‘Without my wife Colleen and the kids, I probably would have retired but she kept pushing’

BY JOHNNY CAROLAN

IT seems a bit too Hollywood.

A player turning 40 around county final time, capping two decades of service to his club by helping them to reach the top tier in Cork football and hurling.

Fantasy became reality for Newcestown and Tadgh Twomey in 2023, as a Co-op SuperStores Cork SAHC final win over Blarney was followed by victory over Dohenys in the Bon Secours Hospital Cork SAFC decider.

Tadhg Twomey with a West Cork Sports Star Award (November) pictured with his Newcstown team-mates at the presentation in the Celtic Ross Hotel, Rosscarbery.

It means that the club will be among the top 12 in both codes, the only non-city side to achieve such a feat.

With four children at home – Fíadh (8), Ailbhe (7), Étain (4) and Culann (2) – Twomey would not be short of things to do had he opted to hang up the boots. Indeed, he has already dipped into under-age camogie coaching.

However, the fact that his wife Colleen comes from another great Newcestown GAA family, the Longs, was a factor in him continuing to serve the club.

‘When I started, if you’d asked me if I’d still be playing in 2023, I’d have said not a hope,’ he says.

‘The body is good. A lot of people said to me, “If you can keep playing, keep playing, as you’d be retired long enough.”

‘Last year, I had a bit of a setback with a few small injuries but that was probably the first year that that happened. I was never better this year – everything seemed to be going right and there were no injuries, no tiredness or anything.

‘Without my wife Colleen and the kids, I probably would have retired but she kept pushing. She has been excellent at home, it’s not an easy task minding four kids on top of it when I’m out at training and matches!

‘She comes from a good GAA family so she knows the score. Without her help, I probably wouldn’t have been there but I’m delighted that I was and she was as well.

‘I’m a happy man at the end of this year after staying on for another year!’

A year ago, Newcestown were coming to terms with relegation from the top flight in football while, having been SAHC semi-finalists in 2021, they couldn’t get out of their group in 2022.

Thankfully, nobody shied away from the task at hand.

‘We weren’t happy with 2022,’ Twomey says.

‘We had a lot of injuries but we still felt that we should have done better. The relegation from the premier senior football put a downer on things.

‘At the start of this year, we had a meeting. We had everybody who was going to be involved there and we talked about getting in a strength and conditioning coach into the club. That was Niall McIntyre and he did a lot for us at the start of the year, he got us fit.

‘In the last few years, the injuries were big but this time we seemed to be lucky enough with that.

‘We weren’t happy with how last year had gone and we sat down, all of us, management and players, and said that we needed to give it our all. There are a lot of young fellas there and they did knuckle down – the outings were cut and they missed a lot of college nights out and stuff like that!

‘It paid off at the end of the year and I think everybody was happy.’

Much is made nowadays of the demands on dual clubs but there is a pay-off that, when things are going well, one code tends to lift the other. With a high level of crossover, Newcestown definitely benefited from that.

‘That’s a big thing alright,’ Twomey says.

‘There’s a fierce camaraderie in the group. Everyone’s singing from the hymn sheet, all sticking together, and then we have the likes of Luke Meade and David Buckley, who are involved with the Cork seniors.

‘They’re two good talkers to have in the dressing-room and they’ve probably seen a lot now at this stage. To be fair, there are another few lads that are good talkers when it comes to championship days and that helps a lot.

‘It drives the young fellas on and there’s a bit of calmness then from the senior fellas like myself – the nerves aren’t there as much as they used to be!

‘You need the experience in the dressing-room and you need the youth. Once everyone is on the same wavelength – management has been very good too, anything we needed, they got us.’

In terms of building up a head of steam, it probably stood to Newcestown that they didn’t get a quarter-final bye in either football or hurling.

‘The winning habit, week on week, we drove each other on and that stood to us alright,’ Twomey says.

‘If you had had a break, you might have lost you way a bit. Our fitness showed in a lot of those games – by the last ten minutes, we were well on top of the other teams.

‘In the football final, Dohenys came in after a five-week gap and it probably didn’t help them. They came out of the blocks on fire but we settled and kept going at the same pace. Then, by the end, we were well on top.

‘We didn’t panic during games – even when we went behind, nobody got anxious or anything.

‘We might have been down a few scores at half-time but we spoke and settled down. I think that was the big thing, we just worked from game to game and there was no real thinking about the next step or anything like that.

‘Management were very good that way, too, they made sure we were just focused on what was ahead of us. As we went on, winning became a habit, we felt good about ourselves and we kept going.

‘We trained hard and we didn’t do the dog on it after any big wins!’

Naturally, they celebrated their successes, with a whole host of younger players now able to claim ownership of two county medals. Twomey was once such a greenhorn and now he is hopeful that, in the same way the older generations passed on their know-how, those coming behind him can be similarly inspired.

‘This is why you do it,’ he says.

‘You hope that the young fellas coming up through the club see this and see the enjoyment that we’re getting out of it.

‘You hope that they keep training and keep playing with the club, keep it pushing on.

‘There’s probably an extra step the club could go – the senior title isn’t too far away – but there’s a lot of work in that, too.

‘That’s what you want, you want the young fellas following what you’ve done – they look up to you at the moment but hopefully in a few years, they’ll be doing the same thing and even going the next step, if possible.

‘When I started off, there were a lot of good players – the Wilsons, the Longs, the O’Sullivans – but this bunch of lads have been excellent for the last few years, to be fair. They’ve been easy enough for management to deal with, too.

‘They’re a good group of lads.’

And the future – will Twomey be lining out with his colleagues at premier senior in 2024?

‘I haven’t even thought about it, to tell the truth,’ he says.

‘I’m just trying to enjoy this moment and we’ll take it as it comes. I’ll enjoy the Christmas and then see what happens in the new year.’