Unlikely union is a meeting of minds for Nigel

Cill Chomáin manager Nigel Reape has said the ‘psych’ of the club matches up well with his own – and that is why he ‘loves the place’.

Reape, alongside Sean McLoughlin, will guide Cill Chomáin into the club’s third county final in four years but speaking on behalf of the club at the recent junior final press night in MacHale Park is maybe not where he expected to be.

“I was thinking about getting involved with another club at the time. I had been with Castleconnor in Sligo and I really enjoyed that. But I had two daughters, Emily and Hannah, involved in the Mayo setup and I made up my mind I didn’t want to be involved with a club again,” he said.

“Then me and Michael D McAndrew (Cill Chomáin chairman) were shooting the breeze and he asked me about the possibility of doing some training sessions because the manager John Maloney was in the UK for work for the first half of the year.

“I went in on the basis that I’d be doing a bit of training and once the ladies started I’d be gone, but John’s work commitments were more than he thought so here I am now. The rest is history. I really enjoy and I love the place, they’re brilliant people involved in the club.” 

Nigel said himself and Sean McLoughlin, who have worked together for a long time and only faced off once in a league game while Sean was with Moy Davitts and Nigel with Belmullet, like to instill a certain mentality when they work at a club. How overjoyed were they when they came to Cill Chomáin and found that same mentality waiting for them.

“There are certain gigs you’re made for, certain things that suit you. What’s in Cill Chomáin fell for myself and Sean. Some teams you manage become hard work because you have to bring fellas around to your mentality and it’s not always that your mentality is the right one.

“But the Cill Chomáin psych falls more into what we want. The boys are so professional in Cill Chomáin,” he said.

He said it made it a lot easier that he came into the club at a time when they, and the Kilcommon community at large, were hungry to ascend from junior purgatory. They have tried to instill a more attacking approach while retaining the defensive steel Cill Chomáin is well known for – if it ain’t broke.

“The biggest thing we’ve tried to change is that we don’t defend as deep anymore. When you’re good at something, you’re not going to change it. People say we’re negative at times but personally I don’t see it. We’re a defensively solid unit, the stats will show that.

“You hear all these phrases, new school, old school. Me and Sean are definitely old school. I’ve been reading a lot of different phrases about coaching and honestly, it is all the same stuff as when I was a young fella coming through at Knockmore.

“There are different names put on it, but a lot of it is the same. The psychology is huge but it’s the same now with the older players helping the younger players through games. That was the same for me coming through as a player.” 

There are unique challenges with taking on such a rural club, in particular, players being based all over the country. It is not an issue unique to Cill Chomáin but they have players coming from as far away as Scotland. Lorcan Mason studies radiography in Aberdeen, his brother Joe comes from Wicklow. A few more are based around Dublin, some more in Limerick for college and one or two scattered to the likes of Galway and Carlow. Mark Tighe is based in Malta and the former Mayo minor may yet be an option for the final, Nigel is hoping.

“The biggest issue is panel size. I realised last year that if you put too much emphasis on the league, it’s at the wrong time of the year and you’ll be without lads later on and you’ll have to deal with injuries.

“We’re lucky to have a few lads back. Earlier on in the campaign, we lost five players through injury in one game against Kilmovee. Last year we wouldn’t have been able to withhold that type of setback.” 

Nigel said that defeats in county finals in 2021 and 2022 are not playing on the minds of anyone at Cill Chomáin. He said of the team that started against Tourmakeady earlier this campaign, no one was over 27. Nigel added there is a real drive within the club to win this junior final and has been from the outset of the year.

“A lot of the lads wouldn’t have played in those two county finals and I wasn’t there for the two years. It is not in their head and is not something I got into.

“We made our mind up at the beginning of this year, we were going for the championship. Our forward Justin Healy is a personal trainer and he put together a lot of programmes for the boys and that got us charged up for the championship,” he said.