Stalwart Tullamore star embracing unplanned turn into management

LAST year as he lined out in his familiar corner back role as Tullamore won another Senior Football Championship title, Paul McConway never envisaged that a year later, his footballing boots would have been hung up and he would be talking as the Tullamore manager.

Now 39, then 38, McConway was his usual efficient self as Tullamore once again got the better of Ferbane in the final and was delighted when they won their first Leinster club game since 1977 and ran Dublin's Cuala close in the semi-final.

They were not that far off a sensational win, chasing a late goal to salvage a draw. McConway had a difficult enough day at the office in Parnell Park and was replaced after 42 minutes but it was still his intention to commit to another year and add another to his collection of five senior football medals – 2007, 2013, 2021, 2023 and 2024.

McConway had been the Offaly minor football goalkeeper when he first appeared for a county team way back in 2004 but it was as a brilliant, versatile defender that he made his name, playing over 80 times for Offaly seniors from 2006 to 2019. That is a serious county career by any criteria and McConway's hunger was still strong last year.

Yet he ended up stepping aside from playing and being the Tullamore manager, replacing Niall Stack who stepped down after the Cuala loss. He sort of fell into the job as Tullamore had a long hunt for a manager but couldn't resist the opportunity and has now guided them to a sixth county final in succession.

McConway explained: “There was no stage last year that I thought I was going to finish up. Every year once the year ended I would have been thinking about it but at no stage last year did I think I was finished. I probably could have squeezed another year out of it if I really wanted to but there's no point saying otherwise, the effort that it takes to prep the body as you get older and I've had a few injuries as well and it was definitely getting tougher. And the years were running out, shall we say. It was always a decision I came to at the end of the year. But look, the reality is if Niall Stack had stayed on and wanted me to play I would have had that discussion with him but obviously it didn't pan out that way.”

Managing players he had shared a dressing room with for so long represented a challenge to McConway, as it would to anyone else in this position but he was happy to take it on, saying: “It's not simple but the flip side of that is it's my own club and I've grown up in the club and I've the best interests of the club and I'd like to think that the players know that as well. Is it easy? No, it's not, it's never easy. If I tell someone they're not playing, it's happened to me as a player too so I know what it's like and I know the players as well and I see that as an advantage. I'm not spending time getting to know them. Look, obviously you are getting to know them from a different angle as a manager but generally speaking you know the ins and outs of the dressing room as well so I haven't found that too difficult yet. But maybe come Sunday week it might be a different story.”

At all times, the intention was to strengthen the management team with a good coach and it was one of the conditions under which he accepted the job. They returned to the Division 1 Football League final but lost to Edenderry and it was clear that day that Tullamore did need something else – they were understrength but their play was still a bit lateral and predictable.

No one expected what came next, Mayo man Stephen Rochford unveiled as coach shortly afterwards. His appointment was a bolt from the blue as he had been so close to guiding Mayo to All-Ireland senior football success. It was a serious statement of intent by Tullamore but it also showed the potential they had as Rochford would not go to every club team that rang his phone.

At the time, it seemed that it could have been a reaction to that Edenderry defeat but McConway revealed last week that he he had met with Rochford before that and knew he was coming on board.

He explained: “Stephen was in place before the league final. It was something we wanted to do. When I sat down with the club at the start of the year I wanted to get a coach, a top quality coach. I've been lucky in my own career, I've played intercounty football, I've been in good set-ups, so I'd like to think I know what a good set-up looks like. From my point of view, even to freshen things up as well, to get someone, an intercounty experienced coach, and that's what I really wanted from the get-go. We got two really good coaches. We did have to wait and it worked out well. We were looking for a couple of months and Stephen became available. He's a great addition and his experience speaks for itself.”

He was asked about the dressing room dynamic with him the manager, Rochford the head coach and Gracefield's Niall Smith, Birr's Stephen Lonergan and another Tullamore man, Kevin O'Brien all playing big roles. Even a simple thing like who takes the speeches?

“It's not something we ever discussed. It's an open forum. If Stephen Rochford wants to speak in the dressing room, Stephen Rochford speaks in the dressing room, if I want to speak in the dressing room I will, it's not something we put a huge amount of thought into. But what he does bring is a vast amount of experience and there's a wealth of knowledge there. And not only for the players, but for the management team as well. He's very good at what he does and his record speaks for itself. The dynamics have got us to a county final so far and hopefully we can build on that next Sunday.”

It was suggested that Rochford wouldn't go to every club and it says a lot about Tullamore that he went there.

“I don't know that. From my point of view I had a conversation with him. We were very open and frank, he was happy to come on board and I was delighted to get him. I don't know what club he would or wouldn't go to but he's here now and that's the be all and end all for us.”

As one of Tullamore's most experienced players, a man who rarely put a foot wrong on the football field or uttered an ill advised word in an interview, McConway was regularly put forward as one of their men to speak to the press ahead of the last five finals.

He was back on familiar ground last week, phones recording in front of him but it is all so different. The role change has seen to that and he said:

“It's a different role. Going in as manager is obviously different, there are different pressures from being a manager than as a player. As a player you just concentrate on yourself, every county final I've ever played on I was just trying to prep the body and you've had your match up, you'd have an idea on who you were going to be on and you'd be prepping for that and just getting out to training the two weeks beforehand. This time I'm going out and I'm not taking the gear bag with me. It's a bit different but it's enjoyable as well.”

The new rules – people had a theory they wouldn't suit Tullamore because of the way ye had been playing but they've clearly suited ye down to the ground?

“The reality was no team knew if the rules were going to suit them. Teams were adapting and every team is playing to their strengths as well and we found a way of playing that has worked so far for us but we're still trying to develop as well. It's not that we're a finished product by any means. We're trying to build game on game and we're learning as we go as well but you go back to the intertcounty coach. Stephen has been involved with the intercounty setup this year so that was a huge help as well because he was up to speed with all the rules at intercounty level and that was a benefit to us to when he came into our set-up.”

Is there any change he brought when he came in?

“No, not really. There's nothing there that stands out. It's just training by training. In terms of the level of coaching that he's bringing, that's all it is really, and his communication skills. But there's no one thing that stands out that has changed. To be fair, we've had a good set-up over the last number of years, we've been successful so the set-up Stephen was coming into was quite good. There's no one big thing that has changed, maybe he'd say differently, but from my point of view there's nothing.”

As a player are you sorry you didn't get a chance under the new rules?

“The amount of space that's available to forwards now, who wouldn't want to be playing in the backs!!! I suppose I would but from where I'm looking at it, you're looking at it when you were playing in your prime more than anything else but I would have loved a chance to play under the new rules and even to play in a different position as well. It's interesting. I'm looking at it and you're looking at different match-ups and different players and how you'd mark a different player given the amount of space that's now available. Certainly it would be a challenge.”

A different position? Where would you put 27-year-old Paul McConway?

“In this team I don't know where he'd line out. I would have fancied any position across the back line. I'd play whatever position was available but centre back was probably my favourite position but I didn't get a whole lot of time to play there but that was for different reasons. I see a lot of teams playing with sweepers now as well, I would have enjoyed that role.”

You weren't tempted to go and do a year or two intemediate?

“I was. It's very difficult giving up playing. Like a lot of footballers, I was playing over 20 years and I'd be lying to say it was easy walking away from that but the reality is so much time goes into the management side of it, it's just not possible. You're trying to build different relationships with players and that but it's more the time aspect. To be fair the intermediates didn't need anyone, they had a great win at the weekend and that's not to be underestimated in terms of our club, and our set-up. That was a massive win for them lads and our club and we have to carry on the momentum now.”

It was important for Tullamore to get your second team up to senior B?

“Yeah, they've been knocking on the door for a couple of years and I was delighted for Brian O'Reilly who's been there for the last few years and the effort he puts in and not just with the intermediates but in the general set-up as well. It was a great win.”

You weren't really tested in your group games. With respect to Shamrocks, they had a bad day against Tullamore and you were just miles better than the other two teams, then you had a month off before Rhode. Was that a disadvantage?

“In fairness the four weeks off gave us a bit of time. People tend to forget the hurling is a big thing and I know Ferbane have the same issue as well. It gave us a bit of time to prep lads and tailor breaks, take it a bit easier. It gave lads a little bit extra time to come back from injuries and that was very important for us and we needed lads to come on and finish that game on Sunday. Was it an advantage or disadvantage? Either way we knew it was going to be a tough battle against Rhode and it panned out that way and I'm just delighted we got over the line. The four weeks? If I was to be honest about it, I'd say they probably helped us.”

You know Ferbane very well, you could have lost two finals against them, they're going to be very tough?

“Of course, Ferbane are a very good team, there's been a kick of the ball between us and we've had a bit of luck in finals so we're under no illusions on what we're facing. They're an exceptionally good team with some exceptional footballers and it's going to be another close game and we're prepping for that as well. It's going to go down to the wire, we know that. I know they've lost a couple of players and we've lost a couple of players but it's going to be a battle.”

There's a couple of milestones Tullamore are chasing. To go level with Rhode on 30 titles on the roll of honour and a first three-in-a-row since 1926. I presume you don't need to talk about them in the dressing room before games because you don't need extra motivation but they are things that mean something to Tullamore?

“Possibly, and more-so from the outside. In terms of our dressing room there's been no talk of that whatsoever. I'm new to management and it's fresh so from my point of view I'm looking for that first win. I know it would be nice for the supporters alright but in that dressing room there is just sole focus on that one game and that's Ferbane.”

What does it tell you about the panel you have and the club that you are going for three in a row, you won intermediate at the weekend and everyone is binding together?

“A lot of people go on about the number of players we have but the reality is we were stuck for players, even back at the start of the league. We had so many players with the county we couldn't field an intermediate league team but the benefit of that was that when you look at the league final, most of those lads that played intermediate played game time in that league final and played most of the league for us so they were exposed to good football from that end. But we were operating with very tight numbers at stages. But in terms of quality, we're lucky that we have some quality players on both teams.”

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Against Ballycommon last year you used four or five intermediates in the first game and some of them didn't play again. In the first round against Bracknagh this year, Luke Bourke picked up a knock and you were telling him to run it off, you weren't going to bring in a sub just for the sake of it. Was that a conscious decision, there was no point in giving a lad five minutes because with lads coming back from injury they probably weren't going to feature again?

“If you look at the lads from the intermediates that are going to challenge for a senior place, they need to be playing football. That was the way we looked at it. It was maximising the players that were available to us in terms of both squads. That was the key, trying to balance the two squads, we were tight with both squads. Brian didn't have a whole lot to pick from either in the early stage of the championship. Both squads were extremely thin on the ground. That was the rationale behind that, rather than bringing someone on just for the sake of it.”