All across Ireland, the autumn of 2017 has seen county football silverware take up residence in familiar locations for the winter. Nemo Rangers, Dr Crokes and Clonmel Commercials in Munster; Moorefield, Portlaoise and Rhode in Leinster as well as Cavan Gaels, Kilcoo, Slaughtneil and Derrygonnelly in the north have all tasted success over the past few weeks — and that trend has been even more pronounced out west.

By Kevin Egan

If, as expected, Castlebar Mitchels can account for Mohill in the Connacht Club Championship on Sunday week, the semi-final line-up in the province will involve the Mayo county town side, Corofin, Tourlestrane and St. Brigid’s — four clubs that between them have won 21 county titles this decade so far.

Yet the old adage of what’s seldom is precious doesn’t ring true for Frankie Dolan, who is very happy to keep piling up the trophies at Kiltoom following Sunday’s six-point triumph against Roscommon Gaels at Dr. Hyde Park.

“It’s a super feeling, it’s like winning my first one back in 1997. You can never win enough championships. Thankfully all the hard work we’ve put in over the last two years, with Eddie Lohan and Ger Dowd last year, this year with Deccie Meehan and Enon Gavin, has paid off. We’re after putting back-to-back titles together which is really important for the club,” he insisted in the aftermath of Sunday’s victory against Roscommon Gaels

At all levels, St. Brigid’s are in a very robust state of health, as Dolan happily pointed out.

“It had been a great year. We won the U-16 with a superb team, one of the best ever in the club. We won the minor today, snuck over the line, and congrats to the lads. We won the junior last week, it was only our third title win at that grade, and now we won the senior today,” he illustrated.

“It’s great, I’m looking forward to the next game now in three weeks’ time. We’re going up against that juggernaut in Corofin. They’re a serious team of footballers. They gave us a horrid hiding last year down in Carrick-on-Shannon so we know what we’re up against — one of the best teams in the country. A performance like that won’t be good enough so we’ll have to up it again. Whether we have the players to compete with the likes of these Corofin guys, only time will tell,” he remarked.

Based on Sunday’s win, St. Brigid’s have plenty of cause for optimism. Dolan mentioned Karol Mannion’s absence as one of several big losses that they have sustained in recent seasons, but he’s still very happy with the depth at his disposal, and cited that as a key factor in the win.

“When David O’Gara got sent off, it swung things in our favour. They were down to 14 men and I don’t think they had the substitutes to come in of the same calibre of what we had. We drove on, our subs came in, guys like Conor Murray, Jack McDonnell, Darragh Donnelly in particular, I thought they were superb,” he said.

The mood in the Roscommon Gaels’ camp after the game couldn’t have been more different, but the two management teams were very much on the same page when it came to the impact of the sending off of O’Gara.

“Things were falling into place, the match was certainly there to be won,” felt Gaels selector Ollie McGuinness, before he went on to say “once the extra man came into play, Brigid’s played it very well”.

“They’re a very experienced side. They haven’t won all the county titles that they have without knowing how to win, and they showed that today. The decision did seem very harsh, but until we get to look back on it we can’t really say. What you can say is that it changed the total dynamic of the game and it’s hard to take. No-one likes losing finals,” bemoaned McGuinness.

St. Brigid’s joint captains Peter Domican and Garvan Dolan lift the Fahey Cup. Picture: Gerard O’Loughlin