Nothing is impossible in sport as Leitrim's Poacher eyes Galway scalp
Connacht SFC Semi-Final preview: Green & Gold boss hopes semi-final victory will inspire young generation of Leitrim footballers
Leitrim’s clash next Saturday with Galway may be viewed almost universally as an impossible task for the Green & Gold but manager Steven Poacher defiantly points out that nothing is impossible in sport! Padraic Joyce’s team are among the contenders for the Sam Maguire later this year and they visit Heartland Credit Union Pairc Sean Mac Diarmada next Saturday (3.30 pm throw-in) as hot favourites for the Provincial Semi-Final but the Leitrim manager makes no secret of his ambition to topple the Tribesmen.
“Nothing is impossible in sports,” Poacher told the Observer ahead of the semi-final, adding “Nobody has a script for this game. If we had the script for this game, we’d all be millionaires because we’d know exactly what would happen, we’d know exactly what the score is and exactly who gets the scores. But nobody knows how this game will go, we’ll prepare for it as best we possibly can. Are we prepared to go and win the game? Absolutely, we’ll go and prepare to try and win this game, that’s the bottom line. The average person on the outside is looking at Division 1 versus Division 4 but it is two teams on any given day.”
His belief in the quality of his players leads the Down native to use the example of Leitrim’s Colm McLoughlin and Galway’s Shay McGlinchey: “Colm got the better of Shay McGlinchey in a schools’ game last year, there is no difference in those two footballers - one wears a Leitrim jersey, one wins a Galway jersey, that is the only difference. Sometimes I think a lot can be made of these footballers and the reality is that it is two athletes going toe to toe, it is tribal warfare on Sunday and hopefully, we will give Galway their fill of it on Sunday.”
But let nobody think for one minute that the Leitrim boss is underestimating what his team face next Sunday! “Galway are a good side and you go down through their team, the likes of Sean Kelly, John Maher, Rob Finnerty for me is statistically the second best forward in Ireland last year, statistically that was proven in terms of scores and assists behind David Clifford.
“Rob Finnerty is their best player, he really is, their most effective player. Shane Walsh is coming back, Conroy is coming back, they have a lot of experience in the group, a hell of a lot more than we have but we will prepare the way we prepare for any team, we’ll look at them in great details, their kickouts, how they set up defensively, their offensive patterns and we’ll plan accordingly.
“We know the challenge in front of us but I’m saying to these boys all the time, you play the person, not the jersey. Just because they have a Galway jersey, there is no extra fear. It is a free hit for us, all the pressure is on Galway - Galway are coming in All-Ireland contenders, the game is on TV, it is in Pairc Sean, it will be a great occasion and another wonderful step in the right direction for this young group.”
Galway’s immense physical size and conditioning is a challenge Leitrim will have to overcome and Poacher knows what to expect: “You’ve hit the nail on the head - some of the teams that are dominating now that are being really successful right now, your Meath, your Corks, Donegal, Kerry, there is one common trend that is shining out through the whole lot of them and that is size. Size has become a massive part of the game now when you can press a team on kickouts and you can win your own, all of a sudden, you are giving yourself a platform to win games from.
"That’s why Cork, for me, are one of the dark horses this year, they’ve a serious level of physicality across their team. When you can dominate an opposition’s kickout and that is the one big thing for us, Galway’s physicality and size but we will come up with something, please God, and we’ll give ourselves a good chance to go on and compete and possibly win the game.”
The impending task of taking on Galway must certainly have dragged Leitrim back down to ground after the high of their emotional 3-15 to 1-20 victory over Sligo in Markievicz Park but Poacher emphasised that his players needed to celebrate the victory before quickly getting back to the task in hand!
“I suppose with the new season you don’t really have time to really enjoy it for too. Obviously the boys would have been out Sunday night, I came up the road Sunday and I could hardly sleep Sunday night with the adrenaline from the game. I know the boys had a night out and those things are important. When you’ve had the suffering that we’ve had over the last couple of years, some of the defeats we’ve taken and some of the holes we’ve been in, those are the days you really need to treasure and enjoy and I’m delighted to see it but at the same time, it is back down to earth because we have a monumental challenge coming up.”
The Leitrim boss admitted that the victory brought tears to his eyes as he celebrated after the final whistle with selectors Anthony McGrath and Daniel St Ledger: “I was hugely emotional at the end of the game, I’m not going to beat about the bush, I did shed a tear or two with Anthony and Daniel. Just more the emotional release of the stuff that has been fired at the boys, the muck that has been fired at the group, just to see the lads and how much it meant to them, I was emotional for them, not for myself, I was more emotional for them because you could just see the joy in parents and family and friends and even the lads themselves, there were lads there literally nearly in tears. It was fantastic to see, it really was.”
Steven was anxious also to share the credit for the victory around his backroom team and by that, he means all the backroom team as he credited many for the part they played in helping Leitrim beat their first home based county since 2011: “Daniel and Anthony put in a mammoth amount of work over the last couple of weeks. We felt we were in a great place - Anthony is very good on the sports performance side of things, getting players in the right frame of mind, Daniel is the same as a coach. We have a great relationship as a management and for us, it was bittersweet - just with the crap that was fired at us last year as a management group and maybe people on the outside doubting us.
“But we’re men of thick skin as well and we have a lovely dynamic as a management team, we get on so well together as a group. But it is not just the three of us, the medical team of Ronan O’Rourke, Brendan Byrne, Cliodhna and Raffa who have been helping out all year. To get the players fit, to get them on the field, they play a huge role as well. In the lead-up to the Sligo game, when we went away on our training camp, Ronan and Brendan were working from 9 o’clock in the morning to 9 o’clock at night, just rubbing players down, treating players, 24-7, - they didn’t leave on Easter Sunday till 6pm. People on the outside don’t see that work that goes in.
“Then you have Tomas and Keith, the kit-men, I know how much it means to those two men - it means as much to them as it does to the players. You have James Boyle there who does the stats & analysis and stuff and everybody plays their role.”
But given some of the flak he has endured during his time in Leitrim, it must have been personally very satisfying to see his faith in this group of young players rewarded? “Obviously for myself personally, it is extremely satisfying and gives you a real sense and degree of confidence in your own ability, that you know you’re on the right road.
“We did know we were on the right road but defeats do create a little bit of doubt. Everyone has self-doubts but I always felt it was there in that group because there is no way on this earth that we could produce the performance we did against the likes of Mayo, Sligo last year, Tipp and Longford for it not to be there. It is there and it is now just the matter of taking the next step in the right direction, can we take the next step?”
Taking the next step means putting the elation of beating Sligo to one side and concentrating very quickly on Galway but, as always, Steven believes that even that victory is open to improvement: “We’ve parked that game now, we’re looking at Galway but there are a lot of things from that Sligo game that we’ve cut apart.
“We started poorly, we went off script in the first 15, 16 minutes and Barry’s goal settled us and we dominated, I think we outscored them 2-5 to 0-1. People are saying Sligo outscored Leitrim ten points to three in the final quarter but we outscored them 11 points to one in the second quarter. That’s the way the game goes now, there are moments in the game that you have to manage but I thought we managed them pretty well.”
There was, however, one major quibbles with the game in Markievicz Park and it had nothing to do with his team, nor Sligo, but rather the operation of the clock and hooter, with Poacher incensed that the second half of the game lasted almost 49 minutes! “I’d love to know what was going on with the hooter in Markievicz Park, I have a big issue with it.
“There was 36 minutes and three seconds of play in the first half but in the second half, we played 48 minutes and 52 seconds. It's on the video, it doesn't lie, right. There was one moment, Sligo scored a goal and the clock stopped - I’ve no understanding why the clock stopped after Sligo scored a goal.
“I remember actually in real time questioning what was going on and I’ve really serious reservations over what was going on. We played nearly 14 minutes of additional time in that second half, nearly a 50 minute half and I thought it was incredible. I thought for the lads to deal with that side of things, the adversity of that was amazing because that for me was just astonishing.
“I spoke to a couple of really senior referees around the country the last couple of days and they’ve said that they never saw statistics like that, they never a 49 minute half. They’ve seen a 45, 46 max but they’ve never seen a 49 and I’d love to know where it came from because it is astonishing, considering the first half was 36 and nearly 49 in the second half.
“For the boys to deal with that as well, that was another hurdle they had to cross in Markievicz and for us as well, psychologically, it is just another really good stepping stone that has been taken, that they’ve actually came through a tough game but also dealt with huge adversity within that game.”
Most importantly, the Leitrim manager sees just what the victory over Sligo will do for the next generation of Green & Gold footballers! “What that will do for the young people in Leitrim, not even so much the players in the squad but the young players in Leitrim. There were young lads on the pitch, 14, 15, 16, going mad and looking for photographs of players. A few young lads spoke to me and saying this was the best day of their lives and it meant so much to them and hopefully that will inspire another generation to wear the green & Gold.”