that I feel sorry for Naomh Eoin but we had a bigger panel, we knew getting to that point in extra time that we would have the legs, we were able to bring in another three lads which is another set of fresh legs whereas they didn’t have that luxury. We did very well to come back from where we were, we don’t want to be in that position in the final, the Banner are flying it, they are racking up really good scores, Meenaghan has been flying it like he’s scored 5-11, Shane Meehan scored 0-8 the last day, then you have Ronan Kilroy and Seán McMahon who are very good, Eoin Walsh at centre back, they have proven themselves this year and it hasn’t been a one-hit thing because they were very good last year and were unlucky, they have been coming for a few years, they have put the work in underage. We can’t deny that they are favourites, they are in a good place and you have to admire them”.
Experience of competing in the Clare IFC final just two years ago can stand to the Shannon side. “Jayme O’Sullivan our captain has been there before, Dean Devanney, Craig Riordan, Chippy Chris Dunning is coming good again and has been very good in the past month, we’ve a lot of players who played two years ago but still have five new guys, the rest have been around the place. Daithí Lohan is playing very well, he has had a good run at it, he wasn’t there two years ago, after playing two months of football he has really settled in, the first game against Clondegad was an eye-opener and he said himself the pace of the game and finding passes you need to be playing the game but since then he has been very good. We have a lot of players to rely on like Conor Carrig with experience, Darragh Leahy who has tonnes of experience and is a real good leader on the pitch, people are quick to put him down but he is a really good leader and puts his best foot forward all the time. He scored 1-3 in the quarter-final, he has really stepped up and I can’t deny that”.
Daithí Lohan has excelled in the middle of the field, they would of course love to have more dual players like him in their side. “We did say at the beginning of the year that we needed players to commit to us by a certain date otherwise we couldn’t start taking players back in the middle of championship because it would be disruptive and unfair on the players there during the year. There’s another four lads in the club I’d love to have but next year is another year, everyone has times in their life when they have things that they can and cannot commit to, it is purely down to players at that point, I will always take a player who wants to come back but it has to be at the right time, they are always welcome but it has to be for the good of the panel and at the right time, not in the middle of something”.
