TO MANY, IT doesn’t matter how many times Shane ‘Cake’ Curran does something a little bit extraordinary.
The public image will still be the lad racing through to take a penalty for Roscommon against Galway without anyone’s consent and blasting to the net in the 1989 Connacht minor final.
And if not that, then the fella who, when playing goals then with Roscommon two decades ago would come out the field and take a pass off outfield players and play around a bit – as if he were an outfield player! (The damn cheek of it all).
If that came just a bit too early for you, then you might have him framed as the fella who liked to plant a smacker on his St Brigid’s team mate, Frankie Dolan.
That sort of extrovert behaviour was a mixture of impulse, backed by a very quick internal calculation.
That’s the basis that his decision was reached to go for the job of managing Carlow, where he was appointed in late August.
“I am intrigued by coaching, I am intrigued by management and I am intrigued by people and making people better. Fundamentally, how you make people better and help deliver on ambition,” he tells The 42.
Most players wouldn't have the neck to do this in training, Shane Curran did it in front of a packed crowd at the 1989 Connacht minor final 😅
— GAA JOE (@GAA__JOE) January 26, 2021
They don't make 'em like they used to 👑pic.twitter.com/XGd4vwduTZ
“The old saying – the one thing worse than being asked is not being asked. When you are asked to consider managing any team, be it club or county, I generally go with my animal instinct. My gut.
“And if it feels good, sounds good, looks good, it doesn’t take me long to make my mind up and that is how it happened.”
Curran took some soundings from the former manager, Niall Carew. He has it in his head that Carlow are an underperforming county. And he’s the man to change that.
He is not someone who accepts the natural order of things. After all, this is the man who invented a Gaelic football kicking tee when everyone else was using a cone.
In business, he formed a company in 2009 that deals with flood defences in places as far away as Alberta, Canada.
We know all that. We also read the passionate columns he had for a spell in the Sunday independent about the future of what he called the BMW counties; Border, Midlands and West; a mix of sporting and economic themes that were as thoughtful and off-beat as any guest columnist has ever managed.
And still that line from the actor Chris O’Dowd comes to the fore that depicts Cake as one of those stone-mad lads that everyone gravitated towards; ‘He could save a penalty and he could score a 45, but at the same time he’d be just as happy to ride a bull into a church,’ said O’Dowd about his sporting hero.
Does this explain why he doesn’t fit the image in the popular imagination of the stereotypically uptight, pensive figure of a county manager?
“I don’t know. Perception bias is something that permeates through society,” he says.
“I enjoy my football. I enjoy my football and I am very passionate about it and coaching. I am very passionate about people.
“Do you have to be in some way mundane, dour, to manage a county? I don’t know. But that certainly isn’t me. And I don’t think players need to be either. Nobody involved with intercounty teams needs to be mundane or dour either.
“It’s a place and an area where people can really develop and enjoy and have great fun.”
He continues, “The narrative around competing now at intercounty football is that it is all serious, all-encompassing, all-engrossing.
“The reality when you peel off the veneer is that the players who are playing county football are playing for a reason and that is because they enjoy it.
“Maybe it is a drudge to some of them, but it won’t be a drudge to anyone in Carlow. It will be a very good environment, a learning environment and one where players are being encouraged to develop their personalities and their playing and their football.”
It sounds like a set-up could be a lot of fun.
Yet and all, it’s Carlow. When they won promotion in 2018 to Division 3 with six wins from six crowned by a win away to Antrim in Belfast, it was the first time in 33 years they were making an escape from the basement.
There’s more baggage than an airport terminal.
But…
“The one thing I have noticed about sport and life is that everything changes,” says Curran.
“The most important thing is that you work towards that change. And the past is no barometer of the future. That’s life. That’s football. Any example of anything you look at it sport, and there’s thousands of examples.
“You go on about culture and there’s an ambiguity around culture.
“But culture starts with people. It’s how you change that narrative to get any group or team or individual to be the best they can be. And to achieve what their ambitions are.
“And that’s really not rocket science. It’s quite defined.”
The man is in a flow state. He goes on.
“To me, I am not afraid of that. I want players to embrace that. And there’s a certain glory to that.
“I think where we try to depict is that everything is going to flow and roll along onto a plateau and nobody is going to upset the apple cart.
“But somewhere, somehow, someone upsets it. It’s like the Impossible Dream – it’s only impossible until somebody does it and then it is not impossible any more.
“Why be there and be content? Let’s go somewhere else. Let’s go to some place else nobody believes we can go. That’s achievable.”
He never needs to look far for inspiration. Roscommon and Monaghan are two counties that fit a similar profile. Monaghan has roughly 65,000 citizens, Roscommon around 5k more. But both have regularly gate-crashed the Big House parties of the establishment repeatedly over the past decade.
Carlow, a county with a population of over 60,000, have no excuses other than shedding their complexes, Curran feels.
“We are very fond in Ireland of elevating certain elements of Gaelic football. A certain cohort feel that they can neutralise everybody else, to their own advantage,” he says.
“The Roscommons, the Monaghans are in a bracket with the likes of Cork and Armagh, for example I would put in that bracket. And Armagh have gone on to win an All-Ireland.
“So what’s to stop the Monaghans, the Roscommons, the Carlows, whoever it might be, from competing, if you decide you want to compete?
“And that’s a decision. Nothing else. That’s a complete decision and then you get people around who will support that decision and support the players, management and supporters and whatever else goes on.”
Those on the Dr Cullen Park beat are in for an eventful time of it, come what may.
Nick leeson take a bow.
The Galway United directors and the FAI have killed League of Ireland football in Galway.
It seems that GUST had their application in order and were raring to go, with the backing of countless business people and politicians from the city and county, not to mention the thousands that signed a petition in support of GUST, but a technicality was used against them by the FAI, one that was ignored in the case of Cork City FORAS and Derry City.
The FAI is rotten at its core. They are attempting to clean up the mess that they are as responsible for as the directors of GU Football Club Ltd. The so-called “merger” the association are trying to impose upon GUST will result in one of the parish clubs swallowing up a fund-raising committee and possibly slapping Galway at the end of the name of the team fielded in the First Division. Member clubs of the Galway FA would see themselves turn in to feeder clubs of teams that they compete against at junior and juvenile level. The work that has been done by GUST to include junior clubs for mutual benefit would be lost, turning them against the new entity.
All of this is in addition to the fact that the vast majority of Terryland regulars would rather forget about Terryland on Friday nights than give a cent to Devon or Mervue, who have everything to gain from this situation..
The Galway United directors and the FAI have killed League of Ireland football in Galway.
It seems that GUST had their application in order and were raring to go, with the backing of countless business people and politicians from the city and county, not to mention the thousands that signed a petition in support of GUST, but a technicality was used against them by the FAI, one that was ignored in the case of Cork City FORAS and Derry City.
The FAI is rotten at its core. They are attempting to clean up the mess that they are as responsible for as the directors of GU Football Club Ltd. The so-called “merger” the association are trying to impose upon GUST will result in one of the parish clubs swallowing up a fund-raising committee and possibly slapping Galway at the end of the name of the team fielded in the First Division. Member clubs of the Galway FA would see themselves turn in to feeder clubs of teams that they compete against at junior and juvenile level. The work that has been done by GUST to include junior clubs for mutual benefit would be lost, turning them against the new entity.
All of this is in addition to the fact that the vast majority of Terryland regulars would rather forget about Terryland on Friday nights than give a cent to Devon or Mervue, who have everything to gain from this situation.
Agree with everything you say there apart from maybe the last paragraph – I don’t know if genuine Galway United supporters will turn their back on any new ‘merged’ club, maybe they will, I don’t know. But sure as hell the version of Galway United FC that has competed over the last 3 seasons was in dire need of a ‘shake-up’.
Great point about all other Galway clubs turning into feeder clubs for teams that they directly compete against at juvenile and junior level.
Whatever happens I hope that something can be sorted out over the coming few weeks. Would be an awful shame to see some form of Galway United disappearing off the FAI map and Terryland lying fallow. Look to Cork City for a great example.
@James Corr (Tried to reply directly to your post…)
The supporters of what was Galway United / Galway Rovers understand that despite the fact that GUST had no control over the club, they were the heart and soul of it, running the match nights, organising training facilities and transport when nobody would deal with the club, keeping it running, generally paying debts the club left after it left, right and centre. Running fund-raisers, raffles, events etc. When the board warned employees of the club not to deal with GUST on day and then directed them to GUST for their wages the next, you get some idea of the lunacy involved.
Members of the trust are known all around the county and indeed the country among LOI folk as people with integrity and nothing but the interests of Galway football as a whole in their hearts, you might say the opposite of those who held ownership of the club.
The Galway United of the last number of years is dead and buried and nobody will mourn the passing, but I am just devastated that the people who clearly have the ability and desire to run a club for the city and county, responsibly and with building a legacy for Galway in mind, are being shafted.
Regarding your point about Cork City and also about Terryland lying fallow…
Cork City FORAS submitted their application for the league after the deadline had passed, as did Derry City. Just as FORAS had done, GUST were doing their utmost to free themselves from the shackles of lunatic owners and re-build a club based in reality and one with integrity. The FAI’s well-known policy of one rule for a select few and a different one for the unfortunate others is alive and well.
I’m sure that the presence of a man with strong ties with Salthill Devon on the FAI Club Licensing Committee had no influence on the decision whatsoever… nor did it have anything to do with 3 Galway club competing in the league in the first place.
I would have no problem with Terryland being empty on a Friday night. I would rather that than see the abomination that the FAI think is the solution. Terryland is the hub of Galway junior football, held in trust by the Galway FA, so it will not lie fallow. It would hurt to not see a true representative of Galway line out there every other weekend, but I would rather that than the current alternative being tabled. GUST or BUST, as has been said.
Fair play Sean, you know your stuff. Club was surely run into the ground from the top.
I wish you and GUST the very best of luck getting as you put it ‘a true representative of Galway’ city and county togging out in Terryland in next season’s LOI.
I think all that can be done now James is for GUST to finish up the sham “negotiations” and just leave the FAI and the parish clubs to it. See how clever the FAI feel next year.
That is the only thing I could back myself at the moment.
Galway United lost a lot of casual supporters in the last few years. As mentioned above the greater Galway area is too small to support 3 SUCCESSFUL soccer teams. Some were also lost to Connacht Rugby and GAA. To the casual sports fan the product on offer is far superior at the rugby where the opposition teams are often full of internationals. The move a few years back to summer soccer in LOI also brought Galway Utd games into direct competition with club and county GAA matches in both football and Hurling. I remember in the mid 1990′s Galway Utd got a crowd of over 6,000 to a league match against Cork city (which was played at Galwegians ground in Glenina due to Terryland being too small at the time).
This year over 9,000 were at the Connacht v Toulouse game in the sports grounds. Last weekend I was away in Toulouse and met dedicated supporters of Mervue and Galway United. It seems clear to me if Soccer in the city is to win back supporters in any great numbers a 3 way merger at LOI level is the only option.
No question that Galway can’t support 3 successful teams. It can’t even support one, not without a team that represents the whole county, not a parish that is largely indifferent to its existence, which is currently the case with Mervue and Devon.
The summer soccer argument is neither here nor the there. Factors other than that are responsible for the demise of Galway United, namely the board of directors of GU Football Club Ltd. and the FAI.
The only reason Devon and Mervue would sit in a room with GUST to talk about this is because they are being forced from above by the FAI.
GUST are the victims of the FAI applying rules how they please. The reason the FAI gave for the denial of GUST was not a problem for Derry or Cork. If a long-standing affiliate of Salthill Devon FC wasn’t on the FAI Club Licensing Committee, I wonder would we even be having this conversation?
How can a city and surrounds with 100000 odd people afford to have 3 teams in the league anyway?
Galway United drew support from all over County Galway, some putting the split very roughly at 50/50 between city and county, maybe even weighted more towards the county. The population as of the census last year for the county was a quarter of a million.
I agree that there should not be 3 or even 2 teams from Galway in the league, but Devon and Mervue applied for the A Championship and were subsequently promoted to the First Division. The right they have be there isn’t in question. GUST have watched on as the club they worked so hard for has been destroyed. Now that they have tried to start again, the FAI are trying to fix their own mess and consequently are making it worse.