Huge boots to fill at Steelstown as McGrath steps down

In the coming weeks and months, Hugh McGrath may finally understand the scale of his achievements at Steelstown Brian Ogs after he stepped down from his role as senior team manager.

It is hard to believe that the incredible All-Ireland win was just over six months ago, a day when the Ballyarnett club stood on top of the world with captain Neil Forester’s emotional speech touching everyone, topped off with the words: “Gaelic football is alive in Derry City!”

It was the culmination of an incredible journey that began well before the club finally beat Greenlough to win their first senior championship in November last year. That day Cahir McMonagle kept his nerve to complete an incredible comeback for a 0-9 0-8 win that ended years of hurt. But that was just the beginning.  

From there it was onto Ulster and a victory over Tyrone champions Moortown at Owenbeg, a dogged, wet, miserable day in which Brian Ogs had to fight and dig deep right to the very end, winning on a 0-6, 0-4 scoreline. What mattered most was that Steelstown were Ulster champions in the most trying of circumstances.

Through the All-Ireland which followed, Steelstown showed the other side, and when they faced Meath champions Trim back in February, they lit up Cro0ke Park with a fantastic brand of attacking football. Against an opponent that came into the final on the back of 20 successive victories, Steelstown overcame the concession of an early goal and a second half red card to Eoghan Concannon to comfortably win 3-14, 2-5 and etch the small club from Derry into the history books as All-Ireland Intermediate champions.

Through it all McGrath and his management team of Raymond Tracey and Dermot McBride were there, pushing the players to new heights, an what became a case of finally getting the monkey off the back of a senior title, turned into a fairytale of epic proportions.

Now Hugh and his team, after a challenging season of senior football, have decided to make way, leaving the door open for someone else to experience the magic of the blue and gold at Pairc Bhrid. McGrath feels it is the right time to step aside.

“When I took the senior role on, it was always a short-term thing,” he explained. “We had a feeling in the club that maybe we were missing the boat with some of these players and that we needed to get the monkey of not winning an Intermediate Championship off the backs.

“I felt like I achieved what I set out to achieve; we won the Championship then went further than I ever imagined we would. Then, with the whole relegation thing, we stayed in senior football so for me, it was a case of job done and maybe time for a different voice for these guys to see if they can progress under somebody else.

“I’m the only person who has ever managed Steelstown at senior level and we can’t have a scenario where that’s the case, so it’s a great job for someone to come onto and have a real rattle at because there’s an exceptional squad there, both at senior and at reserve level. The timing was just right for both me and the squad for someone to come in and freshen things up.”

Not enough hours

For McGrath, it must have seemed that there were not enough hours in the day, his time at Steelstown coinciding with his role with the Derry senior team, not to mention a job and a family. It would be fair to suggest that he deserves a break at this stage.

“People say I was only there for two years, but I was there for four because I had taken the reserves for the two years previous to that and gone the whole way in that,” he recalled. “We won an Intermediate Reserve Championship in the first year there and we were runners up the second year and I went straight into the senior role; in fact, it was a dual role because I was taking both teams.

You throw in to the mix that I was also in with the Derry Seniors and the county coaching officer, sometimes that’s just too many hats and you have to call time on some of those and get focused and give it your best in some of these roles.”

The decision to step aside wasn’t easily made, but McGrath, who has rewritten history at the club in his two spells as senior team manager, can certainly be satisfied with the extraordinary feats achieved with a team he knew would be champions someday.

“The entire focus was on delivering what we set out to do,” he continued. “We did that. I think I said at the time after winning the County Championship when we were sitting having a beer in the Blackbird ‘I wonder how far we can actually go at this? If we give it a proper rattle we’ll see where it takes us.’ It took us on a journey that none of us will ever forget. The other side of that coin was that it took us into the following year fairly quickly so we didn’t really have any time to think about it. We were straight back at it. Once we knew that there was no relegation from senior and that we would be a senior club next year, it made the decision very easy.

“We wanted to do it early, we wanted to give Paul and the committee plenty of time to scour about, see who’s about and see who wants to take on the role.”

Going from the All-Ireland victory at Croke Park almost immediately into senior football means that Hugh hasn’t yet been able to sit back and realise the enormity of what he and his team achieved. Life with your club never stops as any coach can attest to.

“I might get the chance to sit and enjoy it,” he admitted. “I’m at the stage now where I still haven’t watched all of the All-Ireland final back in one go, so I might now get the time and space to do something like that, and think back and enjoy that memory. When you are in the midst of it, you enjoy the days that you are a part of, but you don’t really get the chance to reminisce too much and take out your best moments. We’ll have plenty of time now, myself Raymond and Dermot to sit back and watch the fruits of our labour and enjoy it a bit more.”

Never say never

While he says ‘never say never’ when asked about the possibility of a third term in charge sometime down the line, Hugh is happy that having ensured that Steelstown remain in senior football, the time has come to step aside. He’ll not be hard to find as he will always be floating about the club in some capacity, but for now it is someone else’s turn to experience the constant demands and the highs and lows of senior team management.

In his two spells as manager, Hugh McGrath took the minors to their first ‘A’ Championship final, took Brian Ogs to senior football for the first time, won the club’s first county title, won the club’s first Ulster title and then won the All-Ireland at Croke Park. A legend he most certainly is. But for him, the story which culminated in Croke Park began one difficult day in Drumsurn a god few years back.

“I haven’t had the chance to really immerse myself in the All-Ireland victory yet,” he explained. “I have memories of it, but I haven’t properly sat down and thought about it. The best game that I was ever a part of was a minor semi-final in Drumsurn where we played Kilrea and we were double figures scores down at half time and came back to win the game.

“That one sticks in my memory. It was a defining moment for a lot of those players; the likes of Stephen Cleary, Mickey McKinney, Neil Forester and Ryan Devine, it just showed how capable they were as footballers, and it gave me great hope for that group for the future. It was also one of the reasons why I came back to take this group this time because I knew the calibre of those men from that day. I knew just exactly what type of characters they were and how dedicated they were to the Steelstown cause. That one stays in my memory and it will always stick with me.”