Making Lisatunny a fortress is key says skipper O’Flaherty
By Thomas Conway
Kevin O’Flaherty has soldiered away in the engine room of Nenagh Ormond’s first team for the bones of fourteen seasons.
And yet his fifteenth will probably be his most important. The Burgess native was thrust into the carnage of the AIL by former coach Trevor Hogan as an eighteen year-old.
His graduation from underage to adult level was a swift one - that’s not typical in rugby, where younger players often require years of S&C before developing the brawn to compete alongside seasoned adults.
Over the past few years O’Flaherty has evolved into a true captain, a champion of the club. Off the pitch he’s a gentle giant, soft-spoken but articulate, and, like the players around him, he’s relishing the prospect of playing in the very top tier of the AIL.
“Everybody is ready to go,” he said excitedly.
“We’ve been looking forward to it since the UCC game, the play-off last season, but since the fixtures came out it has started to really sink in within the squad as to what and where we are.
“The morale is very good, we have as clean a bill of health as we could have, maybe a few niggles, but other than that we’re looking good.”
O’Flaherty is honest in his assessment of Nenagh’s objectives this year. He speaks in broad terms, and doesn’t specify particular opponents which they are targeting but does acknowledge that their home games will be crucial.
“We had a meeting at the start of the year and in that kind of a meeting a lot of clubs would lay out their goals. We just said we’d target our first game, target Belvo. Try and get our first win at home,” he revealed
“In Division 1, A & B, if you’re competitive at home, if you can win all your home games and then pick up a few wins on the road, then you’re going to be there or thereabouts come the end of the year. The primary target has to be winning all your home games.”
A large chunk of this Nenagh team have fought “through thick and thin” to get here, O’Flaherty states. The highs of the past two seasons juxtaposes sharply with where they were just a couple of years ago - fighting for their lives to retain their 2A status. The side, indeed the club, hasn’t “looked back since”, says last year’s Division 1B Player of the Year.
“We brought in good players, good staff, and a good backroom team,” he added.
“It’s a testament not just to the players and coaches, but to the club itself. Anything that has been asked of them, they’ve backed us. We've got a really good underage system coming up, players from the 21s breaking into the squad, and that’s what you need when you’re playing Division 1.”
Off the back of last year’s historic Munster Senior Challenge Cup success, O’Flaherty and Nenagh will also compete in the Bateman Cup, an All-Ireland competition which pits the four senior provincial cup champions against each other, and will meet Leinster champions Clontarf in Lisatunny in November.