Enda McNulty knows a thing or two about getting players to get the best out of themselves.
The former Armagh footballer makes a decent living as a sports psychologist, motivational speaker and author.
He has worked with some of the country’s finest sports stars and, despite the occasional grumble from Joe Brolly, has earned glowing praise for his work.
Before all of that, the Mullaghbawn man helped Armagh to seven Ulster titles and one All-Ireland – as well as nabbing an All Star for himself – during a truly golden period for the county’s footballers.
Armagh had won Ulster in 1999 and 2000 but that first Sam Maguire still eluded the Orchard County footballers as they headed into the 2002 All-Ireland final. At half-time in that final, with Armagh trailing Kerry 0-11 to 0-7, their coach Joe Kernan delivered one of the all-time great speeches.
Kernan had reached the All-Ireland final as a player in 1977 but his Armagh side were hammered 5-12 to 3-6 by Dublin. The fiery, inspirational speech is recounted by McNulty in John Scally’s book ‘Blood, Sweat, Triumph and Tears: Tales from the GAA’. He said:
“I remember looking around the dressing room and thinking the mood in the team wasn’t unbelievably spirited and the body language wasn’t very strong.
“Joe came in and he started talking – ‘Listen boys, we weren’t playing well. I played in the 1977 All-Ireland final and I remember going home on the bus crying and with all the boys crying. Do you want to f***ing be like me?’
“It wasn’t really what he said next, but the impact of him physically throwing his loser’s medal from that game against the shower and it rattling all over the wall, shattering into little pieces and the plastic breaking and the coin, or whatever it was, rolling all over the floor.
“I again vividly remember looking around and seeing the body language change immediately.”
Armagh went out for the second half fired up and very late. They made Kerry wait for five minutes before swarming onto the pitch.
After early points were traded Oisín McConville burst up the pitch to score a goal that got Armagh to within a point of The Kingdom. Energised by this, and with Kernan’s speech and actions still vivid, Armagh went on the charge.
They limited Kerry to three second half points and scored 1-5 to win the final 1-12 to 0-14.
Has there ever been a better half-time speech in the history of GAA? If you think so, let us know.
