Coffey rounds off title win in Captain’s way

It was perhaps the perfect ending. The game was won, the league title secured, the champagne about to be uncorked up in the stands. But Willie Coffey, Nenagh’s inimitable captain, saved the best moment until last.

By Thomas Conway

His eightieth minute try was a piece of magic, a feat which combined awesome athleticism with sheer, rugged determination.

Coffey rose up to catch the ball - Gaelic football style, like Dublin’s Brian Fenton in Croker on All-Ireland final day. Once he had the oval secured, he set off on the most lung-bursting of explosive runs, rapidly carving his way through the Barnhall defence before eventually sliding in over the line some metres right of the post. The perfect way to sign off on an historic day for Nenagh Ormond rugby club.

But none of it should have come as even the mildest surprise. After all, Coffey has been at this all season, pestering opposition defences and producing exhilarating moments of pace, finesse, and raw skill. The Ballinree native was always going to make the perfect captain.

Articulate and grounded, the 27-year-old has led from the front this entire season. Under his leadership Ormond have blasted through the league, eventually securing Division 2A honours with a game to spare, on a proud day for this small North Tipperary town. He was reflective in the aftermath, but typically candid. Nenagh began 2023/24 with one mission, Coffey revealed, and on Saturday, it was mission complete.

“It’s unbelievable,” he said of their achievement.

“Looking back on it, we probably did better than we thought we would last year - making the promotion play-off and all that. But this year, this season, from the first day we came in, every single one of us knew what our goal was. Our goal was to get promoted, to win the league.

“And look, it was a difficult year, in the sense that we had nowhere to train. We only have one pitch at the moment and every team in the club is playing on it so that made it tough going. But all the community came together - we were playing in places like Nenagh GAA club, we were in the athletics track, we used loads of different places so the whole of Nenagh really came together to support us, and you could see that with the level of support that was here today. A massive crowd, and it has been like that most weeks for our home games.”

Massive crowd indeed. The atmosphere in the stand last Saturday was carnival like - music blaring, supporters roaring. There was magic in the air, a sense that Nenagh were on cusp of something truly special, something that many would have struggled to envisage even just a few seasons ago.

The senior team has made remarkable improvements, gradually clawing their way back from a relegation play-off some years ago to become one of the most formidable forces in AIL rugby. But it isn’t just about the senior team.

As Coffey emphasised, this is a club that values its under-6s just as much as its senior men, a club that takes pride in every team, player, coach, and volunteer. Everybody, from the humble supporter to the senior team captain, is in it together, all striving to achieve the same goals, same dreams.

“There’s a big difference between now and a couple of years ago, even just in terms of the atmosphere in the club,” Coffey added.

“The club motto is “one club”, from minis all the way up to senior, and if someone or some team needs a hand, needs assistance in a training session or anything like that, everyone just rows in behind them. So Nenagh Ormond is a really nice place to be - the whole atmosphere is one of positivity.”

Amidst the celebrations in Lisatunny on Saturday, there was also an inescapable sense that this success represents only the beginning. Nenagh Ormond is a club built on ambition, and its ambitions for the coming years aren’t just confined to playing Division 1 rugby. There are facilities to develop, younger players to nurture, a ladies team to establish. The excitement is palpable. Nenagh is a club on the up, with a vision, and their senior team captain knows it.

“There’s a lot of kudos to the committee as well, said the Nenagh skipper.

“At the end of the day they’re the ones who are in charge, steering the club forward, and they’ve put a development plan in place for the next four years. You know, we’re gonna have an astroturf, and then they’re doing the gyms, and then the changing rooms. And then in terms of the different teams, we haven’t had a ladies team in a good few years, and those plans are in motion now as well. And then the clubhouse - for years they were trying to do up the clubhouse, and that’s something they’re looking at seriously now as well.

“So, there’s a bright future there. The players that are coming through are amazing. You take Fionn O’Meara from the under-18s, he’s just one example. For such a small club, to now be in the first division of the AIL is amazing, it’s an incredible achievement, it really is.”