Hurling coach Mark Gennery has a week to remember as Nenagh CBS and 'Mary I' win big games!

Mark Gennery has had a spring time to remember. The Portroe hurler has been coaching around the clock and his teams keep on winning. Mary Immaculate College won a nerve wracking Fitzgibbon Cup final against UL on Saturday afternoon last but rather than getting to celebrate with the team, the Tipperary native was on the line with his other team, Nenagh CBS. Both managers - Jamie Wall and Donach O'Donnell respectively - asked the 'in demand' coach to be on the line but he couldn't be in two places at once. Mark explained that it was tough but brilliant at the same time: "If you said there at the start of December that you'd still be in two, you wouldn't believe it! 

"Look, it is tough," he says reflecting on missing the Fitzgibbon final. "Jamie Wall is in Mary I there and Podge Collins. When I said I was picking St. Joseph's he was kinda looking and saying 'Ah C'mon, I need you here as well!' Then Donach, Seanie, Miriam and Jack Peters said they need me here! So look, it is a good complaint. This time last year I had nothing. I was sitting at home on a Saturday this time of year!

"It is great to be involved in both," he says. He has many years of history built up with Nenagh CBS and it may have swung the decision to make that match in Rathdowney last Saturday: "I had been in with Donach in 2012 when they won the All-Ireland, just doing a small bit. It is ideal this time of year when you aren't hurling yourself, it just frees me up to get into it. So it has been a great run as since the club championship finished in August they all bought into it. We are a team. There is a great little buzz around. It is like a club team there and then in summer they will be tearing lumps out of each other so that is how it is."

Mark has really enjoyed the chance to get involved with coaching Mary I too in the Fitzgibbon cup and when they won the game last Saturday he jumped for joy many miles away. The reception on the mobile phone was hit and miss at the dressing room in Laois on Saturday after the schools game but TG4 coverage allowed Mark and others to watch the last twenty minutes of the Fitzgibbon final on the rectangular screen after the Nenagh versus Kilkenny CBS quarter final was over. 

The 3rd level hurling decider - a two point win for Mary Immaculate - was a 'who's who' of young Tipperary hurlers currently with big numbers of aspiring county players involved in the game. Gearoid O'Connor was the UL star forward while Cathal Quinn, Joe Caesar, Keith Ryan and Devon Ryan amongst others were part of the Mary Immaculate team on the day.

It has been a real learning experience being part of the college winning coaching set up, Mark says: "It is great being involved with a colleges team so dedicated. To see the level players at at for example the likes of Diarmuid Ryan and Adam Hogan of Clare and Shane Meehan too are serious athletes. To see the level players like Conor Hennessy operate at is great and to see all of them train and win is even better. They are a great bunch.

"They came from the Harty Cup too and we had plenty of slagging before the Harty final as Diarmuid Ryan went to Ard Scoil Ris so the time I have spent in all their company is just great. It is all good."

Last Saturday he was on the line for Nenagh CBS in Rathdowney for the Croke Cup Schools A All-Ireland semi final as the Ormond country side struck two second half goals from substitutes to seal the victory. Winning that means they have an All-Ireland semi final to look forward to on Saturday week against Connacht champions St Raphael's College, Loughrea. 

The journey arrived at the perfect destination for Mary Immaculate College last Saturday while the coaching journey continues now for Mark whose focus will be fully on Nenagh CBS: "We said on the Thursday night (before the game) that we didn't want this journey stopping. If we stopped now we'd forget about the Harty so this (Kilkenny CBS) was a potential banana skin for us. We can rally the troops now and revive. Get them into the lake and revive inside in Nenagh there. We'll give it a good shot now in two weeks time. When your in the last four, anything can happen."