TIPPERARY STAR FORWARD Michael Quinlivan has hailed the addition of legendary figure Declan Browne to the coaching set-up.
Premier boss David Power brought two-time All-Star Browne in as forwards coach earlier this year. An electric corner-forward in his day, Browne was one of the great attackers of his era and has a list of honours to boot.
Before Quinlivan was honoured in 2016, he was the sole football All-Star in Tipperary football history, while he also represented Ireland in two International Rules series.
His involvement in his new coaching role has been going down a treat, according to Quinlivan.
“He’s ridiculous,” the Clonmel Commercials man, who played an instrumental role as Tipp were crowned 2020 Munster champions, said at the Allianz Football League 2021 launch yesterday.
“He’s so good. Honestly reckon you could put him in corner forward and he’d still do a job.
“Just the small things that he does, he’s not trying to tell you exactly what to do, it’s only very small little pearls of wisdom.
“Little things for even kicking in the ball, where exactly to put it, that sort of thing. He has been a breath of fresh air around the place and I’ve really enjoyed learning off him.
“He knows where to be and what positions to take up. He understands both sides of the game and he has certainly been a big benefit to us since he came in.”
Another addition to the set-up has been Dublin All-Ireland winner Philip Ryan, the St Brigid’s clubman now another attacking option for Power, Browne and co.
Ryan started at full-forward — and scored a point — in the 2012 All-Ireland U21 final win over Roscommon, while he was on Jim Gavin’s panel for the 2015 senior decider victory against Kerry. He was also part of senior league-winning panels from ’13 to ’16.
Reportedly a relative of 1971 All-Ireland senior hurling champion Dinny Ryan, Quinlivan says he’s a welcome recruit and has shown what he can do already.
“He has been training with us for the last couple of weeks and he’s a really, really good player, and hopefully he can bring a lot to us.
“He obviously has experience of winning two All-Irelands which is invaluable as well. Hopefully he comes down, settles in, and can play some really good football for us. We’ve seen it across the board in a lot of other counties. You see Conor Cox doing it up in Roscommon and hopefully he can have the same impact for us.”
“He can get on the ball, he can take his own score,” he added on Ryan. “Hopefully he’ll be a big addition to us this year and hopefully going forward, as well. The one thing I would say about him is that he’s fitted in seamlessly enough and is definitely part of the group already, which is the big thing.”
Ryan’s was the eye-catching name on the 2021 panel announced by Power on Monday night. A notable absentee was talismanic midfielder Liam Casey.
“I think Liam is planning to go away,” Quinlivan said. “I’m not 100% sure when he’s planning to go but I think he had informed the management last year that it was his intention and I think everyone knew it was coming. He’ll be a loss given he as very good for us last year.
“He had a huge Munster final for us, especially, with a couple of very big points. Even especially towards the end of the league when we needed a couple of victories, he got a big goal up in Laois when we needed it.
“But it is natural, it happens most years with us. We tend to just keep rolling on. We’ve lost a lot over the last number of years but we still keep going.”
Philip Austin is another, last year’s longest-serving panellist calling time on a 15-year career as inter-county training resumed late last month.
The 34-year-old was “a huge player” for the county through the years, Quinlivan notes, and will be missed from both the dressing room and the pitch.
“I was genuinely sad when I heard the news that he was stepping away. He was someone I looked up to massively when I joined the panel. I would have gotten pretty close to him over a number of years that we got to play together.
“I was fortunate enough to have been away with him multiple times and that I get to call him a friend. He’s a brilliant person to have around the dressing-room, was unbelievable with younger guys coming in, just making them feel at home.
“And his impact on the field was incredible. Maybe the last couple of years he was struggling a little bit with injuries but you see him on the big day against Cork — he comes off the bench and kicks a big point when we really needed it.
“He’ll be sorely, sorely, missed, but, look, 15 years is some innings as well. And he owes that jersey nothing. I think he said it himself, he feels like it’s in a much better place than when he first started off.”
For Quinlivan personally, 2020 was a crazy one.
Having had his travels cut short because of the Covid-19 pandemic, it panned out very differently to how he envisaged.
With an historic Munster medal in his back pocket — well, metaphorically, they still don’t have them but hope a presentation can happen at some stage — the 2016 All-Star graced the turf of Croke Park for an All-Ireland semi-final, when he had originally planned to be in Argentina.
“I had planned on staying away a little while longer, to be honest, but I missed out on that. Look, with the way 2020 turned out I can’t complain. It was one of the better ones, definitely.
“I got to see a little part of the world in the early part of the year and was thankful I was around, number one, for the county championship with my club and then certainly the Munster championship with Tipperary. It turned out really, really well.
“It was really enjoyable in a lot of ways. I moved home, I was back in Clonmel, so even just being around home for a few months that I hadn’t planned for, considering I’ve been in Dublin for a long time, that was enjoyable in its own way.
“I’m cognisant obviously too that people went through some pretty hard times as well. While I’m happy with the way my year turned out, I’d have preferred for things to have stayed the same and for people not to have gone through what they had to.”
While it’s all eyes on pushing on in 2021 and their Allianz Football League opener against Limerick this weekend, it’s interesting to conclude on his thoughts on 2020 Munster glory to wrap.
Winning a trophy like that, does it justify all the years and sacrifice involved? Or had he accepted that it might never happen, like so many players may?
“There’s two sides to it. Had I finished my career without getting a Munster medal, I don’t think I would have ever been disappointed about it. The biggest thing for me is I made some great friends along the way. And I’ve had some great memories. And that’s it. I’m talking like I’m 35 here at the minute, so we’ll give a pass on that.
“But obviously on the other side of it, now you have that validation that all of those hours spent, it does mean something at the end of it. It will be nice to look back in 10 years or whenever I stop playing completely between county and club, and to be able to say, ‘Yeah we’ve done that, that was ticked off the list’.
“But look, we can’t sit there and say that’s it now. We need to kick on, and we need to keep going. I wouldn’t like for us to be still talking about it in a couple of years’ time saying that was it and we’re not even trying to achieve something similar to it.
“Albeit look, given the weekend that was in it and all the history that went with it, it’s never going to be repeated in that sense. But there’s different ways in which you can make seasons memorable I would say.”
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Michael Quinlivan (Tipperary) was in attendance at the Allianz Football League 2021 launch, as inter-county football makes its long awaited return on 15 May.
This year marks the 29th year of Allianz’ partnership with the GAA as sponsor of the Allianz Leagues, making it one of the longest-running sponsorships in Irish sport.
