Rhode manager trying to raise the bar higher in the land of plenty

PERSONAL and collective improvement has been at the centre of Malachy McNulty's creed since he took over as Rhode senior football manager for the 2020 season.

The former very successful Portlaoise manager came into the Rhode hot seat after they had lost the 2019 Senior Football Championship final to Ferbane and they got back to the top in his first season in charge, defeating Tullamore in the decider.

You have to go back to 2011 for the last time that Rhode were not in the final and asked about the challenges for a group in keeping going year in, year, out, he remarked:

“I think with success, players like winning and teams like winning and they want to keep winning. You can hit bad spots in the middle of all that and from time to time and from season to season, but if you have a good attitude and if you challenge players to try to do better every time, I think that is the answer for it. When I arrived in Rhode it was a case of there was definitely a hunger there. It was off the back of a losing a county final to Ferbane.

“I know I certainly felt there was more county titles in them and after meeting all the players, each one individually felt they had more to offer, that they could come back and do it again. Maybe it is something that is just instilled in them here from an early age. There is great resilience about them and a great resolve about them. And when you have all those individual attributes, you bring them all together collectively. And that is not to say that a year both on and off the pitch won't have its up and downs, you know the pandemic and people have personal issues to deal with, but you have to keep going for each other and the community here and with that in mind they are just a group of lads that show great resolve time and time again.”

Last year's final against Tullamore went ahead just days before the country went into another

“It went ahead by the skin of its teeth if memory serves me correctly as the whole country was locked down the next day. There is some semblance of a return to normality at the moment even with the partial use of the dressing rooms and things like that. You almost forget what it was like before lockdown so you are reconnecting with what you would class as normal.”

Rhode almost had victory snatched from their grasp in last year's final but the manager agreed that they were much better than Tullamore on the day.

“That's true. I think there were five additional minutes on the clock and I think the clock went up to 68 minutes and I think I remember it hitting 65 minutes and someone close to me in our camp congratulating me and I said go away and leave me alone, this isn't over until the fat lady sings and it turned out that way. It was nearly snatched from us so I think the best way to learn from that experience for the lads, is to not count their chickens and be ready to rock.”

He responded to the suggestion that Rhode generally don't leave themselves vulnerable to late sucker punches when games can be killed off.

“Yeah, generally so but games take on a life of their own and they can be different. The last couple of games this year, they haven't been definite in their outcome until the final whistle had gone. There were a couple of big margins there, and even the last day with Durrow there was a big margin, but for long spells it was a 4, 5, 6 point game and all it takes is a goal to rattle you and all of a sudden it's game on. I wouldn't say it's a case of going out and blowing teams away but managing ourselves for the whole 60 minutes.”

This year Durrow found themselves in unusual territory as they lost to Durrow in their first group game.

“I give great credit to Durrow on the occasion, they were very well prepared. Someone once told me you can't win a game at the start of a game but you can certainly lose one. I think we weren't ten minutes into that game and I think we may have been 3-3 to one or two points down. That's a big, big hill to climb but Durrow stuck to their guns and they saw it through and they got through. I suppose it put, not pressure, but it put the championship into perspective for us then because while there might be been some wriggle room regarding permutations to get through but we had three games as knock out from there on and that prepares you for the next game and here we are four games later getting ready for a county final.”

Rhode have been playing well without firing on all cylinders this year?

“That comes down to a principle that we are really training and playing by and that is just to progress and improve as the season goes on and hopefully to try and peak at the right time. There are a couple of areas that are important to us, such as keeping the goal count down from the opposition and trying to get more fluidity in our movement going forward but it is almost like a challenge to get the balance right between our defence and our offence. We are just hoping we are going in the right direction.”

Rhode played unusually defensively in their semi-final win over Durrow but McNulty stated that they may have a different game plan for the final.

“Obviously in the last game against Durrow we were conscious we had conceded a couple of goals early in a couple of games and we wanted to ensure that didn't happen again but it will be a new opposition the next day and new preparation in place. It may not be like that.”

Rhode have had a lot of injuries this season with Eoin Rigney and Jake Kavanagh out from their defence while forward Paul McPadden went off with a shoulder injury in the semi-final.

“It is huge because you are asking yourself two questions. You are asking yourself do you have the players to replace those huge players and if you don't you are asking yourself the second question, do you have players you can almost mould into those positions. Losing Jake, that was the first league game, strangely enough against Durrow. That was a very innocous injury. He just jumped in mid air himself, he was uncontested but he landed awkwardly on his heel and ruptured his achilles tendon. We were gutted for him because he is an extremely committed player and he was number three from last year, exceptional tackler, a great competitor, very strong on his feet.

“So straight away you are looking at that stage at Eoin Rigney who plays at number three for Offaly, he was our number six last year. So at the back of your head you are probably thinking straight away well here's number three sorted and then in O'Moore Park a couple of months ago, Eoin goes over while playing Kildare in the Leinster Championship and we got the green light to bring him back. It seemed like there was a bit of bruising on his knee and we geared him up for the game against Cappincur and he went over again. Eoin is a top class player at centre back or full back, so that was a big blow to ourselves. No matter how much planning you do at the start of the season, it is like ripping up the script and starting again and saying right, back to the drawing board, what do we have in our personnel, who do we have to fill these roles and how best go about progressing those players and getting them ready for their roles.”

McNulty confirmed that Rigney's injury is a cruciate one.

It was suggested that their best performance of the year was against Shamrocks in the quarter-final.

“I think we were happy with the stats on our shots and our accuracy. It was great to see the guys taking shots from distance and it was superb on the day to see our six forwards getting on the scoresheet. From that point of view we were very happy, we got two goals in the first half, and that would have been an area we were seeking to improve on.”

Niall McNamee's form has once again been outstanding for Rhode.

“Niall's experience, his history and his score tallies speak for themselves. It has probably broken records somewhere. The man takes seriously good care of himself, he puts in the extra work to make sure he is able to play at that standard and when he is on fire, he is on fire, but at the same time we are trying to hone in on the collective approach and trying to get all our players into the positions to take their scores. I suppose what you are trying to preach from that point of view is to give the ball to the man in the best position.”

He spoke about the emergence of Offaly U-20 hero, Aaron Kellaghan.

“He is an exceptional talent, no doubt about it. He has got fine skills and a fine range about him, and what a year for Aaron. He is involved in the schools game, he played a significant role in the county final last year and then he got that role in the Offaly under 20 team and he played a big, big part in that. He was worth his scores in all of those games and he ran himself into the ground in those games and it is great to have him in there and having him getting scores and doing what he does best.”

McNulty was asked about improved performances from Tullamore this year.

“We will have a look at Tullamore. They are certainly a different team to last year, there is no doubt about that, but at the same time we can but focus on our own performance and the areas which we can improve on and there are many areas from the last couple of games. We are always learning as we go along, we are always challenging each other individually and collectively. That is not to say we take Tullamore for granted, we will have the height of respect for Tullamore on the day. They have a sprinkle of excellent young players who are well able to take their scores. They have a good strong running game, they have a fine balance through the centre there, with 3, 6, 8 and 9, so this could be a hell of a battle and we are all looking forward to it.”

Is there much talent coming onto the scene in Rhode?

“You mentioned Aaron Kellaghan already. You would like to think he is good for prosperity for the club. There is team mate of his from the U-20s, Gavin Young, there is a lot of football in him and he is coming through as well. There is a player we spoke about last year, who was playing bit parts in games, 10 and 20 minutes, Keith Murphy and he has shown exceptionally well as a defender, so there are players we are trying to integrate into the squad and we do have an extended squad as well with young lads who were playing under 20 championship last week. There is a young Shane Murphy there, he is quite strong, you have Jordan Kilmurray looking very well, a really solid, solid player, so there are players coming through and whenever you are up in Rhode during the week, no matter what night of the week, you will always see fantastic work being done at juvenile level, whether it is under 15 team down to the under 5s on a Saturday morning, there is huge work going on behind the scenes. But there is no magic wand. It just doesn't happen straight away, it takes a lot of time and effort.”

He agreed that successful underage sides aren't a necessity for a club to win at senior level.

“Sometimes you get a special crop of players and they might form the nucleus of a team but they seldom always stay together that one team from juvenile through to senior, so you do need those other strong players coming through to supplement them.”

There was no Leinster club championship last year but McNulty was adamant that the provincial competition doesn't provide any additional incentive this year.

“I am not thinking about that whatsoever. There is one game and one game only on Sunday and that's been instilled in all our players at the moment. We can't think beyond that. When we started off this year, you might have little dreams of where things might take you but then as Tyson says, you have a plan and then you get a punch in the face and you lose your Jake Kavanagh's and you lose Eoin Rigney and you lose Shane Lowry and Paul McPadden against Shamrocks in the quarter and you are left planning without these guys and you just have to take it as the games go. Paul dislocated his shoulder and he may need a little procedure on that but we are waiting confirmation on that but we don't know for sure if he is out.”