CASTLEHAVEN AND CORK legend Larry Tompkins is anticipating a much-improved performance from the club in this afternoon’s county senior football final replay against Nemo Rangers.
The teams played out a stalemate at Páirc Uí Rinn last Sunday and the scene is set for what promises to be another tight encounter.
A former county and Munster club medallist as a player with Castlehaven, Tompkins was present for the drawn game and will take his seat again in the stands today.
We caught up with Tompkins during the week to gather his thoughts on the replay, new appointments in Cork and Kildare, and the state of Gaelic Football in general.
“A lot of guys you’d expect to play well didn’t play to their standards,” Tompkins told The42.
“You must learn from what you did wrong the first time and change it around a bit.
“There won’t be much in it again, a goal in that type of game would be a huge score.
“I think whoever learns more from the first game will probably get the job done.
“Castlehaven played well in spasms, didn’t play well in the first 15 minutes, played well then, didn’t play at the start of the second half and finished well.
“They’ll be looking for greater improvement and particularly a fast start.
“Nemo were 4-0 up the last day and trying to get back that lead is not easy.
“When you do get it back, you’re open to the other team coming at you again.
“So Castlehaven will have to start a good deal better. They were up for it alright but it just didn’t happen.”
As a former Kildare and Cork player, Tompkins has also noted the recent appointments of senior football team managers in those counties.
Cian O’Neill has stepped into the breach in Kildare and on Leeside, Peadar Healy is the new man at the helm.
“It’s very hard to say anything unless you know what they’re capable of doing and what they bring to the table,” says Tompkins, who managed Cork from 1996-2003, winning two Munster titles in that time.
Everybody deserves a crack at it if they get the opportunity. A new broom sweeps clean so we’ll see what happens.
“It will be interesting to see what happens in both counties, how they will adapt.
“I suppose any guy needs to start somewhere but it’s a different story when you’re the top guy.
“I’d know Peadar, he’s been involved with a lot of teams over the last number of years and he was a selector when Conor Counihan was in charge.
“He would have that going forward for him as experience.”
Tompkins, who runs a pub in Cork, acknowledges that senior intercounty management is an all-consuming commitment in the modern era.
It’s your whole life, there’s no point in saying otherwise. If you don’t treat it that way, you’re going nowhere.
“I wasn’t married at the time, I hadn’t kids. It just felt right at the time and I had a cut off it.
“It’s harder nowadays, with how the game has evolved and all the different ways you have to go about training.”
But Tompkins insists that football has regressed in quality over recent years.
“I’d be a football traditionalist,” he says.
“I’ve stated this before and it’s been a long time since we’ve seen a really good football championship.
“It’s no longer football, there’s no confrontation around midfield, no good freetaking from the ground. It’s very difficult to watch.
“Some rule changes would make a huge difference. Why couldn’t they say that the goalie has to kick the ball out past the 45. What you need is football being brought back into the game and the greatest skill in football is fielding the ball.
“Kicking from the ground is another art that’s all but gone out of the game now.
“Goalkeepers are coming up the field to take frees, even at club level, and I think that’s crazy.
“The only reason that happens is that there are no outfield players practicing,” says Tompkins, one of the finest kickers of a dead ball throughout his career.
“I was a young fella watching the likes of Tony McTague, people went to see him and he was a remarkable kicker from the ground, Matt Connor the same, Maurice Fitzgerald in Kerry, super freetakers and renowned for it.
“I believe that all scoreable frees from the ground should be kicked by an outfield player.”
