Tipp job was always an ambition for Colm Bonnar

By Shane Brophy

To say Colm Bonnar is living the dream as the latest Tipperary senior hurling manager is putting it mildly.

The former Cashel King Cormacs clubman is bringing extensive previous experience to his new challenge which was a long time coming.

Apart from his seventeen years playing with Tipperary teams between 1982 and 2000, where he played in 17 Munster Finals (winning 11) and 10 All-Ireland finals (winning 5), Colm’s management career has also seen him build up a catalogue of experience and success across many teams.

Following retirement from playing, Colm first cut his teeth at inter-county coaching with Michael Cleary and Sean Hennessy he coached the Tipperary camogie team to their first senior All Ireland win in 1999.

He then joined Gerald McCarthy (later Justin McCarthy) with Waterford senior hurlers as coach/physical trainer when they won their first Munster title in 2002 after a 39-year gap.

Colm then moved back to his native county as physical trainer/selector of the Tipperary senior team with Ken Hogan from 2004-2005, unfortunately with little success in this period.

He then progressed on from this however to manage the Wexford senior hurling team from 2009 to 2011 where they won the division 2 league. Colm got a great insight into Kilkenny hurling and further success when he co-managed with Andy Moloney and coached Ballyhale to a club All Ireland title in 2015.

Then, in a four-year period from 2017 to 2020, Colm was the manager of the Carlow senior hurlers where in successive years, he brought them from Division up to Division 1 hurling. In this time Carlow had their most successful period in hurling winning the Christy Ring, Joe McDonagh and they played in the Leinster Senior hurling round robin championship.

Throughout all of this time Colm Bonnar has been ever associated with the Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) and the Fitzgibbon Cup where he has managed them to 6 Fitzgibbon Cup wins and numerous Fresher All Ireland hurling wins. He also managed WIT to their first Purcell Cup and Ashbourne cup (camogie) wins.

Colm is currently involved with Padraig Fanning (ex-Waterford Hurling boss) and the Dicksboro senior hurling team.

He has also studied extensively to build on his experience and holds an Honours Degree in Sports Management, a Masters in Management Education, a Setanta College Diploma in Personal Training and Strength & Conditioning and a Diploma in Sports Psychology. Colm is currently working in the Student Life & Learning Department in Waterford IT.

With that CV, who needed an interview and speaking with Colm Bonnar, it was easy to see why he was chosen by the county board selection committee to be next Tipperary manager and it can be summed up in one word – hunger.

“When I put my hand up and went forward for the interviews, I said great, this is where I’d like to be,” he admitted.

“It look a lease of life from there but since the announcement was made, I didn’t realise so many people had my phone-number, it has been crazy with people wishing me the best and that things will go well. There is a huge amount of goodwill out there at the moment and I just hope I can harness that and keep it coming.

“It is great to be involved and to go back home. I am going to be able to talk so much more freely when I talk to people as it will be passionate and will be coming from what I know, what I have done and where I have been. I have been on that road for nearly eighteen years putting on the Tipp jersey and every time I went to training, I never regretted a minute I spent in the car.”

So having had such extensive experience, Colm Bonnar was rarely in the conversation for the Tipperary job in recent times, however, he never shied away from letting those in power know he wanted to get involved. However, even he thought the chance might never have come.

“I have been involved a lot with different teams over the past 25 or 30 years and I was kind of saying, am I coming to the end of my own tether with it?” he said.

“I am with Dicksboro this year and you are always thinking, have I got the energy, the enthusiasm, the drive, and the hunger to keep driving players to get more out of them and to keep challenging them?

“When I got the phone-call from the county board, I was pleasantly surprised. I had been in the running three years ago when Liam Sheedy accepted the role and would have made a phone-call before then looking to throw my name in the hat.

“Things have their own way of coming around and I was delighted when I got the call and went for the interview and things went very well. They could see where I was coming from, and my mindset and I obviously did enough to convince them to give me the role.

“It is a huge honour to manage your own county, especially and county like Tipperary where it is hurling mad and are always in the top two or three when All-Ireland’s are mentioned, and that is where it should always be with Tipperary.

“I am loving it at the moment, and currently am in the process of putting together a backroom team which will take a while to put in place, but I need to give good time but that, but relishing the challenge that lies ahead.”

His almost three decades of service in Waterford IT makes Colm Bonnar more of a teacher than anything else and his ability to relate to players of all ages will be a huge asset, particularly as Tipperary need a turnover within the starting fifteen which has largely been the same over the last five years, albeit winning All-Ireland titles.

“I am the whole-time learning,” Bonnar stressed.

“I am always trying to challenge myself to see can I give more and get more from the players. When I go into the dressing room, I expect the same attitude.

“We do need to shake it up a bit and create an environment where players are challenged to assess their own training habits, can they do something better? Can they improve any aspects of their game? Can we challenge them to take more control and more ownership of what they are doing? A lot of the time when you ask those questions the answer is yes as they actually can and the more they can control the more they will enjoy it themselves.”

Bonnar’s approach to management is a very holistic one, where creating the right environment is key from where players can develop in, from where he will challenge them to be the best they can be.

“To play hurling at the level these lads will be playing at with Tipperary, there has to be a level of contentment in your own life,” he said.

“This has to be a priority for you. You have to have the balance right at home. There will be loads of different mixtures of people coming in, people with young families, people going to college, people starting new jobs, you just have to be aware of the life challenges out there and the peer pressure that is on everybody. You then find that players that are coming to training, and they have that contentment in their life, they chances of being more productive on the hurling field are greater as they won’t be bringing a lot of worries and they’ll bring a smile into the dressing room.

“A lot of people forget this is only a hobby. It is a serious hobby to have but you go back to when they were eight, nine and ten, all they wanted to do was puck a ball over and back.

“I was only talking to Tony Browne (Waterford) last night, watching a bit of hurling, and he said the most enjoyable part of a training session is the start when two lads get together with a ball and start pucking it over and back. I know we have moved on a lot since then, but you have to enjoy what you do and get great satisfaction from trying to develop your game to a higher level, and then being a competitor, playing against the best and there is no better place to play than on the Tipperary senior hurling team.”

He added: “There are no guarantees out there. If you play sport because you are guaranteed an All-Ireland medal, then you are in it for the wrong reason. The enjoyment and satisfaction has to be there first of all.”

Bonnar’s first task will be putting together a panel and that will mean many trips from his home in Waterford to club games in the coming games, as well as watching games by the county board live-streaming service. And how you play and apply yourself for your club will be one of the aspects the Cashel native will be watching in terms of getting to know the mentality of a player.

“The plan is to get around and see as many games as possible and see the drive they have for their own club as when it all comes down to it, you need to be giving it your absolute best for your club because that is who you have played with since you were eight, nine, ten and played with all the way through,” he said.

“Every club has their own goals and ambitions but when you put on any jersey, especially your own club jersey, it is a great moment too and you have to go out and express that on the field.

“We all know there are people stuck in jobs we might not like or stuck in front of a desk but when you get a chance to put on a jersey and go out onto the field and give it hell for leather, that is great in itself.

“I am looking forward to going around to all these games and try and earmark some of the younger players.

“Obviously, I know the capabilities of the older lads and I have no doubt they will retain desire, hunger, and enthusiasm, and show we are as good as the younger lads coming through and that is what it is about, coming in and being the best that you can. Obviously then it is up to the management team to select.”