Stack enjoying a special journey with St. Brigid’s

St. Brigid’s senior football manager, Jerome Stack, chats to IAN COONEY about expectations within the club being shaped by a culture of success and the importance of his players being able to adapt when they face Glen in Croke Park on Sunday next… 

Travelling from his home in Adare, Jerome Stack often takes the motorway to Kiltoom. Other times, he might traverse the back roads through the boglands of the midlands. Irrespective of the route, alertness is paramount.

Patrolling the sideline under the Hogan Stand next Sunday, there will be no hiding place. Key decisions could be the difference between the winning and the losing of an All-Ireland title. But travelling up the middle of the country has been a good education for Stack in terms of making swift, perhaps, match-defining decisions.

“I love being involved in football. If you give me an opportunity with a team that I think have the right attitude, or where’s there is potential — I’m not saying that I’ll go anywhere — the journey is shorter when you have players that want to play. Anyone who is involved in football and wants to win things, you have to be adaptable with that.” 

Like Conor Cox before he came to Éire Óg, Stack’s homestead was Listowel Emmets. Once he stopped playing, the coaching bug soon hit and he played an integral role in Feale Rangers edging out South Kerry in the 2007 county final in the Kingdom.

A year later, he was part of the All-Ireland winning Kerry U-21 management team that oversaw a 2-11 to 0-12 victory against Kildare in Thurles. He subsequently became part of management teams with the Laois and Limerick senior footballers. When the call came from St. Brigid’s, he knew that he was dealing with a club that wasn’t short on ambition.

“There would have been an expectation that Brigid’s would be there or thereabouts in Roscommon. No matter what county you’re in, however, county championships are very difficult to win. I expected, and I hoped, that we would be in the shake-up in Roscommon.

“Obviously, the tradition was here and I had done a small bit of research on some of the younger players coming through. I knew about the club’s county players but, being honest, I knew more about their tradition as opposed to their exact state of affairs.

“But I knew I wasn’t coming in here to ‘have a go’. There was the expectation to be very competitive in the senior championship. It was no more than that at the start,” he revealed.

It’s fair to deduce that the club’s ambition wasn’t matched when Boyle edged out Brigid’s in the 2022 county semi-final. But Stack was always determined to come back and set the record straight.

“We were very disappointed with the way the county championship finished (in 2022). We were beaten fairly by Boyle. But I would have felt that there was unfinished business.

“When we won the county title last October, we probably got that little bit of luck against Boyle that I felt they probably got against us the previous year. I’m not saying they were lucky to beat us. But there were a few small things that went their way.

“The minute we won the county final, I didn’t have to go twisting anybody’s arms to get them ready to play in Connacht. In other counties, that wouldn’t necessarily be the case. Sometimes when you win a county title, the year is ticked, it’s great. I’m not saying it wasn’t a great year here but, most importantly, winning Roscommon wasn’t the end of the players’ ambitions,” he explained.

The reason? Ever since Karol Mannion’s famous goal against Corofin in the 2006 Connacht club final, the perception of Brigid’s has been transformed.

“It’s to do with the club, with the history of the club. Expectation is a hard thing, but it’s also a great thing. Here, it’s seen as an opportunity by the players because of what has been created by different teams in the club,” acknowledged Stack.

Yet, for all their exposure on the national stage, St. Brigid’s have never come across Watty Graham’s Glen. Consequently, there’s plenty of homework for Stack and his management team to get through between now and Sunday.

“Glen have come to real prominence all over the country in the last two or three years. Obviously, a huge amount of work has gone into the club. They’ve been so consistent over three years, which is very difficult,” agreed Stack.

“That’s the hard thing about club football in comparison to county football. It’s far more difficult to have a real read on standards or players. The standard could be deceiving when you go to watch a match because it depends on what you’re playing against. At county level, you see the players you’re competing against several times a year. At club level, if you get out of your county and into your province, the only lads you’ll have seen are the ones who have played intercounty football,” he continued.

After beating defending champions Kilmacud Crokes in Newry on the same day that Brigid’s ousted Castlehaven, the narrative being spun in many quarters is that it’s Glen’s All-Ireland title to lose. But Stack is in the game long enough to know that sport doesn’t always conform to horizons of expectation.

“I can see where that might come from, but none of that is within our control. The only thing within our control is how we go about our business on the day of the All-Ireland final, how we prepare.

“We’ve been favourites for most of the games we played in Roscommon, and Boyle gave us a very sticky game in the county final. We were odds on to beat Mohill in the Connacht semi-final and they gave us a really sticky game. Corofin were favourites to beat us and we beat them.

“It is what it is. Glen are favourites for a reason. They were there last year. They have been the dominant team in Ulster for the last few years. But there’s nothing we can do about any of that. Whether we were favourites or not during the year didn’t make a whole pile of difference to me. In terms of preparation, it doesn’t affect me,” he emphasised.

The condensed GAA calendar means that St. Brigid’s or Glen haven’t had much time to rest on their laurels after their respective semi-final victories. While Stack acknowledges that the club finals on St. Patrick’s Day were a great occasion, the lie of the land doesn’t make that possible in the current climate.

“To be fair to the GAA, there was no way it could be any different. We had five weeks between the Connacht final and the last day. Castlehaven had four. Glen and Kilmacud Crokes had something similar. That’s too long. But I don’t think that there was a different way of doing it because everyone has to have a Christmas. Two weeks is a better lead-in period. You’re not overthinking it.

“The games have to be played sometime. County football is always going to take precedence. That’s fair enough because that’s where the bigger revenue is going to come from.

“The underfoot conditions in Thurles (for the semi-final) were grand, albeit it was a bit slippery. We had a great day for the Connacht final and we’re keeping our fingers crossed that the next day might be a good day. When you get to the final, you’d play in hail, rain or snow because that’s where you want to be.

“Having the finals on St. Patrick’s Day was a fantastic occasion. In the bigger scheme of things, however, that’s nearly a year and a quarter to prepare for. I know you’re not at full tilt. But if you’re in a club that’s going about its business properly, you might take a week off here and there. You don’t take weeks off. The day itself suited the occasion, but it’s just not possible anymore. The year is just too long,” he pointed out.

Needless to say, St. Brigid’s county contingent has been an integral part of the club’s success story this season. But Stack references the input of other players who have stepped up to the plate in different ways. The manager will formulate a gameplan for Glen that will suit the players’ strengths, but the responsibility will ultimately fall on the men wearing green and red jerseys to tweak things as the game evolves.

“The likes of Ben O’Carroll and Brian Stack have been immense all year, as have Eddie (Nolan), Shane Cunnane, Ruaidhrí Fallon and Robbie Dolan. Ben is a special talent, but I’d like to think that some of the other players were just as involved the last day, chipping in. Ben will stand out, but he’s an intercounty senior footballer. His consistency has been excellent for us this year.

“You would think that Croke Park would lend itself to the football that we like to play. But, once again, oppositions and the way they set up have a lot to do with it. We might want to play a certain way but it doesn’t always pan out like that because of the conditions, the referee or a myriad of different things.

“We could play the same way we played against Castlehaven, and another opposition might close you down. They might have better individuals.

“The one thing I keep saying about football is that you’ve got to be able to adapt. If one thing isn’t working, you’ve got to be able to try something else. We all talk about gameplan A, B and C — it isn’t like that. Nobody has that, although they might say they have.

“It’s about having the intelligence to change something. It’s about making good decisions regularly on the pitch, depending on what’s in front of you and how certain guys are getting on. When it works, everyone thinks it’s a master plan. When it doesn’t, everyone think you’re a dunce. The truth probably lies something in between,” he insisted.

Like all GAA managers, there have been lots of twists and turns in the road for Jerome Stack during his managerial career. But, deep down, he knows that whether his side take the motorway or the bog road on Sunday, both routes can lead to the ultimate destination.