ACC teacher aiming to guide St Dominic's to intermediate title

Understandably, Tomás Gilleran was a disconsolate figure when the final whistle sounded on last Saturday’s junior semi-final between St Brigid’s and his native St Dominic’s at Dr Hyde Park.

With three minutes of normal time to play, the Athlone Community College teacher was entitled to dream of another county final, as his team led by a single point.

It wasn’t to be as a goal from Kealan Byrne and three points from Oisín and Ciarán O’Reilly sealed the win for Eddie Nestor’s men, but for St Dominic’s to have come so close in a fixture that would have been seen as a complete mismatch just a couple of years ago is more evidence of the incredible progress that has been made in the St John’s parish club.

Moreover, while there can be a tendency in GAA circles – particularly in Roscommon GAA – to embrace underdog status, Gilleran is quite comfortable with the idea that St Dominic’s have to get used to the idea of competing with the weight of expectation on their shoulders.

Last year, when they met St Faithleach’s in a championship semi-final, their narrow victory was considered one of the biggest shocks of the year. Now, he happily agrees with the assessment that Sunday’s intermediate final (Dr Hyde Park, 3pm) against the Ballyleague club will be a 50/50 game.

“Last year was last year and we’ve dealt with that, there’s muscle memory but there’s no scar tissue,” is how he reflects on a season that ended in a heartbreaking extra-time defeat to Oran.

“We’re far more comfortable in ourselves, last year it was nearly like we were hoping to win it without anyone knowing. We were under the radar and we were looking to cause a bit of a surprise, and wouldn’t have been overly comfortable in the expectation of winning it,” he continued.

“This year is a different kettle of fish, the cat has been out of the bag and teams have been ready for us and prepared for us, and we’ve had to deal with that throughout the season, so we’re definitely more comfortable in our skin. We’re more familiar with the build-up and we’re ready for it.”

When the two clubs met in the group stages, St Faithleach’s took a commanding lead on their home field, before Dominic’s came roaring back to salvage a draw – a result that ultimately gave them top spot in the group.

“Both teams were through, but we certainly weren’t holding back, they certainly weren’t holding back,” is how Gilleran recalls that contest.

“I would take it as a good guide, there’s very little between the teams and the team that makes fewer mistakes will win. I would say that the key battle will be the middle third and whichever team does a better job of feeding their inside forwards. The game in Ballyleague was a draw, then you go back 12 months and there was only one point separating the teams,” continued Gilleran (pictured below).

Whatever happens on Sunday, if St Dominic’s are to be beaten, it won’t be for the want of hands on deck. The club has seen an explosion in player numbers, and they're competing well at various levels. Behind that is a large management team that spreads out the workload, and a club that is also embarking on a new fundraising drive, launching “Ireland’s biggest 50/50” to try and finance improvement in their facilities.

“We’re a rural club here in St Dominic’s and football is flourishing at the minute. The U-17s are preparing to play in the curtain raiser to the final, the Junior A team reached a semi-final, the Junior Bs have won their first game. This is a sports-mad parish, across all GAA codes, then there’s two soccer clubs, an athletics club and a cycling club. Everybody here is sports mad and when the structure is put in place, and it’s well-organised, people will come.”

So the support is there. That leads to the bigger question – are St Dominic’s a better team for it, and will that be enough to win the intermediate title and get the club back up to senior football?

“Last year, it was a small, small margin that separated the teams. You could argue we were unbeaten last year, the record books will show that it was a draw, albeit Oran got promoted. Take it that way and we’ve been beaten in just one game in almost three seasons now at this stage.”

So will they win? “People say you have to win one to lose one, well we’ve lost one now,” Gilleran responds.

And these days, St Dominic’s don’t lose that many – at any level.

- Kevin Egan