IT hasn’t gone away you know. In fact an on-off campaign to open a Kerry GAA museum, charting the golden moments of the county’s proud history, is more active now than ever before. And why not? It’s some story to tell.
But before a greenfield site is identified, to side-step Lottery funding paperwork and to avoid raiding the attics of Kerry sporting greats for sweat-stained jerseys and tarnished Celtic crosses, let’s take stock.
Why not strike a deal instead with the Russells in Killorglin? A guided tour of the mantelpiece and a glance at the walls of the front room would surely eliminate all need for a costly, purpose-built museum.
As former Kerry coach Jack O’Connor divulged in his recent book, the sitting room in the Russell dwelling in Killorglin is like a shrine to Mike Frank’s achievements. But what wouldn’t it be? It’s called family pride.
There is no honour in the game worth winning that Mike Frank Russell hasn’t already tucked into his trousers pocket. And his remarkable personal haul of GAA accolades, collected throughout a long and incredibly distinguished playing career, is sufficient to provide all the precious memorabilia required to stock that sought-after museum, if only extra room could be found in the display cabinets.
Just consider, briefly, the honours he has amassed:
• Four All-Ireland senior championships
• Two All-Ireland under 21 medals
• One All-Ireland minor title
• One All-Ireland club title
• One All-Ireland senior colleges’ medal
• Three National League titles
• Nine Munster championship wins
• One Sigerson Cup victory
• Three National championship wins
Now read the list again, slowly, and it might begin to sink in just why this incredibly stylish, wonderfully creative, ruthlessly efficient, yet refreshingly modest 29-year-old from Killorglin can be considered one of the true living legends of the game. This guy is the real deal; a genuine GAA superstar and unquestionably one of the most accomplished players ever to wear the colours of his club and county. No debate entertained.
Yet, even that lofty status is unlikely to be sufficient to earn him a starting role in the unprecedented all-Munster all-Ireland final. Despite the certainty that he would be the first name pencilled into the forward division in every other county in the country - bar none - Mike Frank is not expected to be parading behind the boys from Artane shortly before 3.30pm this Sunday afternoon.
And it can all be attributed to what could only be described as an embarrassment of riches in a county spoilt for choice and the ability, or otherwise, of key players to be in the right place at just the right time.
Although he remained on the bench in the semi-final, Mike Frank, to his credit, had done nothing, absolutely nothing, wrong in the championship campaign and, the anoraks will confirm, his trusty boots helped him to get close to the summit of the scoring charts this season.
He notched 11 points in Kerry’s opening three games and that included 0-6 in the provincial final during which he tormented next weekend’s opposition in the course of what many considered to be a man-of-the-match performance.
But, in the white heat of a quarter-final battle against Monaghan, when a trump needed to be plucked from the pack, Bryan Sheehan became Kerry’s king of hearts, Gooch and Star were staying put, the Laune Ranger was lost in the shuffle and now he is on the outside looking in.
Still exclusion at key stages of a championship season is nothing new to the quietly spoken gentleman of Kerry football as Jack O’Connor and journalist Tom Humphries tell the world, with detail that surprised many and upset more, in their recently published book. Ior
Intimespast,MikeFrankdidn’ttake tookindlytobeingexcludedfromthe first fifteen when Jack swirled the baton and when omitted from the team for the championship semi-final against Cork last year, with Sheehan again getting the nod, Russell demanded a meeting with O’Connor and his selectors seeking, at least, the courtesy of an explanation.
But, much earlier than that, the man from the foot of Toorsaleen mountain had arrived at the conclusion that Russell had reached the end of his career. In a dramatic Dear Diary entry, O’Connor wrote: "MF finished I think" and, he later conceded "Mike Frank is one of my failures as a coach."
Just why that was, perhaps, could be determined from O’Connor’s subsequent admission that he identified more with hard graft, no frills players like Paddy Kelly and Brendan Guiney than a supreme stylist and match-winner of the calibre of Russell who he considered more of an "artist" like Maurice Fitzgerald.
On Kelly, Guiney and Paul Galvin, O’Connor remarked: "They’d be my men, though, hard bastards who’d go through walls for you. I can’t get enough of those fellas around the place".
The breakdown in the relation-ship between Russell and his former manager might also be attributed to the fact that O’Connor’s fumbled a ridiculous attempt, back in 2005, to make a sow’s ear from a silk purse when he tried to transform the relatively slightly built Russell into a tough-tackling ball winner rather than a supreme goal poacher.
Suggesting that Russell might still be bitter after the experience, O’Connor added: "I’ve often looked back at the last two years and thought I was hard on Mike Frank. There’s a stubborn streak in me, though."
Still, as he returned to his first class teaching post in Killarney’s Mercy Holy Cross National School last week, and with O’Connor off the scene, Mike Frank could take great consolation from the fact that Pat O’Shea, the new Kerry trainer, appreciates artistic flair and favours tactics that create an environment for defenders to defend and score-getters to get scores. O’Shea, a gifted corner forward himself in his day, needs no reminding of the calibre of rabbit that Russell can pull from a hat.
Although Bryan Sheehan is the man in possession of the jersey marked 15 right now, O’Shea has nothing but respect for Russell’s creativity and will be all too aware of his ability to put an opposing goalkeeper on his backside with a shrug of a shoulder or a jerk of a hip, craving that one chance to strike, quietly but ruthlessly going about his business like a silent assassin waiting for the target to raise its head.
And let there be no doubt that, even if he doesn’t start against Cork, as seems probable, if at any stage Kerry needs inspiration, then O’Shea will know exactly where to look.
On the Kerry bench next Sunday, Se·n O’Sullivan and Darren O’Sullivan will provide the speed, Mossy Lyons and Mike Quirke will provide the brawn, but Mike Frank is the only player capable of providing the spark of genius that can turn a game on its head in a split second.
True artists work like that. And, in the markets that matter, silk purses remain a valuable commodity.
