Gaelic Games, Páidí Ó Sé interview: Ian O'Riordantalks to a Kerry legend as he embarks on another chapter of a remarkable career
Somewhere prominent in the complete history of Clare football is the story of July 1st 1979, the day Kerry came to Miltown Malbay for the Munster championship semi-final. It wasn't just the low point for Clare football but the lowest point imaginable, with Kerry winning 9-21 to 1-9.
One man praying Kerry wouldn't get another goal - and he probably wasn't the only one - was the scorekeeper, as his board didn't facilitate double-digit goals. Kerry went on to capture another All-Ireland while around Clare the day is still recalled as the "Miltown massacre".
A footnote to that story will be written tomorrow, January 14th 2007, when Páidí Ó Sé - a member of that Kerry team - returns to Miltown Malbay for his first competitive game as the new Clare football manager. It's the start of a new era and no matter what Ó Sé actually manages to do with the county it's already sure to figure in that complete history of Clare football.
It's less than two months since Ó Sé surprised many and stunned others with his decision to take up the Clare job. The eight-time All-Ireland winner (he also won twice as Kerry manager) appeared to have acted on impulse, but after completing his first week - the team only started training last Friday week - it seems Ó Sé is already warming to what lies in store for the weeks and months ahead.
"We've had just the two workouts, and that's it," he said this week, driving the familiar road home to Ventry.
"So to be quite honest for the first couple of games I'll be leaving a lot to the discretion of the new selectors, from Clare that is, Kieran Kelleher and Barry Keating. I'll be asking them to basically pick the team, as they'd have a much better insight than I would in terms of the best team to put out right now.
"So this is really just a start, and I think it would be unfair of me to start talking too much about the players at this stage, how good they can be and that, because I just don't know enough about them. That's just not possible that I would have that kind of insight into them so soon.
"But my first impression, basically, is that certainly the enthusiasm there is great. There is one thing I can definitely say about Clare people, and that goes back to their culture and everything else, and that is they have a very strong and very defined application to life. What you see in the canister is what you get, in that they're very, very genuine, and that has certainly encouraged me quite a lot at this early stage."
Never before has a McGrath Cup quarter-final involving Clare, playing against the University of Limerick, attracted so much attention. Yet, it's because Ó Sé's arrival in Miltown Malbay tomorrow inevitably echoes his previous journey with Westmeath.
It seemed he took that job on impulse as well, and then within six months directed them to their first ever Leinster football title.
Clare have won two Munster titles to date, the first in 1917, and then in 1992 when producing one of the shocks of the century to beat Kerry. Ó Sé admits he feels some similar expectation in Clare and yet he's in no way being distracted by it.
"Well I suppose that goes with the territory, is always going to be there. So what can I say about that? All I can say, and I've said it from the very beginning, is that I'm making no promises of any description, other than I'll do my best, and we'll take it from there.
"But aye, I am excited by it. I didn't have any great ambition to come back into management so soon. To be honest when I left Westmeath it knocked the stuffing out of me a little, mostly because of all the driving and pulling and drawing and all of that. It did knock a lot of stamina out of me.
"Of course what I will do eventually is put my own stamp on this team. But I just wouldn't be in a position to do that straight away. And it's too early to make any predictions of what the capabilities of the team are. All I can say is that so far so good, in that they seem to be very enthusiastic, and I'd say they'll be very, very honest.
"And from my background and my knowledge from playing Clare, as a footballer first and later as a manager, I've always found them to be tough nuts to crack, and they certainly don't give up easy. They're very genuine in everything they do, in that it comes from the heart."
One thing Ó Sé will surely get used to as well is the drive to Clare, which in fact is turning out just as demanding as the one to Westmeath: "The last ferry back from Killimer leaves at 7pm, which means I have to take the long way around west Clare all the way back to Ventry. So it's actually a slightly longer drive than what I was doing in Westmeath. Well over two hours anyway.
"But we haven't decided where we'll be doing our training yet. Everything is still in the infancy, and we'll just have to find our feet. But I'm looking forward to the occasion of this first game. I know we'll get plenty of support. And I respect every game, league and championship or whatever.
"I don't like knocking any competition including the McGrath Cup. They're there to be played and to be won and it's the same as this, and so sure we'll have a go at it."
So, last week it was Mick O'Dwyer under the spotlight, this week it's Páidí Ó Sé - two natural lovers of football who just can't resist the lure of the game.
"I would never like to compare myself to Mick O'Dwyer," added Ó Sé. "There is only one master and he's the master. Sure you never know, we may cross swords on the football field. I've great respect for that man and wish him well in Wicklow, and I've no doubt that he would have the same opinion of me."
