Larry Ryan: Roy Keane still building on strong foundations

The Everyman Theatre event was put on by Cork Local Enterprise Office, to mark its 10th birthday. Roy, Anna Geary and Tomás Mulcahy, steered by broadcaster Jonathan Healy, tackled the nominated discussion ‘Building a team for success’.

Keane, Mulcahy and Healy were fresh from Bruce the night before at the Páirc, Glory Days was still playing, the Tanora was free, and memories of last Saturday night’s pitch invasion were still stirring an intoxicating Corkness into the vibe.

Tipp, Mul is very confident, are in for a beating on Sunday. Posed the straightforward question if he ever feared anything or anyone on the pitch, he rejoined: “We’re from Cork. No.” 

Let’s get that much out there on the record for Liam Cahill’s dressing door in Semple.

Teams, of course, are fashioned from and fastened by the drive of individuals. Each of the three could instantly summon the moment that lit a fire.

Mulcahy rewound to the 1989 afternoon working in the Cork Savings Bank on Princes Street when two Cork selectors walked in for a meeting to tell him he was gone from the panel.

Geary could picture two sheets of paper on the canteen wall of St Mary’s secondary school in Charleville, her name on the B team.

Keane summoned the Ireland U15 selectors who considered him too small. And a defeat for Rockmount by Belvedere Boys that he is “still struggling to shake off”.

Anna’s father didn’t entertain any grousing, simply asked her: “What are you going to do about it?” 

They did plenty. Geary four camogie All-Irelands. Mul the Double. Keane well on course to take over the world.

In their own way, each found something beyond the tangible that made a dressing room work.

Geary reached for a clubmate at Milford, Eimear O'Friel, often a sub. “Eimear always made you feel good when you were around her. You wanted to sit beside her on the bus or puck around with her.” 

Mulcahy nominated Kevin Hennessy as a character big enough to command and glue a room, who could say anything but would always deliver, would walk the talk.

If Tomás was just as keen to credit the unshakeable belief of Cork manager Canon O’Brien, Roy was less voluble about Alex Ferguson. Though there was unspoken tribute to his judgment.

“Ferguson used to say before certain games, 'are you happy with the people around you? Are you happy in the trenches with these people?'

“When I retired, I had pretty much closure in five minutes. But the feelings in the dressing room, win or lose, when you’re with certain people. I didn’t want to leave the dressing room after a match. I didn’t want to go to the outside world. I wanted to stay there and look at each other, we’ve been through a lot today. We gave it our all today….” 

In the 99 documentary, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer accepts United's could be a near-impossible dressing room for a new face. 

"Players who came in struggled to get the best out of themselves and live up to the standards of one, the gaffer, two, Roy Keane and three, the rest of us…” 

On stage, Keane spared a thought for those who survived this natural selection, even if it didn't necessarily get them in the team.

“We’re obsessed with the big names, but some of the fringe players. I’d always give credit to the squad players, how they maintained their training. Turned up with a smile on their face. Not silly, giddy stuff. You can go too far with that too. But it’s getting the balance right.

“But we had it at United, with some really good players. You’d try to help them. They’d fall by the wayside.”

Talk turned to psychology and its place. Keane wryly admitted he bought in a psychologist at Sunderland and soon learned it was not the players but the other staff going to see him. "Nothing to do with me."

Some things can't be forced. Mulcahy recalled his brief time as a Cork footballer and Billy Morgan bringing in a “guru” ahead of a meeting with Kerry, who had them all close their eyes and listen over and over to a cassette of Tina Turner singing “Simply the Best”. And how the cassette and the guru were chucked out of the Páirc dressing room when they came in at half-time 12 points down.

Keane hinted at a surprising chink in Martin O'Neill's facade of unbelievable belief. That even before the likes of Gibraltar at home, O’Neill, despite "managing thousands of games", would still be fretting and in need of a reminder that he'd got this. 

But then Keane's brand of Corkness always found a place for fear. 

“Fear keeps you on your toes. If you're before a game thinking ‘we’ve got it today’, you’ll soon be found out.” 

He admits to a career "riddled with self-doubt", but also of finding early the way to cope. 

“Don’t forget what you’re about. Don’t become somebody you’re not. Know your strengths and focus on your strengths. That’ll be the foundation of your career. Know what works for you."

In Keane's case, he returned time and again to the words of Brian Clough before his surprise Forest debut.

"A lot of sports people are probably getting too much information. Brian Clough just said: 'You can control the ball, you can pass it and you can run. Just do them three things'.

"That was my foundation."

Watching him become a media colossus, it's evident he's brought with him the same approach. Stick to what he's good at. The foundations. A quip, an argument, an acerbic judgment. 

But watching him up close, holding 400 people utterly rapt, many still shook from Bruce, it's not easy figure out how he isn't setting standards in a dressing room somewhere, assembling an army for the trenches. 

Would he like to be in United's dressing room now, Healy asked. You mightn't want to linger too long among some of the characters. The balance may not even be right on the giddiness front. But this wasn't a morning for going in two-footed. 

“I would. I’d like to be there to help them. Remember it wasn’t all success in our time. Bad days will pass, you have to stick at it.” 

And for the man in the audience who asked if he'd please come home and manage Ireland, Roy was ready to leave the door just ajar on this neverending saga.

“I’m open to offers.”