‘The attitude, the spirit, the unbreakable bond in the group just showed the way’

HE’S got something does Declan O’Sullivan. The most successful Dromid man ever no the football pitch is making a case for himself to be one of the best men to ever stalk a sideline from that neck of the woods.

Of course, Jack O’Connor remains top dog in that regard – he’s won All Ireland titles at senior, Under 21 and minor with the Kingdom – but O’Sullivan is probably the most successful manager of the Dromid club that there’s been.

Think about it. He brought them to their senior Premier Junior county title a couple of years ago and now he’s led them to their second ever Jack Murphy Cup success. Not bad, not bad at all we’re sure you’ll agree.

Declan was silken smooth on the pitch, but there was a hard edge to the guy too and you can see that reflected in this Dromid side.

They fight, they give it their all, they never, ever give up and they needed all of those attributes and more to come out on top of St Marys in this epic South Kerry final.

“Absolutely, it was a titanic battle,” he says.

“We’re used to doing things the hard way; we never make things easy on ourselves! Two incredibly evenly matched teams. I think that’s our seventh time playing them since I have been in charge of Dromid. Three draws, two one point defeats for Dromid, we got a hammering last year in the final and finally today we got over the line. It means a huge amount to all of us.”

The fact the victory came against the six in-a-row chasing St Marys made the result all the sweeter one suspects. If you’re going to win, you may as way win against the best.

“The Marys have been champions for the past five years,” he acknowledged.

“They have this reservoir of belief that kept them in the game. We definitely felt that we had the legs for them and we made that point to the team, that when it went into extra time, now was the time for our fitness to show and I think that it did in the second period of extra time.

“We kept the ball really well in both periods of extra-time, we had trained a lot to keep possession at this time of year. As you say, Pádraig Jackie [O’Sullivan] came up and kicked an inspirational score – saying that, he has been fantastic for us all year.

“Chris [Farley] has been a brilliant operator for us, he has had a fantastic year and in fairness, that was a great benefit. A big thing I think was how we prepared ourselves over Christmas, fellas really showed how much they wanted it and we trained really hard.

“We were able to maintain the fitness. I’m delighted for the lads; it’s the players on the field who win the games and they have been absolutely terrific in the last three years for me. It’s just incredible, the spirit and togetherness of the group and the parish.

“We have struggled for numbers this year and I suppose next year will be even tougher, fellas are probably going to go travelling and stuff like that, it really was like a last hurrah and I think we played like that as well.

“I think that the attitude, the spirit, the unbreakable bond in the group just showed the way in the end.”