True Blue: Questions & Answers with Alfie Hale
- Dermot Keyes
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
Who was the best player you ever played with? I got to play with a lot of good players, but John Giles stands out due to his skill and his brilliant attitude towards the game. John was an awesome footballer. We’ve known each other since 1959 and he’s a man I hold in the highest respect. Back in those early days, anyone with an interest in Irish football wanted to see John play and heaven only knows the transfer fee he’d command in the modern market. He’s one of the most intelligent sportsmen I’ve ever met and away from football, John wears his general knowledge very lightly.
When talk of the Republic of Ireland’s best ever player comes up, for me, it’s John Giles given the application of his talent, how brilliantly he read the game and his on-field leadership and influence for both club and country. John always means what he says and he’s an exemplar of the moral courage he regularly referenced during his TV punditry on RTÉ.
For me, John spearheads the ‘Blessed Trinity’ of Irish midfielders, joined by Roy Keane and Liam Brady while Jackie Carey and Paul McGrath deserve honourable mentions for their skill and versatility. But John was the complete package. Just outstanding.
Who was the best player you played against? In a one-off scenario, it’d have to be Dave Mackay, who was considered the best British footballer of the early 60s. In League of Ireland terms, Johnny Fullam of Shamrock Rovers was a great opponent on the field and a greater friend off it. Johnny, who was a fantastic reader of the game, was physically homesick during his time at Preston North End and returned home to enjoy a great domestic career with the Hoops, Bohemians and Athlone Town, winning two league titles and an incredible eight FAI Cups. Johnny, who won 11 international caps, died on June 10, 2015, aged 75.
Tell us about those Waterford players you’d describe as unsung heroes. Well, we’ve never been short of them! During the club’s most successful spell, we had two reserve goalkeepers to Peter Thomas: Bobby Broughan and Vinny Dunphy. They were terrific lads and we were fortunate to have such a brilliant group of players throughout that era. The local boys more than played their part too; guys like Michael ‘Beefy’ O’Keeffe, Terry Stafford, Christy Wallace, Sylvie Lynch, Dave Kirby (who came home from England), Dick Ryan, Seamie Casey, Ritchie Power, Peter Fitzgerald, who played in the 1966 title-winning team, saw his career halted in its prime due to injury, which was a huge loss. Buddy Purcell, a winger cum inside forward, was another great servant in that breakthrough title-winning team.
Paddy Shortt and Carl Humphries, both from Cork, were tremendous performers and gave everything they had to the Waterford cause. Cross channel signings Jimmy House and Phil Buck both made great contributions when called upon and we were lucky to have them in our squad. The local players who contributed to the 1980 FAI Cup win also deserve huge credit for accomplishing something that eluded our title-winning team. Lads like Tony Dunphy (a striker I brought in from Johnville), Mick Madigan, Eamonn Coady, Ger O’Mahoney, Brian Gardiner, Tommy Jackson, Paul Kirk, Larry Murray, Syd Wallace, Vinny McCarthy, Mark Meagan and Brendan Carey were terrific for the club. They should never be forgotten.
What was the most high-profile job you turned down? Within 24 hours of his appointment as Republic of Ireland manager in 1986, Jack Charlton picked up the phone and asked me (on a recommendation of then Southampton manager Lawrie McMenemy) to become his ‘number two’. I thanked Jack for the offer but politely declined. In hindsight it was just as well I did given the way Jack undermined Liam Tuohy, a long-time friend of mine.
Not too long after his appointment as senior manager, Jack took over a half-time team talk while Liam’s Under-21 Irish team were trailing 2-0 to England at Elland Road.
Liam, who understandably felt undermined, resigned immediately and returned to coaching at Home Farm. Jack was out of line that night and Liam, a great servant of Irish football, certainly deserved better.
Jack, whose success with Ireland hardly needs repeating here, became a good friend of mine subsequently while Maurice Setters served as Jack’s assistant from 1986 to 1995, taking in two World Cups and a European Championship.
And what’s this about a pre-Cup Final two-man lap of honour involving you and a beloved Waterford celebrity? While the wider world remembers the 1972 FAI Cup Final for the hat-trick scored by Miah Dennehy for Cork Hibs, I recall it for my own distinctive role that day, before a ball was even kicked. Val Doonican, who at the time was at his singing and entertaining peak, was as acclaimed and beloved in the UK as his fellow Waterfordian Brendan Bowyer was by his (then) new Las Vegas audience. Val was among the thousands at Dalymount Park for the Cup Final and an FAI delegate had approached Shay Brennan to suggest that a Waterford FC representative should take Val around the pitch for a pre-match lap of honour.
Shay decided that I should be that representative and that this would lift the travelling Waterford support. Val, while not a massive football fan, was delighted to acknowledge the crowd while I, with the match front and centre in my thoughts, joined Val for an unlikely lap of the pitch. Just a week after we’d refused a pre-match lap of honour alongside the same opponents in our league-winning epic at Flower Lodge, I was left with no option but to take the walk on that occasion. But I have to say that the entire crowd gave Val a wonderful reception that day.
In June 2011, both Val and Brendan deservedly received the Freedom of Waterford. Val died in July 2015, aged 88 while we lost Brendan in May 2020, aged 81. They never forgot where they came from.
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