Morkan enjoying manager role that came ‘out of the blue’

By Kevin Egan

Shinrone’s 2022 county senior title win, the first and only one in the history of the border club, was celebrated for many reasons. It was a historic breakthrough for a club that had struggled to produce their best hurling in big knockout games, and a wonderful day for countless club volunteers and stalwarts that kept the faith through many lean years.

On the field, holding aloft the Seán Robbins Cup was a high point for players that had been part of so many of those quarter and semi-final defeats, none more so than Mark Morkan, who was coming to the end of a long career wearing his beloved red jersey.

Now, Morkan is on the sideline wearing the bainisteoir bib, but he still feels like part of the group and wouldn’t have it any other way.

“This came out of the blue for me.” he admits. “A couple of players kind of approached me at the beginning of the year and I said I'd give a hand out in some way or another and one thing led to another and I ended up taking the manager's role.

“Honestly, they’re some bunch, there's no management in it. They make my life very easy now. It's a big commitment, it was a big role to take on, these boys have high demands and they're serious about everything they do so they expect the best too.

“The problem is they want to train too much!" Keeping them out of the field is the problem. To be honest, it's been really enjoyable.”

There were tough times too, most notably the death of Joe Cleary early this year. Morkan makes regular references to the group as a large family, and Cleary’s death felt like just that, the loss of a family member.

“It brings out a lot of emotion even in the training field and any time we hurl. Everyone thinks of him and his mam and dad and his partner Elaine and Hannah.

“We do think of him every time we step on the pitch, he's a huge loss around the club, on and off the field. We actually try to replicate it a small bit as we play, we touched on it at the beginning of the year, we kind of want to be a team that's like Joe, there was no end to him.

“It's not just Joe’s family, there's a couple of families in the club that have been touched with bad news and if we can put a smile on their face for a couple of hours of a game or after a game for a week or two coming into a county final we'll try and help as much as we can.”

After starting out with a draw against Belmont, Kilcormac-Killoughey picked up momentum with big wins over St Rynagh’s and Kinnitty, but a draw between the Double Ks and Shinrone in the final round of group games has given Morkan and his players confidence that they can compete with the county champions in full flight.

“I think we've improved a small bit since then as well and I'm sure they have too, but it did give us a lot of confidence. We knew they were going well, they have huge talent all over the field and it's the competition they have for places. But we like to think we have as much competition as well, we play a 15 on 15 game there in training and it’s hell for leather, and it's great.

“Even at the weekend you could bring on eight or nine subs, that's the way it is at the minute in the club and everyone's pushing each other and that's what makes a team good. If we only had the bare 15, sure we'd be wasting our time but we don't, we have 25-26 lads that could hurl senior and that's why it's vital. They have good players, we have good players, it’ll come down to on the day and who performs,” said Morkan.