PREVIEW: St Brigid’s are used to obstacles and will relish final hurdle

By Kevin Egan

Most Westmeath Independent readers, particularly those from the west side of the Shannon, will know that Ronan Stack and Cormac Sheehy are the two St Brigid’s players still togging out at senior level from the panel that won All-Ireland honours in Croke Park 11 years ago.

However, only a small subset of those people will be aware that nearly a dozen of the current playing panel were also in action on that St Patrick’s Day occasion in 2013, lining out in the Go Games event at half-time.

Ben O’Carroll, Ruaidhrí Fallon, Shane Cunnane and Robbie Dolan are the quartet from that group who will start Sunday’s final against Glen, barring injury, while plenty more will be on the bench, ready to join the fray if needed.

It says a lot about the natural advantages enjoyed by the Kiltoom club that on the finest day in their club’s history, another wonderful crop of young stars was there on the fringes, putting their names in the public domain for the first, but definitely not the last, time.

With a substantial population to pick from, close proximity to an urban base to the main east-west thoroughfare in the country, not to mention incredible facilities and income streams that other clubs can only dream of, both the floor and the ceiling for St Brigid’s are a lot higher than they are for the vast majority of clubs in this country.

Yet while most clubs, regardless of how well they are run, don’t have the potential to reach the same level, it’s also true that out of the clubs that do, St Brigid’s are over-achievers, by several metrics.

Take underage. In 2023, the club won U-14 and U-20 Division One titles, and while there was plenty of talent in both groups, it’s also true to say that Pádraig Pearses started as clear favourites for that U-20 crown, while both Clann na nGael and Roscommon Gaels looked every bit as good as St Brigid’s at U-14 level at the start of the year.

However perhaps the most impressive achievement of all at the club 2023 was for their minors – a group that had absolutely not made waves at any level up along the line – to earn their place in Division One.

They never really looked like contenders for a championship that was ultimately won by an excellent Michael Glavey's/Éire Óg combination, but by playing football at that level, they have ensured that this particular crop of players is still given every possible chance to be the best that they can be, and there’s no doubt that in time, a handful of them will go on to play long and successful adult careers.

More than anything else, this mindset is the hallmark of the club and the reason they continue to thrive. Harnessing natural advantages such as their population, their history, their location and their deep pool of local sponsors is not as simple as it looks, but it’s still considerably easier than overcoming setbacks and obstacles, and that’s where this club really excels.

Even in the best of clubs, times come along where differences of opinion and clashes between strong personalities off the field threaten to derail ambitions of success and prosperity on it. It’s not that long ago when the club’s ambitious plans for development in Kiltoom didn’t meet with universal approval around the local community, and there were some heated AGMs and EGMs where those differences of opinion got aired with plenty of emotion and ferocity.

In the end, it wasn’t the loudest voices that took control of the situation, but the clearest minds. A huge number of people deserve credit for how the train was put back on the tracks with the minimum of fuss and with no fallout, but the two that stand out are current club chairman Michael McDonnell, and Tommy Dolan, whose presence is sorely missed since his death, even though his fingerprints will be all over the fantastic amenities that club members enjoy for generations to come.

It wasn’t just that visionary projects were able to continue, and were completed successfully – it was that there was no lingering effect within the club or the community, and when St Brigid’s needed South Roscommon to get behind their efforts, they made it happen.

This year too, there came a time in the season when internal issues within the senior set up threatened to lead to the loss of a some key figures, and all the public scrutiny and gossip that would have come with that.

Similar situations in many clubs would have resulted in walkouts and division. In St Brigid’s, maturity and the sense of common purpose prevailed, solutions were found, and there was no loss of momentum or continuity.

That needed to be case. If they had been at anything less than full speed in the county final, a very impressive Boyle side would have walked away with the silverware.

So we come to Sunday's All-Ireland final at Croke Park (3.30pm), and the main cause for optimism from a St Brigid’s perspective – which is that exactly the same mindset will be required to overcome a Glen side that on paper, appears to present insurmountable obstacles.

Against Castlehaven, St Brigid’s struggled to win primary possession and were over-run in the middle third for long stages of the second half. Only a string of poor misses from the Cork champions, most notably the one-on-one goal chance that Rory Maguire hammered on to the St Brigid’s crossbar, prevented them from falling into real trouble.

If there is a better midfield pairing in any club in Ireland than the Glen duo of Conor Glass and Emmet Bradley, it doesn’t come to mind. Both men are fantastic fielders, both are incredibly physical in the tackle and they get their defensive work done, and both can contribute on the scoreboard. Eddie Nolan and Shane Cunnane will have to be at their absolute best to ensure parity or anything close to it in this sector.

Behind them, Ciarán McFaul – centre-forward for his county – is a driving force at number six, which puts Paul McGrath under pressure to recapture the electric form that earned him the man of the match award in the county final. Yet again, this looks like a big ask for St Brigid’s to hold their own in this key match-up.

Defensively as a whole, St Brigid’s face an incredibly tough test on Sunday, the likes of which they haven’t met before.

There are defences that just flood bodies back incredibly quickly, and there are defences that have a couple of star men who can lock down any opponent. This is a different type of unit, one that works as a collective and has cut off the oxygen to almost every attacking threat they’ve faced.

Take away the Kilmacud Crokes game, where some scores (such as Shane Walsh’s late goal) were at least partly caused by the lack of visibility, and this is a group that hasn’t conceded more than 0-11 to any opponent all year.

Moreover, only Ciarán Thompson (Naomh Conaill, who scored 0-3) registered more than two scores from play against them in a single game. Paul Mannion, Walsh, Shane McGuigan and Jack McCarron are just some of the forwards that have tried and failed to break that barrier in big knockout games this year, so this doesn’t look like a fixture where Ben O’Carroll’s brilliance will be enough to carry St Brigid’s through.

There are several big reasons why it may look like a St Brigid’s win is unlikely this Sunday afternoon. Yet this is a club that has made a habit of meeting obstacles head on, and calmly, effectively, carrying on their journey forward with the minimum of fuss.

That, more than any other reason, means supporters will travel in hope to Dublin this coming weekend.