O'Rourke is ready to embrace the challenge

LISTENING to Glen manager Malachy O'Rourke in the build-up to Sunday's All Ireland Club final you get the sense that, while only recently retired, the schoolteacher in him is never far away.

Days out from the biggest occasion in the Maghera club's history, and arguably his own as a bainisteoir, O'Rourke's primary focus appears to be helping his players realise their full potential.

If they just happen to win an All Ireland along the way, then so be it.

"I don't look at it like a personal thing at all," replies the well-travelled Fermanagh man when asked if a win on Sunday would represent his greatest achievement in the sport.

"When you get involved in a team you're trying to forge a togetherness there, everybody working together to try and achieve things. That's the joy and the challenge for me.

"That's where I get the enjoyment from – seeing things develop, seeing people coming together, performing and reaching their potential. To see a group perform really well, that would be brilliant, and that's where the enjoyment would come from.

"Seeing the joy in the whole community here would be massive and I think that's what it's about, not the personal thing.

"My life's not gonna' change that much whether we win or lose, I'll probably be doing the same things next week," he adds.

Which is fair enough but, make no mistake, O'Rourke enjoys winning as well. He has done so wherever he has been and there's no doubt he would love to add an All Ireland title to an already impressive CV.

Glen have a chance, too. Having won back to back Derry senior football championships, they dethroned defending All Ireland champions Kilcoo in a tense Ulster final before beating Galway's Moycullen in the All Ireland semi-finals.

Standing in their way is one of the powerhouses of gaelic football, Dublin club Kilmacud Crokes. Twice All Ireland football champions, they lost in the final in dramatic circumstances 12 months ago and won't want to suffer a similar fate this time round.

"When we came in two years ago the club (Glen) had never won a county title so we were never looking this far forward," continues former Monaghan county manager O'Rourke.

"It's just a case of building and building and working together and seeing what we could achieve; I think that's more the way we're looking at it.

"Every game we play it's another challenge, a test for us, to see how far we can go. So far this year we've got through everything and we're down to the last two now.

"It's the ultimate challenge against Kilmacud but we're looking forward to it. We've prepared well and we have to front up now.

"There's no doubt Kilmacud is a massive club, a massive centre of population. It's a very simplistic view, but they can only have 15 on the field, the same as ourselves. Size maybe doesn't come into it that much.

"Sunday's a massive occasion for the players and the club - and great reward for the work that's been put in over many years. There are so many people involved, it's a great position to be in.

"Now, we have to try and produce a performance worthy of the occasion."

The occasion will see an estimated 30,000 spectators flock to Croke Park for the biggest day in the club calendar, with Dunloy's hurlers taking on Ballyhale Shamrocks in the day's opening game.

"It was a big thing for us to get to play our semi-final in Croke Park," continues the Glen boss.

"I think I heard Crokes have played something like seven out of their last 10 games in Croke Park and, like Dublin at inter county level, there's no doubt it does help: you become very familiar with the place.

"It is a different crowd and everything else so it probably does give them an advantage, but the fact that we played there the last day and the boys got a feel for the place, just even the whole surroundings and everything else, will hopefully stand us in good stead.

"You would hope it would help, the fact that there are two Ulster teams playing, and the two clubs share the same colours so that'll be a help too.

"It would be great to see Dunloy win their game but, like ourselves, they've a massive task in front of them.

"You'd hope that they would stay on and support us – the two clubs are very close. There's no doubt the two clubs supporting each other would be a big boost."

While Dunloy will travel to Dublin early on Sunday morning, the Maghera men will stay overnight in the capital on Saturday. Two different approaches but the one aim: winning.

"Coming up to a game like this I think it's about routine. I think the biggest danger is doing things that they haven't done before and building it up into something," claims the one-time Sigerson Cup winner with St. Mary's.

"It's a simplistic thing to say but it is a game of football. There's obviously more at stake but, still, you have to try and keep a sense of perspective and know that you have to perform.

"At the end of the day sentiment doesn't come into it. It can be a brilliant occasion and everybody can be behind you but if you don't go down and perform you won't win.

"We've just very much focused on what you have to do to perform to your best."

It's an approach that has served the group well thus far. A keen reader, Malachy O'Rourke admits he adopts and adapts things he has learned for whatever group of footballers has happens to be managing at any given time.

It's the schoolteacher in him again.

Let's hope his current class pass their final exam on Sunday.