Irish Daily Star - Inside Sport
The only way Brigid’s some respect was by ST THOMAS’ ARE THE SLIGHT FAVOURITES
CURRENT SUCCESS FELT world away Before 2013 VICTORY
A KILKENNY outfit seeking to join the pantheon of All-irelandwinning clubs meets a Galway side looking to prove they’re no one-hit wonders.
That’s the storyline ahead of tomorrow’s All-ireland club hurling final at Croke Park.
O’loughlin Gaels are looking to atone for their 2011 All-ireland final defeat by Galway’s Clarinbridge but for St. Thomas’, this is about finishing it out again.
One All-ireland victory — the 2013 decider win over Offaly’s Kilcormackilloughey — doesn’t feel like a lot for a side that has dominated Tribe hurling and last autumn landed a county six-in-a-row.
Two years ago St. Thomas’ brought war to Ballyhale Shamrocks and had them beaten until TJ Reid’s late goal broke their hearts.
Last year they lost out to Dunloy in the Allireland semi-final.
This time round they took that big scalp they crave as they upset Ballygunner last time out.
Stage
Again, they brought war to the stage with plenty of physicality on and off the ball as they outmuscled the Waterford side, emerging after extra-time and penalties.
If St. Thomas’ bring similar levels tomorrow it’s hard to see them losing, but getting that high again will be tough.
O’loughlin’s could easily have been beaten by Cushendall in the last four. They just about edged out Na Fianna in the Leinster final and it had taken a last-gasp Paddy Deegan point to take out Ballyhale Shamrocks in the Kilkenny decider.
Cushendall missed four great chances in a row around the 50-minute mark — though the winners had misses of their own. They also have outstanding backs, with David Fogarty who hit the winner against Cushendall, impressing alongside Huw Lawlor, Mikey Butler and Paddy Deegan.
It’s St. Thomas’ third final appearance after a 2019 decider hammering by Ballyhale.
Win and they’ll join fellow Galway side Sarsfields on two All-ireland titles — two behind Portumna and one behind Athenry.
For O’loughlin’s it’s just about getting onto that roll of honour.
Seven Galway sides have won this versus Kilkenny’s four, with Kilkenny clubs having 14 titles to Galway clubs’ 13.
O’loughlin’s will look to even that up, but St. Thomas’ are slight favourites.
THE latest top-drawer side to emerge from St Brigid’s arrives at Croke Park tomorrow, ‘ahead of schedule.’
Their famous predecessors from the 2013 All-ireland final triumph over Ballymun Kickhams — where Frankie Dolan kicked a glorious last-gasp winner — were very different.
They’d been on the road a long time, and their coach Liam Mchale — Kevin Mcstay was manager — sensed it had got “very serious” for them.
“When they started losing Allireland semi-finals and a final, they were hell-bent on winning an All-ireland,”says Mchale.
Belief
“It was a frustration more than a lack of belief. They knew they were good enough — a golden group. Thankfully they got there in the end with their talent and hard work.”
11 years on, Ronan Stack is the only surviving starter.
But the legacy of that team, which featured stellar talents like
Dolan, who
Mchale rates as the most talented footballer he ever coached,
“Rolls
Royce” Senan Kilbride, Karol Mannion and Shane Curran lives on.
St Brigid’s certainly don’t suffer from an inferiority complex — as a loaded Ballymun side with Dean Rock, Philly Mcmahon and James Mccarthy found out in the 2013 decider.
A measure of their strong mentality is the Kiltoom side’s record against Corofin in Connacht club finals — which stands at 3:1 in the red.
Pre-2013, seven times Roscommon club sides reached Croke Park for the All-ireland club final — and seven times they’d walked away empty handed.
This included Brigid’s themselves, beaten by a goal by Crossmaglen in the 2011 final.
After a 2012 semi-final defeat by Garrycastle, their neighbours across the border in Westmeath, many suspected their time might have come and gone.
But a battle-hardened Brigid’s side had other ideas and set about changing a brutal narrative for Roscommon football.
Route
What a route they had to take to finally win an Allireland — upsetting holders Crossmaglen in the semi-final and then taking out a Dublin team in the final.
Then there’s the fact they trailed by 2-3 to 0-1 after 10 minutes and looked to be in for a hiding.
Mchale recalls a pundit on Newstalk writing them off between the two semi-finals, which were staged on the same day, with Ballymun beating Dr Crokes in the opener.
“He said that it doesn’t matter who wins between Crossmaglen and St Brigid’s, Ballymun are going to walk the final. “I was taken aback. Obviously that goes straight into it. “We are after coming out of Connacht, after beating Ballaghaderreen, beating Salthill,
beating Crossmaglen, the best club team for the last 10 years in a classic.
“The only way Brigid’s were going to get some respect was by winning the All-ireland.
“The attitude to the team and what they had achieved up to that was definitely a major factor.
“Everybody was tuned in I can tell you and the training went well for the three or four weeks before the final. It was massive the fact that nobody gave us a chance going into the final.”
And absolutely no one gave them a chance when they trailed by eight points after 10 minutes.
Then a Kilbride goal — which Mchale rates one of the best he ever witnessed at Croke Park — ignited the Roscommon men.
“We gave away two bad goals, but we did an awful lot of work on scoring goals,” says Mchale, the current Mayo ladies’ manager.
“I think we were averaging three goals a game up to the Connacht Championship.
“Obviously, as the standard goes up, your scoring rate comes down. We were down to about two and half goals (per game).
“I felt that we were going to score goals and if we did we would get back into it. I couldn’t sense a panic on the pitch. It was an awful start against a team that was supposed to beat you by five or six.
“We were four down at halftime. We knew we were back in it, but we were playing a great team and we had to push on.
“With the forwards we had, you go five or six down, it’s not ideal but you are not beat.
“We couldn’t go six or seven down again. The third quarter had to be ours.
Solo
“We felt we dominated Ballymun after the first 15 minutes for the rest of the game, which is a very impressive feat for the lads.”
Mchale recalls “the little things you don’t see,” not just Dolan arriving on the scene to kick the winner.
“Ronan Stack got on the wrong side of his man, let him take a solo and flicked it away,”he says.
“Gearoid Cunniffe got a deflection on a ball that led to the score Frankie got. So all those things we worked on would have come together. There’s so much satisfaction for the players and management when it works out.”
After the game current Mayo manager Mcstay spoke of the hurt Mchale had endured losing All