OUR GREATEST DAY
When Wicklow won the Oscar Traynor Trophy crown
THERE Is a hint of irony when looking back on the immediate aftermath of Wicklow’s historic, momentous, and, so far, only Oscar Traynor Trophy triumph in 1986. After dispatching Galway in a thrilling finale and enjoying suitably epic celebrations in Swindon a few days later, the weather conditions on the boat journey back left the admittedly hungover group of heroes wondering if, after becoming the first team from the county to lift the trophy, they would even get home.
‘I remember going to the boat, and the boat was rough. It was that bad that you weren’t allowed to go up the gangway. It was too dangerous. We had to go on by the car deck. I am not codding you, it was the most horrendous journey back,’ reflected Johnny Dunne, who played alongside fellow Wicklow Rovers stalwart Billy Alexander in the defence against Galway. ‘I have never seen the lads as green, yellow, and every other colour.’
‘It was a great time over there with the lads. It was nice to go away with the lads and have a good time. All I remember is getting onto the boat feeling sick. I think we were on the boat for three and a half hours and I was in the bathroom for three hours.’
Fortunately, other than some of the men losing part of their stomach lining, they arrived back home unscathed and were able to continue their jubilant celebrations for a job well done, and for good reason. Many have tried since, but the class of ’86 remain the county’s sole Oscar Traynor champions.
Dunne and Alexander were two of seven players from Wicklow Rovers who were part of the league’s 18-man squad. They were joined by John Ryan, John Finnegan, Pat ‘Sting’ Kavanagh, Chris Sillery, and Eugene O’Neill. The rest of the squad was made up of Sean Temple (Little Bray), Paul McDonald and captain Harry Murphy (St. Earnan’s), Tony Breslin, Barry Hoban, Noel McDonald, John Morgan, and Noel Keohane (Arklow Town), and John Young, Stephen Holmes, and Ciaran Finn (Kilcoole).
When 18 men people are plucked from a variety of clubs that are playing in a traditionally competitive league, a certain degree of tension can be understood. When it was the late Tommy Earls selecting the squad, however, that fear goes by the wayside.
‘Personally, I felt that it was just natural because I had played against them, the lads from Arklow, Bray, Kilcoole, and all. I felt that, after matches, we would go in, have a pint, have a chat, and get to know them. To this day, If I see them out or when we had a reunion down in Fitz’s, it was only like yesterday,’ explained Dunne.
‘We would get talking about the games. We would get talking about the Wicklow Cup finals, the Bishop Cup finals. It just came naturally because they were good footballers. We had the best centre-forward in Wicklow, best midfield in Wicklow, best goalkeeper in Wicklow, and the best backs in Wicklow.’
These sentiments are echoed by Harry Murphy, who captained the team and who also credits the work that Tommy Earls would do to affirm each player’s value, as a contributory factor towards the squad unity.
‘The one thing about Tommy was that he picked the best players for the position. He would pick the best right-full, the best left-full, and so on. He used who he felt were the best players for their positions. He picked the best players he could out of the Wicklow League that was very strong at the time and he played all of the lads in their natural positions which worked quite well for us.
‘He never complicated things. He never tried to reinvent the wheel. It was a very standard way of playing that he had. He picked the best players for their positions. The best players from the Wicklow League took the field. He knew what we were capable of if everybody did their jobs. The biggest thing was that he didn’t try to change too many things on the pitch. Everyone who played in that competition played all the way through. I don’t remember anybody ever playing out of position. Everyone who was picked played in their regular position that they would have played for their club.
‘We had very experienced players and we had quality in the younger lads. All them lads had quality and great belief in themselves. John Young was one of the best players I have ever had the pleasure of playing with. He was the best centre-forward I ever saw playing at our level. A real class act. All of the lads were really good players with their own clubs and when they came to us. They had great belief in themselves and a great winning mentality.’
Wicklow’s path to the final began with a 4-2 defeat of the Leinster Junior League. John Young, Stephen Holmes, John Finnegan, and Harry Murphy scoring the goals for the victors. From there, they beat Athletic Union 3-2 in the second round, with John Young and Harry Murphy once again on the scoresheet, alongside Noel McDonald.
In the quarter-finals, they travelled to play Wexford away from home. Following a 1-1- stalemate at the end of extra-time, it was left to a penalty shoot-out to separate the two teams. The game took place against the backdrop of ‘Sting’ Kavanagh getting married and arranging for his honeymoon to take place in Wexford in order to be present to cheer on his teammates.
‘I think, after the first game and the story with ‘Sting’ and all, I remember going back in and ‘Sting’ turned around and Tommy said: ‘look it, lads, we can win this. Make sure you’re fit, don’t act the bull-dung,’ and then Sting said: ‘lads, I’ve moved my honeymoon to Wexford to come and watch you play, so we have to go on and win it,’ Dunne remembers. ‘’Sting’ was always really helpful over the years. He thought football. He would think and think and think about games. One time, we were playing Cherry Orchard and we brought them onto the Rocky Road. ‘Sting’ said: ‘look it, lads, if we play them on Whitegates, they’ll kick us off the field.’ It was a windy day up at the Rocky Road and we won 1-0. That’s how he thought about football.’
Earls’ men overcame the odds to come out on top of Wexford, winning the penalty shootout 5-4, with John Finnegan slotting home the winner to send his team into the semi-finals, where they met the Leinster Senior League. While LSL would have been considered the superior footballing outfit, it would be Wicklow who would emerge victorious in the final four. Once again, it was Harry Murphy who was on the scoresheet. His third goal of the campaign up to that point made him the team’s top goal scorer in the competition.
John Finnegan swept home their second goal of the semi-final from the penalty spot as Wicklow cruised through to their first-ever Oscar Traynor Cup final.
While travelling support for their first game, against Leinster Juniors, was rather sparse given the low nature of expectations that accompanied the team as they entered the tournament, support quickly grew as they progressed through the rounds. Very quickly, crowds were joining the players for the ride, ultimately culminating in a raucous crowd inside the home of Bray Wanderers: the Carlisle Grounds. This component of their journey did not escape Murphy, who acknowledges that, due to the lack of anticipation, the players worked towards earning the support that they ended up enjoying from the county.
‘Obviously, all the clubs were involved and their support followed. All of the other clubs got behind. There wouldn’t have been a whole lot of people travelling up to Kildare for the game against Leinster Juniors. As we continued on, people started to travel. The day of the final was a great occasion. The clubs got behind us and gave us a great lift.
‘It was a great carnival atmosphere. There was a big crowd in the Carlisle. It was definitely the biggest crowd that I have played under at the Carlisle. The Wicklow League was buzzing at the time. It was a very colourful occasion.’
‘It is still something I am very proud of. We still meet up from time-to-time. Unfortunately, we lost Noel (McDonald) and Sean (Temple) – two great players and true gentlemen. May they rest in peace.’
The final was played in front of 700 people at the Wanderers home ground. Despite Barry Hoban’s opener on 22 minutes being cancelled out by the Connacht side, Wicklow were much the better side and were 3-1 up early in the second-half thanks to goals from John Young, who took advantage of a flicked header by Billy Alexander from a Harry Murphy cross, and Barry Hoban again. Rather than concede defeat, Galway flipped the script by scoring two quick goals to bring the scores to 3-3.
Wicklow weren’t to be denied and, with John Young putting in a man-of-the-match caliber performance, there was always a chance that the winning goal would come, which it did on 73 minutes. After Noel McDonald, Harry Murphy, and John Finnegan worked possession up the pitch, Young took over to take the ball past the full-back, before the Kilcoole man rounded the goalkeeper and rolled in what proved to be the momentous winner.
Cue mass jubilation and what Murphy remembers as an admittedly short-lived trophy ceremony.
‘We all knew what we had achieved and nobody had done it before. It was a great day for us. I didn’t have my hands on the cup for too long because it was a big Waterford Crystal thing and they literally handed it to us, took it back off me, and then put it back in the case,’ he says with a chuckle.
‘Think about it, this is Waterford Crystal, probably a couple of grand worth; they were never going to let us throw it around. I’ll always remember: it was spilling rain when we’re getting it presented and I literally had the chance to lift it once before they took it back and put it back in the box, which was totally the right thing to do because you cannot leave a Waterford Crystal to be brought back to the silversmith to repair it.’
Johnny Dunne is quick to wax lyrical the talent that made up the Wicklow squad. ‘Billy Alexander, Sean Temple; you could go through the lot and they were all the best.
‘We had Harry Murphy in midfield, he was the best midfielder in Wicklow. We had John Young. Billy Alexander was the best defender in Wicklow. Tempo was the best goalkeeper. I that way, Tommy Earls should get an awful lot of praise for being man enough to pick the players that he did.
‘He felt – and I am not blowing my own horn or anyone’s horn but – Sean Temple WAS the best goalkeeper; I WAS the best sweeper. I knew these lads, they were the best – Harry Murphy, John Young; they were the best players.’
The celebrations that came at the end of it all was every bit as extravagant as one could imagine. The team took a boat over to Swindon, where they played, and beat, a best XI from that league in the County Ground. Once that was over, the party began and did not stop until after they got home. Dunne recounts how, at a postmatch reception in Swindon, the town’s lord mayor welcomed their guests and told them that, whatever they do, not to break anything, much to Johnny’s amusement.
When he looks back on that campaign and the life-time relationships that he forged with those with whom he lined out in the Wicklow League colours, Dunne is self-reflective and appreciative of what they achieved on that day in April 1986, and he counts himself fortunate to have been there in the first place.
‘We had a great night there with the other team. I don’t think we went to bed; I think we were supposed to be going home the next day. I remember going to breakfast with a few of the lads and I think we were still hungover.
‘We had a parade in (Wicklow) and that. We played Bray Wanderers, I think the week after we won it or something, but the lads were still celebrating. It was just an amazing thing to win. Winning the Wicklow Cups with your Rovers teammates is one thing, but to win this particular one was a great honour.
‘We went to Arklow, Bray, Kilcoole, Rathnew, we went everywhere. It is a wonder that we got the cup back at all. It was a hard time to get there and win it, and just as hard a time celebrating afterwards. I was lucky, personally, that Tommy Earls came along.
‘I was lucky to meet ‘Sting’ and work with him and all that stuff. I was lucky to meet so many good players and people out of it.’
1986 Oscar Traynor Cup Final - Wicklow League XI vs Galway: Sean Temple; Paul McDonald, Tony Breslin, Johnny Dunne, Billy Alexander; Harry Murphy, John Finnegan, Barry Hoban, John Young; Noel McDonald, John Morgan. Subs: Pat Kavanagh (for J. Morgan).