Donach O’Donnell - a lifelong coach of the greatest game - brings Nenagh CBS to the Harty final

Coaching is a big part of Donach O’Donnell’s life and has been for decades now. A lifelong coach if you like. As far back as he can remember, hurling played a part. Playing was massive, coaching too: “I was always absorbed in the game,” he says. Growing up in Cork, the child of Tipperary parents, Donach sensed that hurling would be a central aspect of his life. “My dad would have coached all our teams down in Cork when we lived there and I helped him. You kinda get a taste for it.

“When I was in college then in Waterford I was coaching teams too, so it is constant. I got involved in PE but coaching was what I wanted to do all the time,” says Donach.

The college, now known as SETU Waterford, won the Fitzgibbon cup back in 1992 with Donach playing a key role on the team alongside Kilkenny intercounty hurlers such as Andy Comerford, PJ Delaney and Peter Barry amongst others. The following year he captained his college hurling team while also playing rugby and basketball to a high level. Learning by the day, and learning from other sports all the time: “After College I worked in Rockwell. I did summer camps in Nenagh and Limerick so I transferred then to Nenagh where the coaching took over.”

The former Nenagh Éire Óg hurler is a coach who is widely known for getting the best out of his teams.  After coaching GAA and rugby teams in Rockwell College, including managing Rockwell to an Agricultural Colleges All-Ireland hurling title in 1996, clubs across Tipperary came knocking on his door - just sensing they could snap up a quality coach with untapped potential. He filled me in on the background to how his GAA coaching career ignited:

“I was in Rockwell in the late 1990s and Boherlahan were only out the road and asked me to get involved with them. I picked up a fairly good club team really, and we ended up winning a county final in 1996. I was lucky the way the journey started,” he says. 

The reality is that Boherlahan hadn’t won a county final since 1941 when Donach O’Donnell took them over in 1996. By the end of the year they were county senior hurling champions having toppled the all conquering Toomevara team who were in their prime back then. 

He also coached the Tipperary footballers in the following years, as well as Clonoulty-Rossmore, Knockavilla Kickhams, Ahane, Adare and Moneygall amongst other teams.
Donach was at the coal face in 2013 when the Limerick hurlers finally made the breakthrough to win their first Munster hurling final since 1996.

The county was starting to build at the time and going in as coach was an exciting role for Donach. He was part of the management team alongside selectors John Kiely and Eamon Mescall. The compact group included Mark Lyons operated as S and C coach.

John Kiely has since stepped up to become the most successful Limerick manager of all time but it was All-Ireland winning Cork manager John Allen who was the ‘bainisteoir’ back then: “Ah that was very interesting back then really,” Donach says.”
“Limerick weren’t the force they are now I suppose. They were considered one of the weaker teams in Munster at the time and John took on the job, running things very professionally.

“We worked really well together and won the Munster final in 2013 but didn’t really perform against Clare in the semi final and they went on to win it. John Allen was very good to work with and he was so calm which I’m not sometimes!

“I realised you didn’t have to be talking all the time. He spoke to the players so calmly.” Donach developed his own coaching philosophy taking nuggets from across the GAA world as well as learning from other sports like rugby and basketball - which he played to a high standard - too.

His love for improving players through coaching shows in the high success rate of his teams over the years. It is clear to see how well prepared his teams are, like Nenagh are this year: “Players have to understand what they are doing and why. We have that now in many ways as it must be a selfless place. They are doing it for each other as much as themselves. I wanted them to realise the importance of that and how it has to be about other people.”

Donach O’Donnell has seen hundreds of hurlers pass through the doors of Nenagh CBS and has been coaching teams since Tony Slattery was principal. Now, looking back briefly before looking forward again, he reflects that it has been a great journey: “It was many years ago Tony Slattery asked me to get involved with coaching there. The school got to a B All-Ireland final when Tony was over them and I stayed involved there for about five years up until 2012 or 2013. 

“That year we got to a Harty final but were beaten and we won the All-Ireland that same year afterwards,” Donach says. It isn’t hard to do a ‘Where are they now?’ call with that Croke Cup winning team. The star player from then who went onto the intercounty stage was Jason Forde - who is part of the Tipperary set up playing Dublin this coming weekend. Other teammates of Forde from that winning team will line up on the sideline alongside Donach O’Donnell on Saturday next as they are part of his management team:

“It is strange sometimes. One of our coaches is Mark Gennery and I would know him since he was in school himself.
“He started back in 2012 giving us a hand and has been coaching ever since. He has been with me for the last number of years.

“Jack Peters was on that 2012 team as centre back and he is now coaching and teaching in the school. Seanie Kennelly is too. They have great history with the school. Miriam Campion is great to have involved as well. She is calm and organised. She goes through our stats as well. 

“In 2012 we had a really good group of young fellas and they worked really hard,” the Nenagh CBS manager says. “I think we had Thurles in the Harty quarter final back then, we drew with them but beat them in the replay, then we had Ard Scoil Ris in the semi final. We drew with them and beat them in a replay before getting to the final against Waterford Colleges who were an amalgamation of two or three schools and were a star-studded team. They took over from the start and we gained no traction so we had no choice but to refocus for the Croke cup then, so we did that and beat St Kierans at The Ragg before playing Kilkenny CBS in the final and beating them. It was a really good year.

“I was away from it then for a few years and about four years ago I got back involved again and have been ever since,” the former Nenagh Éire Óg player says. He has watched and helped this current group emerge into a really strong team. They have been building for years, he says: “A lot of the present Harty team played last year. I’d say nearly nine or ten of them so they have plenty of experience. We were disappointed how things ended up last year results wise, but we were building and then the school won the Dean Ryan which is a good boost from a confidence point of view. 

“The younger Dean Ryan players are pushing these players now for places on the Harty team so it is a nice dynamic. Two Dean Ryan players - Conor Grace and Eoghan Doughan - have started all the Harty games and Austin Duff has played nearly every game as well. 

The Dean Ryan players quick progression is huge as is having Mason Cawley back hurling too. He is part of the team this year and he was part of development squads with Munster rugby previously. Having him back in the school team playing hurling is great,” Donach says about the midfielder and half forward. The team has shown step by step progress from game to game.

They have hurled on all surfaces, from soggy, damp fields to bouncy astro turf pitches and grass bare muddy turfs. Different players are contributing across the season so the spirit is high in the camp Donach says: “I think if you are going to win something you need a panel. If some fella is having a bad day or is injured then you need someone else to step in and again it takes time to get it right.

“Organisation and the style of play improves gradually. That comes with time so if the season stays alive and you win games that progress becomes clear and we have that this season.” He is expecting a cracking final at Ennis next Saturday against a strong Ard Scoil Ris team: “We haven’t played them the last couple of years but I have seen their games. They are very strong really and their bench is too. They are going to be good,” he says.

The fact the game is in Clare - despite the fact that ten Ard Scoil players hail from Clare - doesn’t phase him either: “Our own group is mature and one of our first games was on an Astro Pitch in Cork against Bandon and we played in Meelick too with surface water so whatever way the pitch is and atmosphere is, we will take it.”

A coach to the core, Donach O’Donnell will have them ready to hurl and give everything in pursuit of being the best they can be. A lifelong coach, teaching lifelong lessons.