McConway hopes Blues can peak at the right time

By Kevin Egan

When Tullamore lost to Ferbane in the round robin stages of this year’s championship, there were no loud sirens or piercing alarms going off around O’Brien Park.

After all, they had won their first two games while Ferbane had the greater need as they came into the tie on the back of a loss to Rhode, and there were still several key players due to come back into the Tullamore team.

After Tullamore also lost to the Village, the conversation around the town and around the county started to change in tone. While Tullamore still felt like a vampire to many – nobody would believe they were dead until the stake was driven into their chest and they disintegrated – the opportunity to bounce back and prove it was a one-off had come and gone. Maybe there was something to worry about after all?

“I wouldn't say we knew it was going to turn,” manager Paul McConway admitted, speaking to the Offaly Independent.

“There was no panic, but it was a matter of getting down to work, focusing on the simple things and controlling what we could control ourselves; that being our work ethic and application.

“We got the performance in the second half against Ballycommon and when we played Rhode, we’re just trying to build on that now.”

Certainly the display against Rhode looked pretty close to flawless. They conceded three scores when playing into the wind in the first half, then two in quick succession to Aaron Kellaghan after half-time before going another 20 minutes without conceding a meaningless and very unlucky goal.

McConway said that he was “happy enough” with the performance, though he cited their failure to convert more of their goal chances in the first half as an issue.

“It was by no means flawless, we left a couple behind us, particularly in the first half,” he said.

“To be fair, I don't think Rhode performed to the levels we saw in the group stages. They never got going really. They were unlucky in many respects, a couple of things went against them. We would be happy enough with our effort but there is still a bit to do for the final."

Now that they’re out the other side of their mini-slump, the question was posed if the former Offaly star had been able to identify, with the help of his impressive management team, had been able to pin down what exactly went wrong during the group stages.

“It probably didn't help that we were through after the second round. Having said that, it certainly wasn't something that we were planning,” he replied.

“We were preparing for every game properly but we just weren't getting the performances for one reason or another. I could give a number of different excuses but the simple fact is we lost two games in the group stages and deserved to lose the two of them.

“The Ballycommon game was a bit of a banana skin. It was put up to us and at half-time, we responded very well in that game and we brought it into the Rhode game as well. We are happy enough with where we are at but we know there is a massive amount of work to do.”

The work has been a year-long process. The loss of Cillian Bourke, injury issues arising out of their Leinster club campaign, and a spring spent without their significant cohort of county players, meant that a considerable element of rebuilding was necessary.

It was a rebuilding project that indirectly, let to McConway picking up another county medal of his own a few weeks ago.

“It was a difficult end to the year. You are trying to build physically as well for the new year, get players up to speed, get depth in our squad. That was the big thing and I think we found that this year, probably by default. The likes of Jack Maher, Davin Keegan, Patrick Kenna coming into the team added a bit of depth to the squad, which is key.”

Keegan, along with Oisín Keenan Martin, was expected to be at the heart of the drive for Senior ‘B’ honours but they were each called up to the first team, and by the time the business end of Senior ‘B’ rolled around, 22 players had been used by the first team.

That’s not an extraordinary number across five games by any stretch of the imagination, but the thing about home grown managers is that they tend to be much more conscious of the needs of second teams than imported bainisteoirs.

McConway went above and beyond, offering himself as a player to ‘B’ team manager Brian O’Reilly.

“It wasn't on the script at the end of the year either,” was his immediate retort, when asked if he was always likely to pull the blue jersey on again.

“We were tight in numbers between the two squads and Brian had lost an awful lot of players. I had a conversation with him last year that if he was under severe pressure going into a game, I would consider togging out just to fill the numbers more so than anything else for him. He had a number of injuries going into the semi-final so it was more to cover the bench for him.

“Once he had me for the semi-final, he had me for the final as well but it wasn't my intention at the start of the year. It was just by chance more than anything,” he continued.

“A medal is always nice, but it’s a strange feeling really because lots of lads put in a huge amount of effort to get that medal. In many respects, it feels like I am freeloading a small bit!”, though he went on to describe the Senior B success over Ballinagar as a “brilliant win, as good a win as the club has had in a long, long time.”

Completing four SFC titles in a row on Sunday, bridging the gap all the way back to 1899 when Tullamore won the first four championships played in the county, would surely rank right up there.