Dublin star salutes the true ‘grit and determination’ of his underdog club as 14-man Castleknock storm from behind to ruin Raheny’s big dream
In the end, the last laugh and Parnell Park bragging rights belonged to Ciarán Kilkenny in his long-standing friendship/rivalry with Brian Fenton.
Against the numerical odds, Castleknock had found a way into the last-eight of the Go-Ahead Ireland Dublin senior 1 football championship. Already the underdogs with a full complement, they had played virtually the entire game with 14 men and still eked out a fully deserved 0-14 to 0-11 victory over their northside rivals.
Next up Cuala – and Con O’Callaghan – in the quarter-finals, but for now Kilkenny could savour a significant victory against one of his best mates in football.
“I’ve been playing against ‘Fento’ since we were under-eights,” he revealed. “At the start we had the beating of Raheny; then for a couple of years we couldn’t beat them; we got them at minor; and then three years ago they beat us out in St Anne’s Park.
“So we’ve always had serious games against them. It’s always great to have Brian to drive things on within the Dublin group, and we’ve great competitiveness between us. We were having back and forth all week before the game, winding each other up, so it’s great to get the win.”
But then, typical of a man who would need a Leinster House bike shed to fit all his medals, Kilkenny immediately switched to ‘next game’ mode.
“We’re only out of the group now, though – we’ve a quarter-final ahead of us so we’ve to regroup,” he stressed. “But it’s a big win for the club, to show that grit and determination, and it was a real panel effort from everyone.”
The Dublin SFC is renowned for its depth of quality and competitiveness, but it also has the ability to throw up must-win fixtures involving marquee names and, in the same breath, clubs who have never scaled the senior summit.
Here was a perfect case in point. Raheny lost the 1970 county final to St Vincent’s. Last year was arguably their best chance since; they really should have reached the final, eventually pipped on penalties by the then All-Ireland champions from Kilmacud.
Castleknock, only founded in 1998, graduated to the senior final stage in 2016 only to suffer defeat – against Vincent’s, as you do.
Kilkenny may have amassed eight Celtic Crosses and six All-Stars, but he’s still chasing the dream with his club. Ditto Fenton and his fellow Brian, Howard, Raheny’s brace of multiple All-Ireland medallists and All-Star winners.
This was a group game in name only: with Na Fianna guaranteed to top the group, Castleknock and Raheny were locked on two points apiece beforehand and squabbling for second place.
And when corner-back Tom Quinn walked after six minutes – for a high challenge on Seán MacMahon that was the definition of a stonewall red – the omens for Castleknock looked ominous.
They already trailed by a point; Cian Ivers doubled that from the resultant free. MacMahon, a regular Dublin starter for Dessie Farrell this year, carried on after treatment, but the ramifications of that big hit eventually told.
After 26 minutes he departed, suffering concussion – a “huge blow”, lamented his manager, former Mayo forward Enda Varley. MacMahon had seemed fine to begin with; but then as Varley explained, he came over to the sideline asking did he get a knock and management knew they needed to “get him off the pitch straight away.”
Given the loss of MacMahon, you could reasonably argue that the red-card incident ultimately proved more damaging to Raheny than Castleknock.
To begin with, though, 14 men struggled to adjust and they trailed by 0-6 to 0-2 after 17 minutes. At this juncture Kilkenny, operating from left half-forward, had struggled to make the stellar impact that his club craved. Fenton, by contrast, had opened Raheny’s account after a slick one-two and typically snaffled a couple of throw-ups on either 20m line.
But then the tenor of this contest changed, almost in an instant. The catalyst? Kilkenny, with a left-footed point that kickstarted an unbroken run of seven points in 12 minutes. The same player chipped in with a brilliant second off his right; Ger McDermottroe utilised the wind to nail a hat-trick of frees, and they led by 0-9 to 0-8 at the break despite a late Raheny flurry.
Crucially, despite the wind and extra man, Raheny never once edged ahead in the second half. Ben Galvin, son of Dublin selector Mick, came off the bench to kick an eye-catching brace and Luke Swan’s point on the counter, deep in stoppage-time, left his team three clear.
Safe? Not quite. A superior scoring difference meant a draw would have sufficed for Raheny; and when Fenton’s hopeful ‘Garryowen’ was won by Darren Lunney and fed across the goalmouth, there was Howard lurking with intent.
The Dublin ace had kicked one of his trademark points on the run, late in the first half. Here, though, his last-gasp shot at the jackpot was smothered by ’keeper Morven Connolly.
“That’s football, isn’t it? You put a high ball into the square and anything can happen,” admitted Castleknock boss Brian Farrell. “There’s no question about it, we got a little bit of luck there.”
Varley, for his part, was left to lament a “bitterly disappointing” end to their campaign.
“When they go down to 14, it was probably a mindset thing,” he surmised. “We just have to lick our wounds now. A lot of learnings taken from that, I can assure you.”
Both managers here know all about facing the Dubs in Croke Park: Varley came off the bench for Mayo in the 2013 All-Ireland final while Farrell scored the fifth and final Meath goal in the famous Royal rout of 2010.
Whereas Dublin have won all before them ever since (this year being a notable exception) Kilkenny is relishing the very different challenge of being back at the club coalface.
“Sometimes people might say Castleknock aren’t the toughest team you’ll play against,” he concluded, “but I think we really showed it today that we have that grit and we have that determination. Lad sent off, four or five points down, the lads really stuck into it.”
Roll on Cuala; roll on Con.
