4 hours Ago
ALAN MANGAN WAS back in work the morning after masterminding a major upset in the Leinster club hurling championship last Sunday. Some normality after the madness. The messages of praise have been pouring in since his Castletown-Geoghegan side overcame the odds to defeat Kilkenny champions Thomastown.
That they won at all was a surprise. The 11-point margin of their win is scarcely believable. It was, Mangan recounts, a “sort of a weird feeling” at full-time.
A Westmeath club gunning down the champions of Kilkenny was unanimously accepted as the shock result of last weekend. The result also brings Castletown one step closer to becoming the first senior club from their county to contest a Leinster final. “Lots of people haven’t heard of them [Castletown] but I’m sure people know who they are now,” Mangan says, capturing the scale of their win over last season’s All-Ireland intermediate champions.
The wheel must turn, however. And there isn’t much time to get his players back to neutral before charging up again to face Offaly champions Kilcormac-Kiloughey this weekend. Before all that can happen, there’s the day to day for Mangan and his players.
On Monday, Mangan was busy attending meetings for his job with Community Alcohol Drugs Service (CADS). He works in methadone clinics around the Midlands, helping people in their battle with drug addiction. “They’re in a bad place,” he says, “And we try to get them back into a good place.
It is challenging but it’s rewarding as well when you see someone making something of their lives when all looked bleak.” And even from a hurling perspective, defeating Thomastown is a stepping stone. The Castletown crew understand that there is more road to travel in this competition.
“At the end of the day, it’s only the quarter-final of the championship,” says Mangan. “We set out goals 10 years ago that we want to be competitive in Leinster campaigns and up to now, we weren’t.” Outside of Westmeath, Mangan is known as one of the players who delivered a first-ever Leinster football title for the county in 2004.
People will also recognise him from a video clip in which he was receiving a stinging rebuke from Kerry icon Páidí Ó Sé for being “f****d out over the line with a shoulder.” The scene was from the documentary, ‘Marooned’ which told the story of Westmeath’s unlikely rise to provincial glory. The tirade was delivered at a training session between the draw and replay of the Leinster final.
Mangan’s response to Ó Sé was to score four points against then reigning champions Laois in the replay. His hurling connections however, are less well known beyond the Westmeath borders. At home, Mangan is affectionately known as ‘Budda.
’ It’s a nickname he inherited from his father due to his tanned skin. And he’s been a dual player from the beginning. In fact, when he broke through at inter-county level, he did so with the hurlers first and even played in a Division 2 league final against Kerry in Croke Park in 2001.
He had one attempt at the dual player life at inter-county level in 2005 but discovered that it was an unworkable arrangement after a week. He withdrew from the hurling squad as a result. Like many of the players who are under his tutelage at the moment, they kick football for St Malachy’s and hurl for Castletown-Geoghegan.
“There’s none of the players who played on Sunday that hasn’t played football down through the years. We won the intermediate football [county championship] last year and 11 or 12 lads that played on Sunday played for Malachy’s in the county final. “I would predominantly be known as a football man and I don’t cover the fact that football would be my number one.
I played with Castletown my whole life and loved hurling. We would have a stronger hurling team than football at the moment but the lads would very much throw their shoulder to the wheel when it comes to football.” Mangan is building an impressive coaching CV, but he continues to play football as a goalkeeper for Malachy’s.
“When you put on a bit of weight and you’re not able to run as fast anymore...
” he says of the change in playing positions. He hasn’t played hurling competitively for some time. Prior to his Castletown-Geoghegan appointment three years ago, Mangan has encountered some impressive figures in his coaching career.
He combined with Peter Leahy when the Westmeath Ladies won the intermediate All-Ireland in 2011 and was a selector for Waterford great Michael Ryan during his time as Westmeath hurling boss. “Michael Ryan was the biggest influence on me as a coach. Everything about him is outstanding.
He has a great way about him and a brilliant way of talking. He has a great way with players and that’s what you need. He’s an iconic figure around the country.
“He’s been extremely good to me. If I was going through a tough time with results, I wouldn’t be afraid to ring him and have a chat. He’s always at the end of the phone.
” When Mangan took over the Castletown hurlers in 2022, they were carrying the wounds of three county final defeats in-a-row, including an extra-time heartbreak in 2020 against Clonkill. They were faced with the same opposition in the ’22 county decider, coming out the right side of a 0-22 to 1-14 scoreline. They went on to play Kilkenny giants Ballyhale Shamrocks in the Leinster quarter-final where they received a 5-25 to 0-18 thumping.
The lessons they took from that loss helped shape their preparation for another Kilkenny side on Sunday. And when Luke Connellan scored an early goal for Thomastown, Castletown had the memories of their Ballyhale loss to help them figure their way out. “We went down to Ballyhale thinking we had a chance but unfortunately, they scored three or four goals in the first couple of minutes and it ended up just us trying to put a bit of respectability on the scoreboard.
To be fair to the lads, we conceded a goal [against Thomastown] after three or four minutes and the players just came fighting back. They didn’t think about two years ago where we ended up getting a bit of a scutching. “We’re obviously older and more experienced and lads really knuckled down as soon as that goal went in.
We’d be saying all year that if concede a goal, make sure you get the next point and they did that.” Workrate was key to Castletown’s victory, according to Mangan. Jonjo Farrell’s sending off was also a factor but Mangan is confident his side would still have won had Thomastown retained their full compliment for the entire game.
He also points to work put down by former manager Pat O’Brien — father of current player Niall — in the years preceding his appointment as the reason for Castletown’s great strides to this point. Kilcormac-Kiloughey, who were also in last year’s Leinster semi-finals, will pay a visit to Cusack Park this Sunday where a ticket to the final will go to the victors. The game will be shown live on TG4.
It won’t take much for Castletown to get charged up after spending this week on the ground. “You don’t really want to bring them down too much. You want to keep them on the crest of a wave if you can and keep them playing the way we’re playing.
At the same time, we’re going to be massive underdogs again this weekend. Kilcormac Kiloughey are a fine team; they could easily have one the Leinster championship last year and were very unfortunate not to win it. You have massive players throughout the whole team.
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