Ronan Carolan was synonymous with Cavan football and one of the county’s all-time greats. He spoke to  Niall Gartland.

HE was Cavan’s resident free-taker for 15 years, but there was a lot more to Ronan Carolan than his expertise from the dead ball.

In his early years in the Breffni jersey, Carolan wasn’t the most physically imposing player in the world, and a lesser man would have found himself bullied out of it in the open warfare of eighties football.

Not that he would’ve made the grade in the first place – a teenage Carolan was drafted into the senior panel in the mid-eighties by Eugene McGee, Offaly’s 1982 All-Ireland winning manager for whom passengers weren’t exactly tolerated. ‘Do as you’re told, or you’re out’ was his mantra, and Carolan was only too happy to oblige.

His patience and resilience was eventually rewarded when Cavan won their first Ulster Championship in 28 years back in 1997, but he still harbours life-long regrets that they didn’t go on to finish the job and bring home the Sam Maguire.

These days Carolan is the busy chairman of his thriving home club Cuchulainn’s, and just recently he celebrated the 93rd birthday of his father Paddy, the last surviving member of Cavan’s 1952 All-Ireland winning team.

Commenting on how much the game has changed in the last seven decades, Carolan said: “There’s plenty of pictures and a bit of video footage, it was a different game, but that applies even when you look back on my own playing days.

“You look back at what are supposed to be great games from years ago, and you’re thinking ‘woah, that wasn’t what I imagined.”

“I remember celebrating the 25th anniversary of us winning an Intermediate Club title, and some of the younger lads had heard what a great game it was. We watched it at a celebratory evening and we got some amount of abuse about how bad it was.

“To be honest I watched it and also thought ‘woah that was pretty poor.’ I suppose people will frown upon the emphasis on ball retention these days but the better teams are moving on from that.

“You do have bad games these days especially with the teams in the middle-bracket, but the better teams that have elusive inside forwards that can unlock a mass defence.”

There was no doing your time in underage squads back in the day; Carolan was thrown into the deep end as a 17-year-old and made his senior debut for Cavan in 1985. He has fond memories of Cavan’s manager at the time, Eugene McGee, sometimes characterised as a curmudgeonly sort but who nonetheless was ahead of the curve when it came to the tactical side of things.

“I remember him pulling six or seven of us in when we were on the minor team, and telling us in no uncertain terms that we were the future, and that if we put our heads down and did exactly as we were told, we would have a successful career ahead of us.

“One on the one hand, it was ‘do as you’re told and you’ll make it’, and ‘if you don’t do as you’re told, you’ll be out that door as quickly as you can.’

“Personally I’d have died for him, he was that kinda manager. Throughout my early career, when I arguably wasn’t physical enough to be playing, I was still quite athletic and Eugene would give me the task of preoccupying the opposition’s best defender, that I’d run off and create space for mature, top-class forwards like Derek McDonnell. He was very astute when there wasn’t a pile of tactics around.

“The thing about Eugene is that he’d have given me credit for that, knowing I did it for the better of the team. It was a good education for any young fella, that you didn’t need to be on the ball to do a job for the team.”

While McGee’s tenure in charge ended without much in the way of tangible success, he laid the platform for Cavan’s ascent to the summit in Ulster in 1997.

Carolan also credits him for their run to the All-Ireland U-21 final in 1988, a game he himself played no part in as he badly damaged the lateral ligament in his right ankle just three weeks before the final.

“He was very ahead of his time and he proved that through his successes with Offaly and UCD, he taught you about what was needed to make it as an intercounty footballer.

“That stood to a lot of the players of my generation. He changed things dramatically in Cavan and I firmly believe if he’d have stayed one more year, we’d have won an Ulster Championship with that team, but he had to leave due to family health issues.

“That team was every bit as good as the one that won Ulster ten years later. We reached the All-Ireland U-21 final in 1988, I was injured for that game which was a defining moment for me, but 14 of the lads on that team had long careers for Cavan.

“Paddy Maguire managed the u-21s but it was Eugene McGee who laid down the code of behaviour and the players who were around at the time still give him great credit for that.”

Off the field Carolan was a teacher, but he embarked on a career change in his mid-twenties, enrolling on the Physiotherapy course at Trinity College Dublin.

“When I went through rehab I befriended Ann Burton, who was the Meath team physio and looked after a lot of players down this end of the country. She encouraged me to apply as a mature student.

“I remember going to school one day and sitting in traffic, I’d a few letters beside me and one was from Trinity and the other was from Jordanstown.

“It was the presence of my wife who kept me in Dublin, where I was living and working at the time. Jordanstown has a really good medical faculty but I was accustomed to Dublin, so it was just like a change of work really.

“For four years when I got up I went to Trinity or St James Hospital and I still have great friends from those days. I remember when one of my present friends, who is heavily involved with Dublin football, she was only 17 or 18 at the time and I was 25, she came over on my first break and said ‘come on Grandad, we’re going for a cup of tea.’ I ruined her birthday seven years later when I rang her to tell her she’s the same age as me. But studying was very much like work and I was playing for Cavan at the same time, so you had to be disciplined and time management was of major importance.”

Even before the early nineties, when Ulster teams tore up the formbook and won four All-Irelands on the spin, the province was ferociously competitive, and Monaghan were particularly sticky opponents.

“We were coming up against the top teams in the country. Monaghan were unlucky not to win an All-Ireland, I remember we had a brilliant battle against them in 1988. Fintan Cahill and Ciaran Murray had an absolutely brilliant head-to-head.

“Monaghan were going extremely well at the time and had a lot of experience with players like Eamon McEnaney, Nudie Hughes, Gerry McCarville. That was a good Cavan team and that was a high-level game. We then lost to Donegal four years running in the first round and they should’ve won more than one All-Ireland in my opinion.”

Donegal legend Martin McHugh was recruited as manager shortly after signing off on his playing career, and made an immediate impact. Just as importantly, they had the strength of personnel on the field of play, so it was a match made in heaven really.

“If you think of my generation, we had a significant number of players, like Fintan, Damien O’Reilly, Vivian Dowd, then another glut of younger lads like Jason Reilly, Dermot McCabe, Mickey Graham. Then you’d a few lads older than us, Bernard Morris, Stephen King and so on – Stephen being the Godfather of the group.”

They reached the Ulster final in 1995 and finally got over the line two years later, and Carolan says they were particularly driven by the thought of captain Stephen King, by then on the cusp of retirement, climbing the steps of Clones.

“Like any good or decent team we had more than one leader, but Stephen was basically the father figure and we felt we needed to win one as he deserved an Ulster Championship medal at the very least.

“It’s interesting, I’d a conversation with a very young Stephen O’Neill and Cormac McAnallen when I was the International Rules team physio, and they spoke about Peter Canavan, and how their motivation was to win an All-Ireland for him, that was before 2003. Cormac was casually driving the conversation and while it wasn’t their sole motivation, it was a significant part of it. To a degree it was similar for us, Stephen had been there so long, The pity is that we didn’t win an All-Ireland because we were definitely good enough to do so.”

Carolan says that Martin McHugh brought a forensic approach to management, and his analytical approach paid dividends as they claimed their first provincial title in decades in 1997.

“Martin was a winner and we’d have known him for years as we played against Donegal so often. There was huge respect for him as a player, he was brilliant and played on those teams that beat us four years in a row.

“I remember chatting to Martin one night and he told us after we drew with them in 1992, a game we really should’ve won, that they only had five players turn up to training two days later but they went on to win the All-Ireland.

“Martin was a brilliant player and he was a modern player, it was all about the ball. He brought that intense thinking to management and we often had in-depth discussions with him. Sometimes you can be too analytical and overthink things, and he was bordering on that side of things, but it was a good attribute. He was extremely well organised and you had to be fully committed.”

He also hails the influence of their meticulous and forward-thinking team trainer Joe Doonan, who had the team in tip-top shape.

“Joe was a brilliant man. The two of them were excellent together, between Martin’s brilliant football brain and Joe’s athletic mind. I believe we were without doubt the fittest team in the country.

“It was before the strength and conditioning scene really came to prominence, the whole area of diametrics was new to GAA but Joe was very much on top of them.

“I was fortunate enough to be involved with the Railway Cup during those days, and many of our chief opponents at that stage in Ulster were aware we were a very fit team. Nowadays there isn’t that much difference between teams because they’re so well-conditioned, but back in the day a team like us had a significant advantage as we’d a brilliant mind behind the scenes.

“Joe had lectures with us when he came in, you’d have a sit down and we’d have a half an hour where he’d educated you on part of your preparation, like nutrition. I remember him saying if we were bright enough – which he always questioned – we wouldn’t need him any more and that basically happened as he wasn’t with us for the second half of 1997.”

It’s hard to believe now as he’s regarded as such an integral part of the Cavan team of that era, but Carolan was actually dropped for an Ulster Championship first-round clash against Fermanagh in 1997.

“I was basically sheer and utter fatigued. The message from Martin was that I needed to freshen up and take a break, that it might do me good to sit and watch from the sidelines.

“It did me the world of good, I’d been 12 years on the go at that stage. It was the right decision and gave me the opportunity to freshen up, but at the same time there was no assurance I’d get back in.

“The panel was extremely competitive and there was even a value attached to being on the bench as there were lads missing out who were every good as the starters.

“If you look at the Ulster final, Jason Reilly came in and scored the goal, and Philip Smith also was subbed in and started that move, and you’d Mickey Graham as well. It was a real asset to us, we had experienced lads on the bench as well as young cubs who showed over the following ten years that they were more than good enough. The panel was populated with quality players and training sessions were just as intense as competitive matches.”

The Breffni County ended their drought in Ulster with a one-point victory over a seriously experienced Derry side in the Ulster final. Even though Carolan nailed six points from frees, he has vivid memories of missing a ‘gimme’ effort in the second half.

“I can still see it in my mind’s eye. Martin was on the same wavelength as me as he’s a free-taker as well, and I remember in the changing room after the game, it was quiet and people were exhausted, and Martin just said to me ‘we’ll chat about that free’.

“I just laughed at him but I understood, it was an important free and gave Derry a bit of momentum at the time. We won that Ulster final in the first ten minutes of the second half and maybe we saw the line too early. Like a good golfer, it’s your poor shots where you figured out where you went wrong and I just rushed that free a little bit. I just presumed it was a tap over and didn’t go through the process, as they say.”

It sounds unusual that it was a ‘quiet’ dressing room given the import of what they’d achieved, but Carolan puts that down to a collective exhaustion as much as anything else.

“Well there was serious contentment, it was a hugely significant moment after all that we’d endured. We were also absolutely exhausted and I remember the fatigue at the final whistle. There was a pitch invasion and Patrick Shiels and I were out on our feet. I remember Patrick laying face upwards with 20 supporters on top of him, it was mayhem and he was almost in danger of being suffocated. It was mayhem. It was a very happy but content dressing room, we’d been to the well. Things were restrained yes but there was also serious joy.”

Cavan didn’t perform to their potential in an All-Ireland semi-final defeat to eventual champions Kerry, and Carolan says a lot of the Cavan players will probably never re-watch the match.

“There’s very few players who have looked at it for a second time. I have looked at it but it still hurts. I was at a gathering of the players a few years ago and a lot of the lads have never looked at it again because it still hurts so much.

“What really shook us is that we didn’t realise just how vulnerable Kerry were, there was enormous pressure on them as they hadn’t won in All-Ireland in 11 years which is a famine in Kerry.

“They were under massive pressure and if we’d had more experience of playing at that level we’d have got over the line.

“Winning the Ulster title for the first time in decades was a lot to deal with, and I think the biggest issue was that we’d a five-week break, it’s difficult dealing with that when you’re at peak fitness.”

Carolan is quite open about the fact that he feels like it was a missed opportunity, but at the same time he cherishes his Ulster medal.

“I really value it but I think each and every one of us feels we could’ve done better. It was a time when Ulster teams were winning All-Irelands and we didn’t want to be the team to let the province down.

“The frustration to this day is that we were good enough at the time to win it. But as I’ve often said, thank God we won one Ulster Championship because there were some brilliant players I played with who didn’t – Jim Reilly who was brilliant, Derek McDonnell, Gerry Sheridan, Ray Cullivan, who to me was as good as Greg Blaney. So I certainly wouldn’t look at the Ulster medal with anything other than delight because it would’ve been very easy to not win one.”

Carolan played on another bit but decided to retire in 1999 with a little encouragement from his family.

“I was physio for the Irish team in 1999, my life was extremely busy in those years and my wife and I used the opportunity to stay there for a few months.

“Val Andrews was the manager of the Cavan at that time and I still had intentions of coming back so I kept myself fit, I trained in Sydney with Sean Óg De Paor and Derek Savage from Galway then travelled for a few months around Australia.

“I was going to come back in March and April and I’d an agreement with Val that we’d have a chat about it after that. But after a few choice words from my wife, who I think was representing my whole family, I realised that it was the right time to retire. I’d been there for 14 or 15 years, and my son Oisin was born that year which was another piece in the retirement jigsaw.”

Carolan played a big part in Cavan’s success at u-21 level in the early part of the last decade, as they won four Ulster Championships in a row between 2011 and 2014. He was both selector and physio and a lot of the players of that vintage have gone on to don the senior jersey with distinction.

“The first year we were beaten in the final by the Michael Murphy machine, Donegal beat us in a very tight era but we’d a lot of success after that.

“We’d a lot of success after that and my main concern is that those players are coming to their late 20s and early 30s, they’ve been a very significant bunch of players. I know we’ve been promoted but how we ended up in Division Four mystifies me.”

These days, his main priority is helping out with his club Cuchulainn’s. He’s club chairman and firmly believes they have a bright future in store.

“I’m chairman of my own club and have been for the last six or seven years, We’re in the middle of a significant development at our grounds, so we’ve been focusing on that.

“I managed our u-16 girls team last year and last year was the first year we had three adult men’s adult teams. We’re a rural club in the satellite of Dublin to give you an idea of the demographics.

“In 2004 our primary school had 84 pupils and presently we have 370-380 kids, there’s been a population explosion and we have over 500 members in the club now. We’re not as small as we were and we have great aspirations for our men’s team, we’re in Division Two Intermediate and we’re more than capable of winning both.”

READ MORE – Former Down player Danny Hughes looks back on his career. Click here…