The players are ‘the central actors’ - Pearses manager

By Kevin Egan

It’s 20 years ago this year that Steve Staunton was unveiled as Republic of Ireland team manager, with Bobby Robson alongside him in the role of ‘international consultant’. The presence of such a heavyweight figure from the sport clearly weighed heavily on the shoulders of the Dundalk man, who felt the need to declare: “I’m the boss. I’m the gaffer,” at the press conference when he was unveiled.

In time, the Game of Thrones line saying “any man who must say ‘I am king’ is no true king at all” proved to be applicable, and perhaps that was part of the thinking of the Pádraig Pearses executive when they appointed club stalwart Niall Murray as the successor to Frank Canning as senior football manager in Woodmount.

Once you’ve had any conversations with the TUS Midlands lecturer, it’s impossible to imagine him making any such declarations. Throughout the conversation, he consistently describes himself as “involved,” which makes sense because for a long time now, he’s been exactly that, in a wide variety of capacities.

“We’re a fantastic club here,” he said, briefly looking up and around the bar in Woodmount, where the Pearse media briefing takes place in advance of the county senior football final.

“We’re one of the few clubs that support all codes, at adult and underage level, and we’re really proud of that, it’s a lot of work, shared by a lot of good people.

“We’ve a fantastic chairperson in Teresa Fitzgibbon and secretary in Aidan Fallon, then there’s Hubert (Darcy) and Aaron (Clogher) and everybody involved, they all work really, really hard here. It’s a nice positive place to be around and involved in. That’s why I come over here.”

Currently coaching officer of the club for good measure, Murray has weighed in with various underage and senior management and coaching teams, including under Pat Flanagan for that emotional Sunday in the autumn of 2019 when they finally broke through to claim the Fahey Cup for the first time in the club’s history.

“I’m interested in trying to keep the club very competitive, trying to regularly win championships,” Murray remarked, and they’ve done precisely that.

“That’s what this club is about now. What we don’t want to do is fall away, we want to be competitive year-on-year. If we can pick up a championship along the way, that’s great.”

There’s no obvious hint that Murray’s new role as the conductor of the orchestra has been anything other than more of the same – a devoted club man, calmly doing what he can to be an effective part of a much bigger overall machine.

“It’s been enjoyable, they’re good lads, very easy to work with,” was his immediate response when asked about the manager’s role.

“One of the things we identified at the start of the season was we needed to build the championship squad or the playing squad. We’ve been reasonably successful at that, though of course, we’d like to have a few more.

“I’ve really enjoyed the year. It was a little bit tough in the league around the year there with so many lads with knocks and things like that, but that is beginning to resolve itself now.”

This Sunday in the county final, Pearses will go into battle with the same cohort of players that came through that epic semi-final against Boyle, but Murray revealed that the ship hasn’t fully sailed on Conor Ryan playing football in 2026 at some point, if Pearses can cross the significant hurdle posed by St Brigid’s that they will face in the Hyde this weekend.

“Conor is pushing hard, somewhere in the Connacht championship if we can get there would be the timeline and the player group are motivated by that as well,” Murray said. “Of course, you’d prefer to have every player available to you, but it’s an opportunity for other lads to stand up and demonstrate they can play senior championship football.”

And they have. Getting drawn into a group alongside Clann na nGael, Roscommon Gaels and Boyle meant that they were certainly battle-hardened going into knockout football, and their edge was only sharpened further by two extra-time wins since then.

“That’s what we’re here for, these lads like playing championship matches. Of course we had a tough group but I didn’t mind it, you want to be playing teams like that, it’s good for the team. It was great for us because it gave us the opportunity to really test some new guys at a senior championship level,” said Murray.

“Of course, we prefer to win games in normal time and not have to go to extra-time, but that’s the attitude of those guys. They really enjoy the battle and that’s what’s going to be required next Sunday as well.”

After that dramatic semi-final victory over Boyle, Murray spoke about the formidable challenge of facing St Brigid’s. “They are a team that can score heavily and quickly, and they are very structured defensively so we have plenty of work to do to prepare ourselves for another final, but this is the challenge facing our men and I know they will embrace it,” he said.

And as someone who was there for the club’s previous three wins, would a win next Sunday, as manager, be any different for Murray?

“Honestly, that doesn’t mean much, it’s more about the player group. I’m here trying to facilitate them,” he responded.

“Obviously, it’s nice for my family and this kind of thing but I’m really focused on facilitating the ambition of the player group. It’s not about any of the management team, it’s about the players. They are the central actors in these games and I’m really looking forward to seeing their performance in the final next Sunday,” Murray added.