Loughmore's Hennessy has his hands full
GAA: AIB Munster Club Senior Football Championship Quarter Final Preview
By Stephen Barry
NEMO RANGERS v LOUGHMORE/CASTLEINEY
Pairc Ui Rinn, Cork
Sunday, 8th November
Throw-in @ 1.15pm (E.T.)
Referee: James Maguire (Clare)
When Loughmore/Castleiney reached the 2024 Munster club senior football final, Shane Hennessy had his hands full.
For that glorious double-winning year, Hennessy was player-manager of the footballers and a hurling selector. Not to mention joint-manager of the Tipperary minor footballers. Nor the birth of his second child the week of the county final.
This year, the Loughmore goalkeeper is happy to focus on minding the house. He’s packed in the hurling, even if his father was making the case to tog out for the junior Cs. He’s still coaching away in both codes with St Patrick’s in Drangan, who ended an eleven year wait for a South Junior ‘A’ hurling title.
Plus, Shane and Lauren have welcomed a third boy to their family. For the county final parade, Shane was flanked by his eldest sons, Hugo, 3, and Arlo, 2, while young Odin watched on.
“It was a real special moment,” he says.
“It was one thing I would have thought about at the start of the year. It's great that the two boys are a little bit older now and they know what's going on. They're on a high since the match, because they got to march in the parade.
“It's great because I'm 38 years of age. This isn't going to stay going forever and they'll have a memory, hopefully, of me playing and, it turned out, winning the county final.
“It's something that I’ll look back on in years to come, that I can be proud of, and they'll hopefully be proud of their dad at the same time.”
The Loughmore schedule helps with juggling everything. They don’t enter the county football league, so there’s only a handful of sessions at weekends. Closer to the championship, they’ll play a couple of challenge games to temperature-check their squad. That workload also convinced Greg Ramsbottom to double-job as manager of Loughmore and Laois club Emo.
“There are times where it can be difficult, but Greg is always asking for my input, especially on kick-outs, so I feel like I'm able to get my point across,” says Hennessy.
“If there are things that are missing, he's okay with me saying this is what I see. He's happy to hear from me in that regard.
“In fairness, the lads over it have done a great job. We’ve four county finals in the last three years, so that's something to be proud of.
“I was the oldest player on the field in Semple Stadium, so to be still going, I'm happy to be part of it in that way.”
Heading into Sunday’s Munster quarter-final, Loughmore/Castleiney have undergone their longest uninterrupted spell of football training across the past nine weeks.
Hennessy reckons they’ll need all of that away to a Nemo Rangers side armed with “very dangerous forwards” and “steeped in history”.
“We're enjoying it and there has been improvements,” says Hennessy.
“Everyone has the footballing abilities, but when you stop playing it for a while, your skills just aren’t as sharp as they would be. You might lose potentially five to ten yards in your kicking distance.
“But the players now are up to speed. That five or ten yards is coming back into it. We're kicking two-pointers. There's more and more lads able to do that now compared to the start of the championship.”