Frankie is upholding a proud Loughmore tradition
By Shane Brophy
At the start of the year when Loughmore/Castleiney looked for someone to bring back the glory days to the club, they didn’t have to look too far.
Frankie McGrath has had the Midas touch with many both within and outside the club. He was involved with the Loughmore team that won the county and Munster titles in 2007, before helping the Drom & Inch ladies (of which Loughmore girls play for) won the county senior camogie title last year.
This is on top of successful stints with Roscrea in 2004 when they won their last North senior hurling title, while he also won a Laois senior championship with Rathdowney/Erril.
He has also doubled up as Loughmore/Castleiney’s senior football manager as they progressed to a semi-final against Moyle Rovers last Saturday and while many feel it is a schedule that may end up catching up with the Mid club in the, it’s not something they complain about any year.
“Isn’t is a fantastic complaint,” Frankie said of his and his team’s busy schedule.
“There’s a lot of people out there that would like to have my workload at present. It has been busy, but it is fantastic to be playing hurling and football at this time of the year with the ground being firm, the weather being good, and the ball is travelling.
“You need a run of games, there is nothing like a run of games to bring a team on. Over the last few weeks, the stronger teams have got a run of games.
“We have come on, we have improved. Would it be enough to topple Kiladangan, we’ll have to wait and see.”
While Kiladangan will have had two full weeks to focus on the hurling final, Loughmore had the hindrance or distraction of a senior football semi-final last Saturday. Frankie McGrath nor anyone within the club doesn’t see football as a distraction as they have a tradition to uphold.
“County finals, especially a big hurling county final in Tipperary, there are a lot of sideshows attached to it that you don’t get with other matches. All those sideshows are kicking in at this stage, they need to be managed but then if there’s a football game going on then I suppose the football takes your mind off it again.
“We have a serious football tradition. All of those guys – McGrath’s, Maher’s, Eviston’s, Egan’s, they are fantastic footballers as well, absolutely fantastic footballers. They love playing it because their parents and their grandparents all played it. So that tradition is there. So, we have a responsibility to nurture that tradition as well.
“It dates back to Bloody Sunday1920,100 years ago. We had two players involved that day - Bill Ryan from Castleiney and Jim Ryan from Loughmore. Those men were an inspiration to many generations of players from our club down through the years.
“There would have been maybe leanish times when we mightn’t have been going that well, but those two guys, the memories of what they did, it would rise. Every now and again in the football we’d always be there, even if the hurling wasn’t that strong.
“So, we remember that, we know the value of it and we’re not going to let it go easily.”
Frankie McGrath wasn’t long back at the helm when Covid-19 closed down all clubs for almost three months and while through walking, cycling and golf, Frankie was able to pass the time, there is nothing better than playing a hurling or a football game and he feels the enforced break has made the players appreciate the game and the club more than ever before.
“They appreciate it a lot more now,” he said.
“Some of the same stresses that used to be in GAA, they are taking it a little more happy go lucky compared to the seriousness that was around it.
“If we could get our supporters in (to the final) would be great. The ladies of our parish have been fantastic supporters of the club down through the years, you are talking about every fundraising activity, everything that would be happening the ladies would be hugely involved in it. At present they are excluded from it and confined to watching it from a distance via modern technology. Maybe over the next couple of weeks something might happen to give them an opportunity to come to the final.
“In most country areas the GAA club is the centre of attention. Everything that happens in a parish, the GAA is the biggest organisation that is there. I spent a few years as chairman back in the 1990’s and I would have promoted that the club should do more within the community. Thankfully, this year it became more obvious how valuable an organisation the GAA is within the community. People see that now and have an awful lot more respect for the GAA as a result.”