By Cian O’Connell

Des Mythen laughs quietly when trying to make sense of it all. A decorated part of Oulart The Ballagh’s history, winning 10 Wexford SHC titles as a player, Mythen is making an instant impact as manager of Oylegate-Glenbrien.

Mythen has steered Oylegate-Glenbrien into a first senior decider since 1963 against Naomh Eanna next Sunday.

The Oylegate-Glenbrien boss, though, is urging his emerging crop of players to embrace the game and occasion. “I probably didn't expect, when I took the job, to be in a county final, so I've said to the lads to enjoy the week, we will be doing a couple of nights training, but they won't be too heavy,” Mythen remarks.

“It is about getting the bodies right, but the mind is the biggest thing for Sunday. Getting the mind and the body right. It is great to be preparing, we probably didn't think we would be there, but we have to embrace it when we are. It doesn't happen too often.”

Many lessons were learned by Mythen during his own playing career. The importance of having joy in the journey is chief amongst them. “I won 10 county medals with Oulart, I played in 13 or 14 finals, I just said it to the lads, I didn't enjoy a lot of them county finals,” he reflects.

“You enjoy winning, after the game, but when I look back on it I probably should have enjoyed some of the games. I played well in four or five of them, I didn't play well in four or five of them. So you need to relax a bit, if not with your performance on the day, you will tie up.

“You will start doing the wrong things if you're nervous or you are anxious. I'd be saying we have a good team, use your heads, don't get too bogged down on the week.

“Just try to enjoy it as much as you can to a certain degree. You've different little things like the parade and being out on the pitch a bit earlier, just enjoy it. Then when the whistle blows, that is when you start really getting tuned in.”

Between 1994 and 2016 Oulart collected 13 Wexford Championships during a remarkable spell. Before that Oulart had never triumphed at the highest level in the county, so things can alter dramatically. “I'm saying to Oylegate to embrace the county final, to try to win it now,” Mythen adds. “They have probably been a yo-yo club in Wexford for the last 20 years.

“They have been down, up, down, up maybe three or four times in the last 20 years. In Wexford hurling because it is that competitive you could be in a relegation final pretty quick or you could be in a county quarter final pretty quick. It is a turnaround.

“I think for Oylegate they are a club that should be senior. I see that from the underage, I see it from the talent there. You have lads that probably should be on the panel that aren't there at the minute.

“They just dropped out or whatever. Oylegate are a senior club in players and the club itself because they are trying to do a lot of work.”

Adapting to different challenges is critical according to Mythen. “Even on Wednesday night we don't have the main pitch, there is a juvenile or a minor match on so we have to go to the side pitch,” Mythen states.

“Some of the lads were trying to get it, I said don't change the match, that we will go to the side pitch. The club deserves to be senior.

“We haven't got there by being lucky, we got through the group maybe with a slight bit of luck, but in the quarter-final and the semi-final we rightly deserve to be in the final.”

Coaching and training teams was always something that interested Mythen. “I was over the Oulart U21 team with Rory Jacob, we won a county final seven or eight years ago,” he recalls.

“Even though I was playing with a lot of them lads, I was over the U21s, we won a premier final down here. I was over juvenile teams in Oulart, we got to a county final with a team that probably wasn't capable of getting to it. I always aimed to be into coaching.

“To be honest I didn't think I'd go straight into a senior manager job. I thought maybe I'd have to work my way up in regards to an intermediate or a junior club. On the other side when you are in senior you are up against Oulart.

“We didn't play Oulart, but that might have happened. I thought that I probably wasn't going to be Oulart manager for the foreseeable so why not take it. I knew Oylegate had a good team, maybe not as good a team as I probably thought until the last few weeks as regards the way we are playing.

“I knew they were a decent team and I thought with a good structure I could probably bring them on. It has been quick, somebody said to me that you won't be getting to a county final every year with teams. That probably isn't going to happen.”

A deep and meaningful connection has been forged by Mythen and the Oylegate-Glenbrien players. It is one of the aspects about the job that has stirred Mythen. The need to assist players in every way possible. “Management wise I'm not into shouting and roaring. I'm forceful, but I'm close to a lot of the players,” he explains.

“Some of them you need to put your arm around them, to talk to them. I'm not like a stone in that going back over the years you have no relationship with the manager. I've a good relationship with a lot of the players.

“Outside of a match I talk normally with them, they might ring me or I'd ring them. That is the way it has gone in the modern game. You have to have a pretty good relationship with your players.

“You know you have different personalities, some of them like being shouted at, some of them you can't get on to. You want to get on to them, but they don't have the personality to take that. It is probably the thing you don't sign up for.

“You don't realise when you are taking over a team you're dealing with personalities and different problems with fellas.

“You just think of the hurling end, but there is more to it than just the training on the pitch. We are training since December 13. That is a long time to have 30 fellas with different issues going on in their lives.”

It has been a hectic stint, but Mythen continues to guide them.