Willie McCreery reflects and reminisces on a glorious career

Kevin O’Callaghan’s recent comments about being a fitness trainer and how “you can still potentially make a county panel if you put the right work in” drew the ire of all the usual suspects who, instead of watching games for enjoyment, spend their time yearning for days gone by.

Clane’s Willie McCreery has always maintained that he was living proof that hard work could make a huge difference at inter-county level. Willie was rarely lauded as a big scorer at the top of the field, but had fitness second to none that made him a pivotal part of the successful Kildare and Clane teams of the 90s.

“My missus brought me out for shooting practice one day and before too long she went back in because it was that bad. I was never good at that. Tell you what though, any Leinster finals we ever won, if you look up the scorers the bauld Willie got two points in each,” Willie laughed.

“I loved running, my thing was running and I could do that all day. Then when the football came in that confused me. But when he started to drill with the ball I was lost, I had three left feet.”

The Clane man was a central cog in the finest Kildare team’s that anyone alive today will be able to remember. The engine room of Mick O’Dwyer’s Kildare team of the 90s, the top class flat horse trainer of today had nothing but glowing terms in which to refer to his mentor from Kerry.

“Micko was a great man’s man. He could see lads who were dossing against lads who were trying their arse out. He didn’t tolerate messers. He travelled four hours up from each training session from Waterville. It is probably less now, but back then it was at least four or four and half hours,” Willie explained.

“Then everybody was saying he was there for the money. I tell you what, whatever he got, he didn’t get half enough because we have won nothing since and we won nothing before, not in my lifetime at least.”

When asked about the praise Micko always offered when asked about him, Willie smiled, “He is a legend, but he knew I was a gobshite and I’d run forever for him.”

As much as many to this day still bemoan Kildare not winning an All-Ireland during this spell, Willie also shares that sentiment regarding his club, who had several county players at the time.

“I loved Clane. I was very privileged to have the lads that I played with. I think we had seven lads on the county team when I was playing. We were a very good club side and probably under-
achieved, we definitely should have won Leinster,” Willie said.

“We were very lucky, we came after the likes of Pa Connolly, Tommy Carew, they were legendary players who never won much with Kildare or the club. They were savage and were better than most of us, but a lot of us came together. We had a lot of good under-age teams, Martin Lynch and John Finn used to play midfield together for us. They were two county players, two All-Stars.”

Clane were in seven of the 11 county finals from 1989 to ‘99, winning four of them. The great regret for their super-team in the 90s came in provincial competitions and in particular 1997, when they faced Dublin side Erin’s Isle in the Leinster final.

“We were unlucky, we should have nearly won that day,” Willie said, before pausing for an almighty sigh and adding, “one that got away, let’s put it that way.

“There definitely should have been a provincial win for us. We had as good of club players as anyone in the country.”
Willie would win the first of his two Leinster titles with Kildare in the month’s following his club’s disappointment as the Clane lads rolled seamlessly from club to county action.

The Lilies would face Meath in their first provincial final for five years and Willie would match up, as he so often did, with the legendary John McDermott.

“I think I marked him for six games and we never spoke to each other once. We never said good luck, we never said hard luck, nothing. It was just the way he was and it suited me fine. I wasn’t going to try to talk to him because if I do he might think I am soft,” Willie recalled.

“He was a hard man, you would have rather hit a wall. I’d always try and figure out what bothered him to try to get on top of him. It used to bug him that he’d push off me and that I never reacted. He was always looking for it.”
Kildare would run out 1-12 to 0-10 winners over Meath to clinch Leinster glory and the man who claimed to have little football in him raised two white flags on the big stage.

“Two points scored and more than a couple of pints after it,” Willie said. “Great memories, that morning I was working for Charles O’Brien. Then went off to the bus, it was a great day and great lads that I won it with.”

Many have their own thoughts of the infamous All-Ireland final of 1998 against Galway and of course the Clane man has his own. He felt that the increased fitness training following their All-Ireland semi-final success over Kerry hurt The Lilies against The Tribesmen.

“What sticks out in my mind was that we were 100% fit for that All-Ireland semi-final. We played Kerry and I thought we were bombing. We piqued for that and then they tried to get us fitter. You just can’t get fitter than 100% and a couple of lads then got injured,” Willie explained.

“We were just a little flat-footed for Galway and we made three changes for one change instead of one swap, that shifted everything.”

Thankfully, other great times would follow for Kildare as they tasted provincial glory once again over The Dubs in the millennium year.

“When we won our two Leinster Finals, we beat the two top teams, there was no fluke. Whatever people say about how we should have won an All-Ireland, but we were one of the top three or four teams in the country and it was great to win those titles. A great kick to beat Dublin too, especially from where we were at half-time.”

Goals from Dermot Earley and Tadhg Fennin after the break turned the 2000 Leinster final on its head before Kildare ran out 2-11 to 0-12 victors.

“You still hear some lads who went for a pint and a wee at half-time say they heard this big cheer, then another, and missed both goals.” Willie laughed.

For those who saw it though, what a time. And for those who turn their noses up at the idea of a lad grafting his way onto a county panel, just remember the great Willie McCreery and Kildare’s golden years.