In St John’s Terrace, football and West United, particularly, usually tops the agenda. The planning and plotting for the upcoming junior and juvenile season is about to relaunch.
William Grant is back in charge, taking over from brother Rodney, a family connection with West spans decades.
Having served as Rodney’s assistant, among several other roles with the club, William, is getting ready for a September start. The death of a totemic figure in the area, Mike Farragher, means club activity won’t resume until next week.
Mike Farragher will never be forgotten by any regular in what is called a shop, but in reality is far more of a community centre and information hub on Sea Road, during the coming years. Annaghdown to the core, Mike Farragher served Jes students, locals, and visitors with care and compassion.
Sport peppered most conversations with every Annaghdown player graduating to Galway teams in any code afforded the utmost respect and reverence.
Mike Farragher heard about every West match; he inadvertently chaired most of the pre and post match debates with trademark humour and hope. The missed chances, the players in form, and that ever lasting dream that car horns would be beeped furiously with a cup and jerseys hoisted out the windows of cars.
So he would know all about what the Grants have invested into West. “It is time to go back in, to go at it,” William Grant said a couple of days before his great friend sadly passed away.
“Rodney did it there for the last nine years, he did an absolutely brilliant job. I tried to keep him on for another year or two, but I couldn't, for him to stay in the background. He couldn't, he had enough, he did a brilliant job so I have to go back in to see what I can do.
“When Rodney took over that team, there was nothing there basically. We were struggling even to field a team. He brought that from rock bottom in the first division. If you turned up before 11 o'clock you were guaranteed to start, that is even if you were just watching the game.
“That is how bad we were with numbers, he really turned the whole thing club around on his own with the help of Jodie [Curran], Batty [Shane O'Flaherty], and Mark McPhilbin, the committee and all of the lads. He turned it around, he got in quality players.
“In fairness to him he has been very unlucky in the last few years with penalty shootouts, different things. We were close enough, we lost a Connacht Cup semi-final and final. He has been knocking on the door, he has been very, very unlucky.”
The addition of the hugely popular David Daly to the West backroom team is a significant boost. “Jodie and Shane, it was great to keep them involved, they were part of Rodney's set-up, all the lads liked them,” Grant says.
“They are real football men. It was vitally important we got a fresh voice in too with David Daly, he is a real football man too. He won underage, he won his first Connacht Cup U15 with West under Mike O'Connor.
“He managed West back in the early 2000s, he is well renowned for managing Boys Club, he managed Bohs. He was very successful with Hibs as a player and he is a well respected referee. To be a well respected referee is very hard because they have the toughest job of the whole lot. He is a brilliant football man.
“He reminded me in a way of PJ Norman, two lads that played the game at a high level locally, they had a head about them, brilliant with players. When they give respect, they get respect. It is a very hard job, it is good to see new blood coming through with referees.
“I even saw Mike Cubbard reffing a friendly which is great to see. In fairness to PJ he is doing a great job trying to recruit refs. It is not an easy job, we all try to ref the games ourselves when we are watching a game, but I wouldn't do it, the hardest job. I'd rather manage than ref.”
It is a role Grant has filled previously when West accumulated plenty of silverware. “I took it over back in 2005, I had done my cruciate, we had no manager,” he recalls.
“We were bottom of the first division, I asked them to give me a go at it, and they said 'you are too young'. I said give me a go at it, I will get players in. I knew nothing about management, but I knew I would get players.
“The bottom line is for us to survive is we have to steal players from other clubs, simple as that. People are stealing them from us, we steal them back. It goes around in circles. Hopefully we will end up with a better team than most.”
During the past three years West have re-established an underage set-up. It is critical for the long term development of the club according to Grant.
“Even though the junior is very important for us and we have to have a strong set-up for these kids coming through in a few years time,I think everybody realises now that juvenile is the way to go for us, that will be our priority, to build up good structures,” he says.
“We are getting them in at four and five years of age, I think we are up to 70 members now in the underage academy. I have no doubt it will be more than 100 in the next six months. It is going from strength to strength. The kids love it, the parents love it, the coaches love it. There is a great atmosphere down there, it is great to see it back.
“You go down there every Saturday morning, you see Mike O'Connor down there walking around surveying things. You think of all of the players he brought through, the next gem is in there somewhere. We hope to bring him through.
“At the same time we want to develop players to play in the League of Ireland, at a higher level, that has to be our aim. We want to give kids and adults alike - I will tell every one of my junior players that if they are good enough to play at a higher level you have to play at a higher level.
“That is what we want to do, to provide a platform so they can go out to play with Galway United, to be the next Eamonn Deacy, Tommy Keane, Noel Mernagh or Stephen Lally. That is what we need to do.”
Grant’s passion for West and the game endures.
