JAKE MULRANEY REMEMBERS becoming friends with Daniel Cleary because of football.
“We were 10 or 11,” the St Patrick’s Athletic winger says. “It started by playing out on the street.”
They lived in Crumlin; Mulraney on Kilworth Road and Cleary on Carrow Road.
Their first team together was St John Bosco, then Lourdes Celtic before eventually Crumlin United where they would be crowned All-Ireland champions under the guidance of manager Stephen O’Connor.
As their talents flourished, they went their separate ways in search of professional careers.
Cleary, a towering centre half, left school at 15 to join Liverpool.
“I don’t know anything else. I went to England and football is all I know,” he says. “I don’t really have an interest in anything else. I watch football every night. My life is football.”
Mulraney is the tricky winger with a wicked left foot who headed for Nottingham Forest.
Both became underage Republic of Ireland internationals and are now League of Ireland rivals.
Cleary has won four Premier Division titles since 2018 – two with Dundalk and two with Shamrock Rovers. Mulraney joined St Patrick’s Athletic ahead of the 2023 campaign and helped secure the FAI Cup last November.
Their bond has not been broken over time, instead football has only served to strengthen it.
Cleary helped set up Old County, playing out of Brickfield Park in Drimnagh, and three promotions in a row has taken them to the Saturday Major Division of the Leinster Senior League.
He has been the manager since 2019 with Mulraney, along with Podge Collins and O’Connor, their schoolboy manager from the Crumlin days, as coaches.
“Dan is the enforcer,” Mulraney says.
“I’m getting better. No bans yet,” Cleary adds. “It’s a learning experience to get involved, get a taste for it and see if I want to go ahead with it when I finish up. It started off as a bit of fun but I’m taking it quite seriously now.
“It’s proper serious. It’s not your typical amateur football team. We do video analysis after games, we can watch clips, watch the games, the goals. We have all the stats from every single game put in. We have targets we want with passes, possession. We want to go deep into it.”
Cleary, who has recently earned his UEFA B coaching licence, praises the impact Rovers boss Stephen Bradley has had on his understanding of the game, explaining how he “teaches me stuff every week.”
Bradley has no issues with Cleary’s football life away from the League of Ireland champions, and it’s no surprise given that the Hoops boss and his assistant Glen Cronin are now lining out as players for CIE Ranch in the Over-35s Division 1 South.
For Mulraney, being drafted in by Cleary also allowed him reconnect with some of the friends he grew up with but saw less of as his career took him to Scotland and the United States.
“I’d play with them in five a sides when I came home in the summers and now it’s great being there to help or give little bits of advice. I never thought about being a coach but this has changed my thinking to be honest. I’d like to be able to help lads as I get older and hopefully teach them stuff from my own experiences coming up through an academy to get ready for professional football.
“It’s great to see little improvements in players and the lads want to soak everything in to get better. There’s no point doing it if you’re not going to do it right.
“But you’re with your mates and enjoying winning matches, having the craic together and being successful. It’s what it’s all about. And don’t get me wrong, when we play against each other for Pat’s and Rovers Dan still wants to break me up and I want to break him up.”
Their respective schedules can also cause conflicts.
Mulraney came off the bench for St Pat’s in their 1-0 win over Dundalk last night but will be cutting it fine to make kick off away to Ballmun today as he’ll have to take part in a recovery session with Jon Daly’s side.
Cleary, meanwhile, will miss it completely as Rovers are facing Sligo Rovers at the Showgrounds.
The five-in-row chasing champions go in search of their first win of the season while Old County could go top of Major Saturday with victory.
“It’s my [28th] birthday too. Getting old,” Cleary says.
But the love of the game remains alongside one of his oldest friends.
