WHEN MARK BERGIN looks at his former team mate Brian Hogan on the sideline, he sees another Brian stamped all over him.
As O’Loughlin Gaels gear up for the All Ireland club final this Sunday against Galway champions St Thomas’, Bergin thinks back to his time as Kilkenny and club teammate Hogan and their time under Cody, how that informs Hogan now.
“He’s extremely calm. I think he gives over an awful lot of responsibility over to the players,” says Bergin.
“He’s probably lucky to have been managed and guided by probably the greatest manager in hurling in Brian Cody.
“And you can see some similarities. You know, Michael Dempsey was a key coach, Martin Fogarty was another with our coaches and selectors with Kilkenny.”
Hogan does likewise. He has a number of top-quality coaches around him in Nigel Skehan, Alan O’Brien and Alan Geoghegan.
Beyond that, he has put in place an elite county-level support group of former Kilkenny strength and conditioning coach Mickey Comerford and Nyah Egan who has played camogie with the Gaels, and was a strength and conditioning coach with Roscommon.
“I suppose that when I heard Brian was going to be our manager at the start of 2023, immediately you think of respect; the respect that I have for him,” said Bergin.
“One standout for him is that he loves O’Loughlins. He’s given back to the underage for the last few years there too. I suppose he is after getting the opportunity to become senior manager. Maybe he didn’t think it would come as quick, but we are absolutely thrilled with him.
“He’s nice and calm on the line, he wants us to try to enjoy the next few days and the build-up, but remember we have a job to do as well.”
It won’t be a hard job to focus minds this Sunday. O’Loughlin Gaels have spent the last decade under the weight of Ballyhale Shamrocks. Before that they were in the final of 2011 and after starting well, were killed with an avalanche of Clarinbridge scores.
And from then to now, they haven’t managed to get their way back. So they have done it the hard way.
It seems that pretty much from their first game in Kilkenny against Mullinavat, they have been edging close contests, all the way up to hitting Ballyhale with a late score to win the county title.
They then beat Na Fianna going down the stretch of the Leinster final, before surviving a close Neil McManus miss and producing an incredible late winner from David Fogarty to win the All Ireland semi final against Cushendall.
“We have a rock-solid belief in ourselves. We are Kilkenny champions and Leinster champions at this stage so you have to believe coming down the stretch that you are going to get there,” says Bergin.
“But you look at St Thomas’, going down the stretch with Ballygunner whereas prior to the match Ballygunner were hot favourites…”
Right now, he cannot escape the hype of the final. A Primary School Principal of Church Hill National School (the oldest school in Ireland still operating as one, having opened in 1833), it is around ten minutes outside of Kilkenny city and the area of Cuffesgrange serves the Danesfort club. Paul Murphy was a past pupil.
“The staff, children and parents have been extremely supportive of me. I suppose it’s great for them to see their school principal play in Croke Park,” Bergin says.
“But it’s not something I think about much. From my own perspective it’s just great how the parents have been so supportive when they have met me down at the school gates. There’s a bit of colour coming into the school here too, a bit of green and white, which is nice to see too.
“I am very lucky and in a privileged position. Please God we will get the win on Sunday and we can bring in the cup.”
Having been there before, he knows what a losing dressing room is like in Croke Park, as well as all the times of plenty when he was wearing the colours of the Cats.
“It’s such a special occasion for your club and the members of your club. The chance to get playing in Croke Park on Sunday, there is an awful lot of other people who put a lot of time and effort into getting teams there,” he says.
“I am thinking of underage coaches, the ones who look after the finances and so on.
“I was a young man in 2011 and I suppose the memories I have is how unique it is to represent your club in Croke Park on the biggest day of the club calendar. But also we hurled well for 27 minutes and then we collapsed.
“It does hurt. It’s such a tough road to get. We won in 2010, we didn’t get a chance to win again until 2016 and now 2023. The opportunities are there and you just have to take them and come Sunday, I hope we can perform.”
