By Cian O’Connell

It is nearly two decades since Charlie McGeever left Donegal for Tipperary.

In that time McGeever has immersed himself in Clonmel Commercials and Tipperary football so Sunday’s AIB Munster Club SFC Semi-Final against St Joseph’s Milltown matters deeply.

Ultimately that match is part of journey which will continue as a Tipperary senior selector in 2020, but McGeever’s passion for sport endures.

An extremely talented Gaelic Football and soccer player, McGeever subsequently managed Finn Harps to an FAI Cup final in 1999, but he is still making a mark in Tipperary.

Taking teams at various levels is part and parcel of McGeever’s life. “I've always been involved, I came out of college in Limerick in 1983, I have been involved in some team every year,” McGeever says.

“I've been coaching, training or managing from that time behind the scenes. That is a long, long time. The nature of being a schoolteacher is that you look towards the young people, you try to develop them.”

That is the approach McGeever has adopted with Commercials, who enjoyed a daring Munster triumph four years ago.

“The squad we have at the minute we started with at Under 14 level and we have them until now,” McGeever adds. “I'd say they are sick and tired of seeing me at this stage, the crop in Commercials we have been working together for 12 or 13 years.

“It starts with my own family because my own sons would have been involved. That is the starting point. We had that success four years ago when this group of players were so young and it was probably a bit unexpected.

“Certainly for me it was unexpected because it was my first year as senior manager here. I thought that year it was a learning process, I suppose it ultimately turned out to be because we lost an All Ireland semi-final that with a little bit more experience we wouldn't have lost.

“That still sticks with these players and the management. Very little has changed from the management or playing in those years, we have added a couple of younger players.”

McGeever feels that the Commercials panel has developed significantly in recent years. “They are now at a mature age with the average age of probably 24 which is close to their ultimate,” McGeever states.

“What it has done this year is allowed them to manage themselves quite a bit. They are the same group, they know what the path is, they have self managed really. We have given them that opportunity and as management we facilitate what they want or what they need.

“We tailor our sessions and training habits, our calendar towards that. It has worked this year for them, it has proven that they are coming to their best form late in the year, rather than having to work harder at it during the year. That has been successful, we will see can they take the next step on Sunday.”

The harrowing AIB All Ireland Club Semi-Final loss against Ballyboden St Enda’s when Commercials led in the dying embers was a blow, but McGeever acknowledges the Tipperary outfit summoned a few brave comebacks of their own.

“We have to balance that year out, the balance is funny,” McGeever recalls. “We won a county final against Moyle Rovers at Semple Stadium by a point. People forget it when you win.

“When you lose it is remembered, but when you win it is forgotten. We then went on to play Newcastle West in the Munster Quarter-Final at home, they were three points up with less than five minutes to go. We won again by a point or two by kicking points. Another tight one.

“The Munster Final obviously in itself (Michael) Quinlivan's iconic goal in the last minute to win. Quite a number of tight games went our way, but the one you lose sticks in the head. We were a point up deep into injury time and if one more kickout goes into the right position we would have won. Ultimately that little bit of experience went against us. It was a funny year.

“The same teams seem to be coming to the fore this year. Nemo are going strong in Munster, Ballyboden going very strong in Leinster. So it seems to be nearly a repeat of that period of time. First and foremost before anybody talks about anything else we have to get through a very difficult assignment down in Milltown-Malbay on Sunday.

“They are obviously a team that was in the Munster Final last year, they have a lot of experience, and bit like ourselves they have been developing over the last three or four years. They have a very settled core group.”

Commercials bring an accomplished collection of performers into the battle too, with McGeever adamant that it has been a particularly exciting time in Tipperary.

“I would say that a golden age of football in Tipperary has been over the last seven or eight years from winning the minor in 2011,” McGeever remarks.

“A lot of those - seven of our lads - were members of that panel which was quite a substantial number. Football in Tipp has developed since then. Maybe we are in a little bit of a lull, but it has certainly developed because of those teams over a three or four years when the minor teams were fairly good.

“Apart from Commercials progressing, other teams like Moyle Rovers, in particular, and Loughmore-Castleiney also progressed at the same time because they were at the same age groups. These guys have been beaten each other for the last 10 years from Under 12 all the way up to now.

“We had a very, very tight semi-final against Loughmore which went to extra-time. It was probably the making of us this year, it was a game that brought us on. As everybody knows with the McGraths in Loughmore, they are exceptional players, they just don't test your football, they test your spirit.

“Their style of play would be very different to what ours would be, but it is very effective. We got a good grounding I would say in that game. Unfortunately last weekend didn't push us on much because of the nature of the game so we might be a little bit undercooked going into the semi-final in Milltown on Sunday.”

McGeever was surprised Commercials enjoyed such a facile triumph over JK Brackens at Semple Stadium last Saturday.

“It was just unfortunate that Brackens didn't turn up on the day, they put in a huge effort into their year, if you look at their year overall it has been an unbelievably successful year,” McGeever says.

“They are back to back Under 21 champions in football and they won the Corn Ui Riain which is the second tier of senior hurling, they were winners the week before they played us. They also made the county football final so they are a progressive team in both codes.

“I think that at the end of the day the volume of matches probably caught up with them. I think they had something like nine Under 21s starting on Saturday and they finished up with 11 Under 21s playing.

“There is huge development there and unfortunately as I said to them in the dressing room afterwards there is very little you can do on days when you don't turn up like that.

“We had it in Croke Park with the minor Tipperary team when Kerry gave us a beating four or five years ago in the minor final. You have days when teams just don't turn up and it can be very difficult to do anything about it.”

McGeever is relishing the prospect of getting involved at senior inter-county level under new Tipperary manager David Power.

An interesting backroom team has been stitched together by Power, but McGeever is hopeful that the blue and gold can make an impact once more.

“I've had a chat with David and unfortunately I haven't gone in there yet because my concentration is very much on the club,” McGeever admits.

“It has to be because a lot of work has went into it already. I have to say I like the look of the backroom team he has put together, a very experienced and professional group of people.

“If you start with the coach, Michael McGeehin, an exceptional coach who has been working with teams around the country for a long number of years. He is well respected and he was with Tipp already during very productive years when he was in with Peter Creedon.

“That was a time when they developed a particular style of play, very attacking, a very attractive style. I had Michael in with Commercials myself for a number of campaigns with this group. He is well known within the group and very well respected. Paddy Christie brings an absolutely different dimension to it which is a change from what has been in Tipperary before, a different view from outside the county. Everybody else added is going to be a part of it with a young manager coming in.

“David is a young man who is hungry and dynamic, it will be interesting to see how we all gel together. There is a bit of excitement around in my head anyway because you will be working with a different group of people than I've worked with before.”

It proved to be a disappointing 2019 Championship for Tipperary, but mitigating circumstances existed according to McGeever. “Probably Tipperary overachieved a little bit a couple of years ago making the All Ireland semi-final in the sense that it wasn't sustainable or it wasn't sustained,” McGeever replies.

“You get a group of players like you got and unfortunately some of them haven't stayed within the GAA realm. If you take Colin O'Riordan as an example, he is playing in Australia. That is good for him, a huge thing. (Peter) Acheson was gone to Saudi, he was working over there which you can't do too much about.

“A couple of fellas in relation to injuries made it problematic- that is another area, particularly last year, it was a blip on the basis that having been beaten by Limerick they were beaten because ultimately too many of their best players were just coming back from injury. They just weren't ready for Championship.

“Michael Quinlivan barely kicked a ball for Tipperary because he was injured, he had a knee operation early in the year. Robbie Kiely was away for six months he came back just before the Limerick match and Bill Maher was injured for quite a long time.

“So five of the starting XV just didn't have enough games under their belts for that Limerick match and if you don't get momentum in the Championship it can go very quickly. Ultimately that is what happened. I think it is a case of half empty and half full at the minute with Tipp.”

Improving the depth of talent available is what Tipperary need to focus on during the coming years. “I think at senior level we aren't too bad, but in my estimation we don't have a wide enough base,” McGeever remarks.

“The crop coming later is a problem. Over the last number of years we have been very poor in our underage development over the last three or four years. We've had very little success at any match in Under 20 or minor level.

“Unfortunately you need to have somebody coming through. The last player to come through of substance was Jack Kennedy, who is now 22 years of age. The question I keep asking is who is the next Jack Kennedy? There should be somebody behind that at 21, 20, 19.

“Unfortunately maybe they aren't there, but this year some of them have put up their hand in a number of clubs, particularly in Moyle Rovers, Brackens, and our club.

“I'd reference Seanie O'Connor, who is playing full forward in our team, he has just turned 18 and is one of the future players for Tipperary. So hopefully there are a couple to add to what is there already.”

With McGeever remaining a central figure, Clonmel Commercials and Tipperary footballers will be most ably assisted in every way possible.