Not to last weekend when Seamus Kennedy and Michael Quinlivan brought their medal county in the Tipperary senior club football arena to eight.
Not to a decade ago when Kennedy’s delivery and Quinlivan’s finish delivered a blast of Munster final drama on the most famous day in the history of Clonmel Commercials.
He goes back further to days in their youth playing soccer when the pair’s nascent talent first emerged.
“They were tied at the hip at the beginning. They’ve always been very close as a pair. My own son Cathal was friendly with both of them, would have been in their age group.
“They were the driving force, the two of them, they would have won everything all the way up. Their range of ability across sports…I mean I’m thinking back to 2005-06. Clonmel Town who are the the main soccer club here, I would have managed them for quite a while when I landed first in Tipp, soccer would have been my thing.
“In 2005 they won the Danone National Cup, Michael and Seamus would have been both on that team, they went on to the Nations Cup in Lyon. They were very prominent in terms of their ability from 10, 11.
“Freakish in one way because they’re both physically big and strong and talented.
“There would have been a connection in that management team that I had with Michael’s father Martin and Seamus’ father Terence, all three of us would have been involved in management teams all the way through.
“They didn’t lick it off the ground either. Martin would have played in goal for Waterford for a long, long time in soccer and for Tipp for football.
“On Seamus’s side, his mother is one of the Walls in Waterford, The Nire. They’re both traditionally very strong in sport through their families.”
Last Saturday represented the latest occasion Kennedy and Quinlivan have rounded off a Tipperary senior football championship on a successful note.
For context Clonmel Commercials as a club have won 22 titles overall to sit at the top of the roll of honour, their current star duo have helped engineer eight of those triumphs, a haul of medals accumulated over the space of 14 seasons.
The latest county final victory saw the pair of 32-year-olds, born a few months apart in 1993, continuing to spearhead the Commercials challenge.
Kennedy captained and anchored the team from centre-back, Quinlivan pulled the strings at centre-forward, slicing through the Kilsheelan-Kilcash defence for a terrific second-half goal.
Their inter-county achievements have stacked up over the years, ever since they both started on Tipperary’s historic minor class of 2011 – Kennedy stationed at wing-back and Quinlivan at full-forward, where he drilled home a penalty in final against a Dublin team packed with players who would go on to dominate the sport.
Seamus Kennedy and Michael Quinlivan celebrate at the final whistle of the 2011 All-Ireland minor semi-final. Ryan Byrne / INPHO
Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
They then separated and embarked on successful paths, Kennedy landing his third All-Ireland senior win in the Tipperary ranks last July, Quinlivan integral to a Munster senior breakthrough in 2020 and an All-Star winner in 2016.
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But returning to club football colours in the autumn and winter has remained a constant in their sporting lives.
“They’ll probably look at me and say, ‘Charlie, we should have won a couple more!’,” laughs McGeever, who has won four county titles as Commercials manager and was a Tipperary selector in 2020.
“We lost a couple of tight ones in the middle of that run, they could have double figures quite easily at this stage.
“Look they’re two exceptional lads. They’re generational players, not just club, they’re county generation players.
“You could argue the case that there’ll be a long time before two such prominent characters will be personalities in the club at the one time.
“When they combine on the football field, it can drive everybody and lift everybody.”
Kennedy first made his Tipperary senior name for the football wing of the county. It is a decade since he featured at wing-back in a qualifier against Tyrone, but by the outset of the 2016 campaign he had shifted to the hurling squad and has been a mainstay ever since.
“There would have been a drive and a grá for hurling in Seamus going well back,” says McGeever.
“I would have been principal in the school where he came to the Gaelcoláiste here in Clonmel from primary school and he transferred then to CBS in Thurles for his senior years in search of a Harty Cup.
“So he was very driven in relation to where he wanted to be from a very young age and that’s stood by him all the way through.
“If Seamus didn’t hurl, he would have been obviously a centerpiece in the Tipp football team for all his years. He is as good, if not better, footballer than hurler in my estimation. He’s just a born leader and people follow him.”
When their contribution to the club’s cause is measured, moments like the injury-time 2015 Munster club match-winner jump off the highlights reel.
McGeever appreciates their enduring commitment that may not be as visible. A few weeks ago he was working in Thurles on a club GAA Sunday double-bill for TG4, analysing the Kerry football final. Kennedy was also on punditry duty, calling the Tipperary hurling decider.
They got chatting and when McGeever asked about Tipperary’s team holiday, Kennedy wasn’t sure on the dates of the trip. His focus was unwaveringly on Commercials, their Tipperary title bid and a potential Munster campaign to follow.
“He is an unbelievably driven man, in every sense. He minds himself 24/7. To come back from a cruciate injury last year, to win a third All-Ireland, with the drive to do that.
Seamus Kennedy celebrates with the Liam MacCarthy Cup. Ryan Byrne / INPHO
Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
“It’s a big decision to to go again and not only just to recover, but force your way back into the panel and play on All-Ireland final day. Huge drive at that age to do that.”
Quinlivan is cut from the same cloth. For the last few years he’s been based in Dundalk but continues to journey back to his south Tipperary home to play, just like he did when he lived and worked in Dublin before
“Michael’s an elite athlete and he’s elite in everything he does in life. I think his longevity in one way is due to probably not being overplayed. He’s not playing county for the last number of years, which means that there’s a time in the year where he can actually concentrate all his thoughts and abilities on the club.
“His fingerprints will be all over everything that’s good in Tipperary.
“I remember well on the sideline watching that (2020) semi-final against Limerick in the Gaelic Grounds. We were gone. Michael turned over a ball towards the corner, won the ball back, went on a drive, got pulled down, and Sweeney kicked that unbelievable near the sideline kick to level it afterwards.
Limerick's Iain Corbett and Michael Quinlivan of Tipperary in the 2020 Munster football semi-final. Bryan Keane / INPHO
Bryan Keane / INPHO / INPHO
“We all remember the kick, but we forget what happened before. Without what he did that day we wouldn’t have been Munster champions.
“Michael over the years has just had this ability of being central to everything that happens in terms of the big moments.
“I’ve been across a lot of sports, but certainly on natural talent, Michael would be exceptional. He is so talented.
“This year I think he’s looking better. If you wanted to put art into football, when Quinlivan collects the ball deep out and he’s going in a straight line, he’s gliding over the ground.
“The goal he scored last weekend was one of those where it’s cruise control and finishing, as he’s always been able to do. I’m loving to see him back where he belongs.”
WHAT A GOAL, MICHAEL QUINLIVAN! 🤩@CommercialsGAA's main man shows his full skillset as he carves through the defence and finishes magnificently! 👏
Michael Quinlivan celebrates the 2015 Munster final victory. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
Across their six most recent Munster adventures (Covid scrubbed the province from the 2020 equation), Commercials have been defined by their meetings with Nemo Rangers.
The 2015 final success in Mallow, the 2019 final loss in Dungarvan, the 2022 quarter-final victory in Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
On Saturday they host St Finbarr’s, the Cork final conquerors of Nemo, in this season’s opening Munster instalment.
35 years ago Commercials held off St Finbarr’s by a point in a semi-final in Ballinlough, to claim a groundbreaking result. The club’s iconic figure Philly Ryan was in goal for that win.
His death last month rocked the club, the presence of his son Shane in goal added poignancy to last Saturday’s county final.
“Very surreal, it’s been like that since Philly passed away really,” says McGeever.
“It’s hard to know where to place everything. It’s kind of like a tornado running away, it’s all over the place.
“People aren’t getting the time to think too deeply about what occurred. I think that the week in week out of games, it probably suits people in Clonmel at the minute.
“There hasn’t been a break. The good thing is that Tommy’s (Morrissey, team manager) managing it quite well. I’m not on the inner circle now, but simple things like time frame and when to train, and how much to do.
“It would have been quite a bit of a release of emotions on Saturday as well and over the weekend.”
Navigating their way through a time of grief is a difficult task for the playing squad. The leadership of key figures helps.
“Seamus is a player’s man all the way through. It was epitomised probably by the captaincy speech and having Shane, Philly’s son, up to collect the cup with him. It was a poignant moment to do that.
“Seamus would have put a lot of thought into how that whole thing would have panned out. A deep thinker Seamus, but an exceptional players’ player.”
*****
Saturday 15 November
Munster senior football quarter-final
Clonmel Commercials (Tipperary) v St Finbarr’s (Cork), Clonmel Sportsfield, 1.15pm – Clubber.
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'They're generational players' - Tipperary duo still key as Munster club campaign begins
CHARLIE MCGEEVER CASTS his mind back.
Not to last weekend when Seamus Kennedy and Michael Quinlivan brought their medal county in the Tipperary senior club football arena to eight.
Not to a decade ago when Kennedy’s delivery and Quinlivan’s finish delivered a blast of Munster final drama on the most famous day in the history of Clonmel Commercials.
He goes back further to days in their youth playing soccer when the pair’s nascent talent first emerged.
“They were tied at the hip at the beginning. They’ve always been very close as a pair. My own son Cathal was friendly with both of them, would have been in their age group.
“They were the driving force, the two of them, they would have won everything all the way up. Their range of ability across sports…I mean I’m thinking back to 2005-06. Clonmel Town who are the the main soccer club here, I would have managed them for quite a while when I landed first in Tipp, soccer would have been my thing.
“In 2005 they won the Danone National Cup, Michael and Seamus would have been both on that team, they went on to the Nations Cup in Lyon. They were very prominent in terms of their ability from 10, 11.
“Freakish in one way because they’re both physically big and strong and talented.
“There would have been a connection in that management team that I had with Michael’s father Martin and Seamus’ father Terence, all three of us would have been involved in management teams all the way through.
“They didn’t lick it off the ground either. Martin would have played in goal for Waterford for a long, long time in soccer and for Tipp for football.
“On Seamus’s side, his mother is one of the Walls in Waterford, The Nire. They’re both traditionally very strong in sport through their families.”
*****
2015 Munster senior club final winning goal
*****
Last Saturday represented the latest occasion Kennedy and Quinlivan have rounded off a Tipperary senior football championship on a successful note.
For context Clonmel Commercials as a club have won 22 titles overall to sit at the top of the roll of honour, their current star duo have helped engineer eight of those triumphs, a haul of medals accumulated over the space of 14 seasons.
The latest county final victory saw the pair of 32-year-olds, born a few months apart in 1993, continuing to spearhead the Commercials challenge.
Kennedy captained and anchored the team from centre-back, Quinlivan pulled the strings at centre-forward, slicing through the Kilsheelan-Kilcash defence for a terrific second-half goal.
Their inter-county achievements have stacked up over the years, ever since they both started on Tipperary’s historic minor class of 2011 – Kennedy stationed at wing-back and Quinlivan at full-forward, where he drilled home a penalty in final against a Dublin team packed with players who would go on to dominate the sport.
They then separated and embarked on successful paths, Kennedy landing his third All-Ireland senior win in the Tipperary ranks last July, Quinlivan integral to a Munster senior breakthrough in 2020 and an All-Star winner in 2016.
But returning to club football colours in the autumn and winter has remained a constant in their sporting lives.
“They’ll probably look at me and say, ‘Charlie, we should have won a couple more!’,” laughs McGeever, who has won four county titles as Commercials manager and was a Tipperary selector in 2020.
“We lost a couple of tight ones in the middle of that run, they could have double figures quite easily at this stage.
“Look they’re two exceptional lads. They’re generational players, not just club, they’re county generation players.
“You could argue the case that there’ll be a long time before two such prominent characters will be personalities in the club at the one time.
“When they combine on the football field, it can drive everybody and lift everybody.”
Kennedy first made his Tipperary senior name for the football wing of the county. It is a decade since he featured at wing-back in a qualifier against Tyrone, but by the outset of the 2016 campaign he had shifted to the hurling squad and has been a mainstay ever since.
“There would have been a drive and a grá for hurling in Seamus going well back,” says McGeever.
“I would have been principal in the school where he came to the Gaelcoláiste here in Clonmel from primary school and he transferred then to CBS in Thurles for his senior years in search of a Harty Cup.
“So he was very driven in relation to where he wanted to be from a very young age and that’s stood by him all the way through.
“If Seamus didn’t hurl, he would have been obviously a centerpiece in the Tipp football team for all his years. He is as good, if not better, footballer than hurler in my estimation. He’s just a born leader and people follow him.”
When their contribution to the club’s cause is measured, moments like the injury-time 2015 Munster club match-winner jump off the highlights reel.
McGeever appreciates their enduring commitment that may not be as visible. A few weeks ago he was working in Thurles on a club GAA Sunday double-bill for TG4, analysing the Kerry football final. Kennedy was also on punditry duty, calling the Tipperary hurling decider.
They got chatting and when McGeever asked about Tipperary’s team holiday, Kennedy wasn’t sure on the dates of the trip. His focus was unwaveringly on Commercials, their Tipperary title bid and a potential Munster campaign to follow.
“He is an unbelievably driven man, in every sense. He minds himself 24/7. To come back from a cruciate injury last year, to win a third All-Ireland, with the drive to do that.
“It’s a big decision to to go again and not only just to recover, but force your way back into the panel and play on All-Ireland final day. Huge drive at that age to do that.”
Quinlivan is cut from the same cloth. For the last few years he’s been based in Dundalk but continues to journey back to his south Tipperary home to play, just like he did when he lived and worked in Dublin before
“Michael’s an elite athlete and he’s elite in everything he does in life. I think his longevity in one way is due to probably not being overplayed. He’s not playing county for the last number of years, which means that there’s a time in the year where he can actually concentrate all his thoughts and abilities on the club.
“His fingerprints will be all over everything that’s good in Tipperary.
“I remember well on the sideline watching that (2020) semi-final against Limerick in the Gaelic Grounds. We were gone. Michael turned over a ball towards the corner, won the ball back, went on a drive, got pulled down, and Sweeney kicked that unbelievable near the sideline kick to level it afterwards.
“We all remember the kick, but we forget what happened before. Without what he did that day we wouldn’t have been Munster champions.
“Michael over the years has just had this ability of being central to everything that happens in terms of the big moments.
“I’ve been across a lot of sports, but certainly on natural talent, Michael would be exceptional. He is so talented.
“This year I think he’s looking better. If you wanted to put art into football, when Quinlivan collects the ball deep out and he’s going in a straight line, he’s gliding over the ground.
“The goal he scored last weekend was one of those where it’s cruise control and finishing, as he’s always been able to do. I’m loving to see him back where he belongs.”
Across their six most recent Munster adventures (Covid scrubbed the province from the 2020 equation), Commercials have been defined by their meetings with Nemo Rangers.
The 2015 final success in Mallow, the 2019 final loss in Dungarvan, the 2022 quarter-final victory in Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
On Saturday they host St Finbarr’s, the Cork final conquerors of Nemo, in this season’s opening Munster instalment.
35 years ago Commercials held off St Finbarr’s by a point in a semi-final in Ballinlough, to claim a groundbreaking result. The club’s iconic figure Philly Ryan was in goal for that win.
His death last month rocked the club, the presence of his son Shane in goal added poignancy to last Saturday’s county final.
“Very surreal, it’s been like that since Philly passed away really,” says McGeever.
“It’s hard to know where to place everything. It’s kind of like a tornado running away, it’s all over the place.
“People aren’t getting the time to think too deeply about what occurred. I think that the week in week out of games, it probably suits people in Clonmel at the minute.
“There hasn’t been a break. The good thing is that Tommy’s (Morrissey, team manager) managing it quite well. I’m not on the inner circle now, but simple things like time frame and when to train, and how much to do.
“It would have been quite a bit of a release of emotions on Saturday as well and over the weekend.”
Navigating their way through a time of grief is a difficult task for the playing squad. The leadership of key figures helps.
“Seamus is a player’s man all the way through. It was epitomised probably by the captaincy speech and having Shane, Philly’s son, up to collect the cup with him. It was a poignant moment to do that.
“Seamus would have put a lot of thought into how that whole thing would have panned out. A deep thinker Seamus, but an exceptional players’ player.”
*****
Saturday 15 November
Munster senior football quarter-final
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Clonmel Commercials club GAA Gaelic Football Michael Quinlivan Seamus Kennedy Tipperary