Reape and Cill Chomáin: A meeting of minds and hearts

He looked busy but happy on Thursday night. That's the usual sight Nigel Reape gives off. The former Knockmore attacker is a family man first and foremost. After that, if he's on the record, he'll say he's a busy businessman at the helm of Nigel Reape Office Supplies and Print, but if he's among friends he'll leave you in no doubt about the place football occupies in his life.

He can't really get away from it. He wore the saffron and blue of Knockmore for a generation and then set off into the mad-mystery tour of club management. He was on the sideline for his beloved native club, he even ended up in Sligo club circles and enjoyed a sojourn in the beautiful surroundings of Belmullet.

Two years ago he was 'taking a step back' when Michael D McAndrew phoned him. The well-known broadcaster was chairman of Cill Chomáin at the time and he put in the call to Reape.

“He's the man to blame. I had two daughters in the Mayo inter-county set-up at the time and obviously work was busy. I decided I wasn't going to get involved in management again. I had been in Castleconnor down in Sligo. I really enjoyed that, but I definitely made up my mind that I wasn't getting involved again. I didn't want to be missing the girls' games, so I stepped back but then Michael D rang.”

McAndrew wanted someone to assist his team manager John Maloney who was working in England while managing the Cill Chomáin junior team. He told Reape he just needed him to take a few training sessions and the rest is history.

“Those boys have a way of drawing you in, but I love it” Reape added with a twinkle in his eye.

“We won the Comórtas last year, which was very important for the club. We were beaten by Shrule Glencorrib in the county semi-final and now we're back in the county final, and I'm enjoying every second, so it's good.”

Reape and Maloney are a good team. They work well together and now they have Reape's great friend Sean McLoughlin in the crew as well.

“Sean has been with me from the first management job I ever had. It was 2009 when I took over the Knockmore seniors. Sean was with me that time. The only time he hasn't been with me is when I was in Belmullet. He was managing Moy Davitts at the time, so we were on opposite sides. We fell out for a few minutes that night and we fell straight away again,” he added with a grin.

“Sean has been a huge help this year. John (Maloney) is away a lot and I'm in Munster a lot with work, so Sean has been brilliant. It's a different voice as well and Sean is great with teams. You'll hear all these phrases, 'old school' - 'new school' and all types of things. The three of us would be what you'd call 'old school,' but what does that mean?

“When I was a young fella Liam O'Neill and Paddy McHale were telling me the same things these modern coaches are at today. They were just telling it in a different way.

“It's the same thing. There's different names on it and everything else. A lot of the terminology in the dressing rooms is the same.

“Psychology has always been a huge thing. I remember back in the 80s, when I was starting off playing the older lads would talk about how to handle the game and all that. It doesn't change.

“Preparation is vital and I can tell you the Cill Chomáin and Bonniconlon lads will have prepared every but as good as the Ballina and Knockmore lads will have prepared for the senior final. That's how much they all put into it.”

It's obvious that Reape loves his time with Cill Chomáin. There's a smile on his face and a sparkle in the eye when he talks about the Erris men.

“I love the place. Work takes me out to Erris a lot and I try to work it around training times. They're brilliant people. There's a grá to them. Even back in the day when I was playing you'd go out to Erris for a game in Kiltane and you'd do well to get home for breakfast the next morning. They're great people, but of course there's a lot of emigration and we've been trying to build depth in our squad which isn't easy.

“We have lads all over the country and one in Scotland and another in Malta, but we're doing the best we can.”

Reape, Maloney, McLoughlin and the backroom team have worked hard to guide Cill Chomáin to this year's final – the club's third in four years, so is the weight of losing two finals weighing heavily on the players?

“Not at all. It's not something I ever got off them. It's not something I got into because I wasn't there for the two years before that. It's the same with a lot of the players. The team is very young. The team that started the semi-final there were six or seven U-21s and nobody over 27, so they have no baggage.”

“I've always said, no matter what you do in life, you can't have fear. If you have fear of anything, you're strapped in before you even start. So, the one thing you have to take out of the whole thing is fear. You have to have trust. You can't have nerves. You have to trust the process. Of course, you'll be a bit edgy in the run-up and hoping everything will happen for you, but you can't have fear. The Cill Chomáin boys will come to Castlebar on Saturday and really go for it and after that we'll see what'll happen,” the honorary Erris man concluded.