Fogarty Forum: How will Limerick replace the irreplaceable Nickie Quaid?
Kiely Quaid 2024 ©inpho/james Limerick Defeat Cork Final Manager John All The Semi Nickie Consoled Goalkeeper Picture: Crombie By Conductor: Hurling To After Ireland
Last month, John Kiely spoke of handing over the baton. “It’s important that we have future planning in our mindset as we go forward,” he said.
“Over the next two years, there will be further steps taken to ensure the transition will be smooth and lacking in dramatics.”
The five-time All-Ireland SHC winning manager would surely have considered life for Limerick after Nickie Quaid as much as himself. The goalkeeper turns 36 next June and a succession plan might have been in place even if it was only the gist of one.
After all, there has been no indication Quaid is declining with age. He is the current All-Star goalkeeper, only a few seasons shy of emulating his late father Tommy’s 18 seasons between the posts for his county. In all 45 of Kiely’s championship sides, Quaid has been the constant. First name on the team-sheet, literally and figuratively. First line of attack, last line of defence. Limerick’s alpha and omega.
But the drama Kiely had been hoping to avoid came visiting last Friday when a scan on Quaid’s knee revealed he had suffered a tear of the anterior cruciate ligament. Believed to have been picked up while playing soccer, his anticipated absence for most, if not all of next year’s season has sent a seismic shock through the county.
The conductor is an obvious metaphor for the modern Gaelic games goalkeeper and in Quaid Limerick have a Stravinsky. With his baton, he has subtly and adeptly dictated the direction of his team. Knowing exactly when to up the tempo, knowing precisely when to slow it down (usually when Limerick have been on the rack).
The saves he pulled off this season, particularly in Munster, were fundamental to them capturing the county’s sixth consecutive provincial title. His 2023 season wasn’t one of his best and yet the composed execution of puck-outs and passes he delivered in the All-Ireland final against Kilkenny saw him run a close second to Eoin Murphy.
Kyle Hayes and Aaron Gillane are in the place positions but the Effin man is unquestionably Limerick’s most important player. In the same vein as Stephen Cluxton, the quiet leadership he extols has been exemplary. His steadiness radiates and warms his team-mates.
In the 2022 All-Ireland final, Quaid struck 30 of 34 puck-outs long – 66% of them were won. Kilkenny’s return was 41%. In the following year’s league decider again against Kilkenny, just two of his 24 restarts went astray. Losing to Cork in this year’s All-Ireland semi-final was more a case of their opponents’ savviness in avoiding Kyle Hayes and exposing Barry Nash’s absence on their own puck-out than any fault of Quaid’s on his.
There’s an assurance Quaid gives to his target men. To his backs, he provides peace. “He brings serenity to his defenders,” wrote former Cork goalkeeper Anthony Nash on The 42 last year. “All of whom know that he’ll save every shot he should and many he shouldn’t and hit his targets from the puckout in such a way that it looks a matter of routine. He’s the classic master craftsman who makes a tough thing look simple.”
Understated as he is, the appreciation society for him has grown in numbers. “I think this is man Limerick can’t do without,” Kilkenny great Tommy Walsh told “Off The Ball” earlier this year.
“We have seen over the years Cian Lynch missing, Seán Finn missing, the two Caseys (Mike and Peter). They have been missing great players and still went on and became All-Ireland champions. But they have never been missing Nickie Quaid.”
Speaking last year, Joe Canning uttered the same. “He’s the one guy that is irreplaceable on that Limerick team. You can chop and change any way you want, he’s the best player Limerick have. No doubt about it, he makes them tick.”
Kiely and Paul Kinnerk at least have time to plan – had Quaid been ruled out during the season his loss had the potential to define it – but how you do replace the irreplaceable? Unlike Dublin where pretenders to Cluxton’s throne were given time between the sticks in league games and the odd championship outing, Quaid has rarely been moved.
Glenroe’s David McCarthy began last February’s league game against Westmeath and deputised for Quaid in Munster up to the final round when Jason Gillane was named as reserve. The Patrickswell man retained that place for the Munster final and All-Ireland semi-final.
Just as it has been with Gearóid Hegarty and Tom Morrissey, Quaid and Gillane’s pitcher-catcher understanding was vital to the Limerick cause. There will be hope in the Limerick ranks that the Gillane brothers’ rapport can provide a solution. Jason, like Quaid, favours hitting from his left.
But, with respect to the younger Gillane sibling, that’s where the similarities stop. There’s only one Nickie Quaid.
Inspired by Oisín O’Donoghue’s own point for Abbeydorney against his own Cashel King Cormacs on Sunday, in no particular order 10 infamous own scores in the GAA:
1. Kevin McLoughlin, drawn 2016 All-Ireland SFC final v Dublin. Mayo goalkeeper David Clarke made a fine save from Brian Fenton only for the ball to fall Bernard Brogan’s way and his scuffed shot came off McLoughlin and diverted into the net.
2. Colm Boyle, as above. One own goal in a game is freaky, two in a half was downright bizarre. A free kick was delivered into Dean Rock who in trying to claim it pushed the ball into the path of Boyle and it ricocheted over the line.
3. Shane Ryan, 2023 Division 1 v Tyrone. The Kerry goalkeeper, in trying to shield the ball from Brian Kennedy in Omagh, swung the ball into his own goal.
4. Donal O’Dwyer, 2024 West Tipperary PIHC v Seán Treacys. Believing his goalkeeper remained on the goal-line, Éire Óg Annacarty-Donohill defender O’Dwyer flicked a ball back but there was nobody home.
5. Johnny Kelly, 2022 Laois SFC semi-final v Courtwood. Attempting to kick across his goal to a team-mate, the O’Dempseys man sliced it over his own bar.
6. Stefan Connolly, 2015 Cavan SFC v Castlerahan. Under pressure, Ramor United’s Connolly kicked the ball away but the strike was good enough to split his own team’s posts.
7. Johnny Coen, 2015 All-Ireland SHC final v Kilkenny. Coen’s intervention denied a goal chance but the Galway man was the last to flick the ball as it went over Colm Callanan’s crossbar.
8. Mark Ward, 2005 Division 2 final v Monaghan. A cruel one for the Meath man as he fisted Paul Finlay’s last-gasp free into the net, which was the deciding score.
9. Paddy Andrews, 2009 O’Byrne Cup final v Louth. Playing for DCU, the Dubliner reached the ball before JP Rooney only to send it past his own goalkeeper Michael Boyle.
10. Seán Malone, 2019 Clare SFC final v Kilmurry-Ibrickane. The St Joseph’s, Miltown-Malbay player was kicking the ball across his goal but misdirected it over the bar.
When it comes to Gaelic football’s playing rules in the Official Guide, we and most other people would defer to the expertise of David Gough.
Nevertheless, his criticism of the Football Review Committee’s (FRC) supposed lack of consultation with referees is open to question. As Gough’s colleague Martin McNally said last month: “There have been lots of consultations with the FRC about them and we have done a lot of work in understanding them.”
In the form of former match officials manager and current Westmeath GAA head of operations Patrick Doherty, the referees have a representative of sorts, at the very least a sympathetic ear on the Jim Gavin-chaired body.
Gough’s concerns about the wording of the proposed rule changes should be heeded.
“The rule is not clear,” he told RTÉ on Saturday of the free on a team’s 20m line if they have been found to have breached keeping three outfield players inside each half at all times.
“If it said the defending line, we would know which one it was – or the attacking line. It says the offending line, which is ambiguous. We don't know which line the free is from, now we understand what they mean but it is not clear.”
You imagine matters like that will be tidied up by the rules advisory committee ahead of Special Congress on Saturday week.