Inchicore’s coach is confident

INCHICORE Athletic will be playing in the Leinster Senior top Division this coming season after a series of top finishes which saw them promoted four times in six seasons.

They will come into this upcoming season with an entirely new coaching staff which will be headed by Gary Stokes along with his cousin John Chandler.

“We were left in a situation where we had gotten promoted to the senior division of top flight football for the first time in the history of the club and we had no manager” said Finbarr Dolan of Inchicore Athletic.

The managerial process was tough with six applicants being screened for interviews.

Four of whom were former League of Ireland coaches, Stokes coming from a Lucan United side in the Saturday division stood out due to his ambitions with the club and his football philosophy.

Stokes had initially planned on taking a year out of football after a number of successful years managing at Lucan United, before being informed about the Inchicore job by his cousin John. The prospect of the job was too good to turn down.

“I was after being offered a couple of jobs already from Leinster Senior clubs but nothing felt right. With Inchicore there’s just so much history there with mine and John’s family.

‘Both of our parents were brought up in Keoghs Square and we were brought up on the stories of Keoghs Square and St Michael’s estate.

‘My dad went to school in the Oblates. They were just great stories, so we had a massive connection and it was something I really wanted to do.”

Also with a strong history linked with Inchicore is one of Stokes’s head coaches who has been with him since his time starting out at Belgard, Conor Duffy.

Conor’s father Pat Duffy was well known within the wider Inchicore community and after his death a few years ago he is paid homage with a memorial in the Black Lion pub.

Going into the job Stokes was chosen above a host of more experienced candidates.

“To be honest with you, with the success I’ve had over the last couple of years you back yourself.

‘You’re backing yourself with the players you’re going to be working with because I know I’m good with people, I’m good with young lads and I can get them to fight for you.

‘In that sense I backed myself a little bit but then you have the experience of John who played in the League of Ireland and managed in the top league for years. He’s experienced and well known throughout the game. When you have him with you, you become more confident.”

Stokes remains confident about the team this season whose goal is to stay within the top division of the Leinster Senior League.

“There’s a couple of players at Inchicore who are absolutely brilliant.

‘There’s 13 teams this season in the top league and I think five or six of my Inchicore players have gotten offers off 10 of them.

‘So they were a really high quality team before we went anywhere near it.

‘What we can add to it and with the players we have coming in with us, it’s going to be a youthful team.

‘Strong, hungry team and the quality of football, they are all absolutely excellent footballers.”

“As I always say to the lads, we’re spending three days a week with each other and it’s a couple of hours a night.

‘We’re not just doing it because we’ve nothing else to do.

‘If you’re going to put that much commitment in something you have to do it for a reason and give it everything.

‘We don’t take anybody who is not willing to commit 10 months of their life to be football.

‘It’s 10 months to try and achieve something great. It takes that dedication, anything less and you’re not going to achieve what you want.”

Hunger is the name of the game with Inchicore Athletic at the moment and the club are prioritising a set of values and promoting a culture that rewards loyalty to the club above all else.

This can be seen even with the Saturday team managed by Brian Morgan and Alan Kenny.

Alan spent all his football years playing with Inchicore Ath and has retired from playing to move into team management.

Inchicore is working hard to establish an identity and structure where players can play right from juvenile level to even being involved with the club once finished playing as an adult.

PRO officer Finbarr Dolan expanded on the culture that Inchicore is going about building.

“Football is obviously what we’re all about, but we see the big picture for our community.

‘We see the success that we can bring and since we’ve now got to senior level the amount of players that want to come and play for us.

‘We do players a favour by giving them a chance to play at senior level football. Players don’t do us a favour by signing for us. Traditionally they did but we want to change the culture.”