St Dominic’s hoping for third time lucky in latest title tilt

GAA: Roscommon Intermediate Football Championship final preview

By Kevin Egan

The old adage that you have to lose one to win one doesn’t quite apply in the Roscommon IFC. In fact, for three of the last four winners – Tulsk, Fuerty and Oran – they had to lose two finals before they were ready to come back and win at the third attempt.

Oran’s heartbreak was particularly well documented. In 2018, they lost out after a replay. In 2019, they lost out after a replay, extra-time in the replay, and penalties. However when they finally did break through in 2020, they were more than ready for senior football, and since they went up, they’ve since earned two promotions in the league and their record in senior championship football is played eight games, won six, lost two.

It's impossible to ignore the parallels with St Dominic’s. Beaten after extra-time in both the 2020 and 2021 finals, they look like a team that is more than ready to go up – though as manager Tomás Gilleran points out, they’ll gain promotion when they’re good enough to seize it for themselves, and not before.

“Had we won in 2020, I’m not sure we’d be in the senior championship in 2023, with all the work that would have been needed to stay up,” is the view of the Athlone Community College teacher.

“Last year we were there or thereabouts, we were good enough... but you need to be the best. If we’re honest with ourselves we’d admit we weren’t the best last year. As a group of players, they’re two years further on, there’s four or five U-20s that have come into it and the group is getting stronger.

“So if we do go up, I think we’ll be in a better place than we would have been in 2020, and if we don’t, that’s just local football, we’ll be back down here next year and it’s not going to be the end of the world. This group isn’t going to fall off a cliff, we’ll be back next year in the O’Rourke Cup and we’ll set our eyes on whatever championship competition we’re in”.

It’s not just in 2022 that the O’Rourke Cup has been a huge boost to St Dominic’s club. When they suffered their heartbreaking defeat to St Faithleach’s last year, a loss that was made all the harder to take because of the loss of their top scorer Darren Donnelly to Covid on the day of the game, not to mention a series of very unfortunate refereeing calls from Gerry Carmody.

However even after that defeat, the goal of getting into the top tier of league competition was still there on the table, and that focused the minds of players and management alike.

“There was disappointment and all the rest, but the following Friday night we had 26 training. That final, we left it as a close game and when you leave it as a close game, anything can happen. So we made peace with that quick enough. The following Sunday week, we played St Croan’s and once we won that, we were guaranteed promotion to the O’Rourke Cup. Two weeks later we met Tulsk and we won the O’Gara Cup so we did get our silverware, and six days later we won the Division Four.

"So we got over it fairly quick, but we were adamant that while we didn’t get into the pot for the 2022 senior championship, that it was another year of growth, development and improvement, and that we weren’t going to allow losing one game to stunt that.”

In terms of development, some managers would say that in 2020, St Dominic’s lost to a side that went on to become very competitive at senior level. In 2021, they lost to the eventual Connacht Intermediate club champions. Some managers would say that it was just a case of keep going, they were where they needed to be.

Gilleran felt otherwise, and now he hopes that it’s a more streetwise St Dominic’s side that will tog out in Dr Hyde Park this Sunday.

“This year there’s a bit more composure in our games. Last year there was a lot more guts and gusto, swashbuckling football, whereas this year it’s controlled, it’s patient and there’s a higher level of consistency.”

Turning his attention to Sunday's final opponents Eire Óg, Gilleran said: “There’s a big challenge ahead of us. We’d be aware of the intensity and ferocity of our opponents. They have the first and last man that you put on the county team in Colm Lavin and Conor Cox, so two huge players. Their midfield, those two guys nearly turned the tide in the U-20 game in Croke Park last year, so they’re massive threats, and then Liam Creaton is like a free signing for them in terms of coming back from injury and that’s just a few players” he continued.

“They were in our group last year. St Faithleach’s only beat them by two points and realistically, we robbed them. We were seven points down with ten minutes to go and we came back to win by a point. We’re under no illusions as to the challenge ahead of us, and if we’re able to handle their ferocity and intensity, we would hope that we’re able to grind it out.”

Grinding hasn’t really been their thing, but then, this championship has proved that you have to learn from your defeats if you’re to prevail. St Dominic’s have done the lessons, and on Sunday they will expect to pass the exam, even if it is at the third time of asking.