GAA: WHEN WE WERE KINGS - DUNGIVEN'S CLASS OF 1997

Just over 20 years ago Dungiven reached the summit of Ulster Club football, beating Errigal Ciaran in the decider at Clones. At the launch of the club’s new book ‘Dungiven – In Black and White’  Michael McMullan sat down with manager Eugene Kelly and some of the stars of 97… **** IT’S a Friday night in Dungiven Social Club.  Minutes after the launch of the club’s impressive new book, some of the stars of their most successful team are perched around a table.  It’s a chance to reminisce. It is 20 years on, but you can almost feel the atmosphere like it was yesterday.  The banter is bouncing from corner to corner.  If you closed your eyes, you would almost think it as 1997. Eugene Kelly was player manager in the club’s most decorated season.  Across the table from him is captain Emmett McKeever, who manages the current team with Paul Murphy.  Paul's older brother Ryan is in the circle too. At one side is Cathal Grieve, who received 11 stitches in a facial injury that day in Clones, is present.  His memory for detail is obvious – like a man who remembers every kick of his football career. The five different personalities are soon joined by a sixth, Joe Brolly, who dishes out and takes the flack in equal measure. Michael McMullan: Well, I suppose the best place to start is with Eugene.  Thinking back 20 years, what is the memory that immediately comes to mind? Eugene Kelly: I’d say the homecoming.  I just thought the couple of days after it, I remember that more than the build-up.  The game itself, outside of the group, there mightn’t have been great faith or expectation that we were going to win it.  But we thought we were going to win it and we were in good enough shape for it. The enjoyable thing obviously was the 10 or 15 minutes after the match.  The homecoming, I thought was brilliant.  You wouldn’t have realised how many people in Dungiven were behind you until that day and the days after it. There was a woman sitting here tonight in a wheelchair - Eileen Mullan.  She called me down to her house on the Tuesday (after beating Errigal Ciaran) and read out a poem she had wrote about it.    She has a house of maybe ten sons.  They were all very talented and played underage on the teams I played on.  She was a big football person and a big Dungiven person. M McM: Were you billed as underdogs, because Errigal Ciaran had beaten Crossmaglen? Emmet McKeever: With them beating Cross, they were huge favourites going into the game.  That’s what they thought but our group of players and management were chomping at the bit.  Our team was full of players who had played for Derry minors and seniors.  We had a huge squad that played great football.  We had no fear at that time of going into face Errigal Ciaran. Paul Murphy: For me, you had the rivalry there - especially with the county players.  You had the two Canavans, Eoin Gormley, the two McKeevers, Brian McGilligan and Joe Brolly.  The thing was well matched.  Maybe out around the periphery of the team, people didn’t realise Dungiven had as strong a team as we did back them and we came to the fore that day. E McK: The young boys at 18 years of age.  This man (Paul Murphy), Wada (Cathal Grieve), Eugene Lynch and Seoirse (McGonigle) – we had four of five boys in their 20s. M McM: Where would you have taken your confidence from? Was it the experienced core or the appearance of youth? EK:  I would’ve thought that was it but we didn’t dwell on it.  A lot of it, in fairness, happened to fall into place.  We wouldn’t have been known as a team that would have gelled as a football team.  Derry footballers had been beaten, Derry hurlers had been beaten, the club hurlers had been beat and the next thing we had everybody to ourselves.  We had a few injuries early on and we had to bring these boys (Cathal Grieve and Paul Murphy) in and they walked straight into it – they weren’t overawed by it. M McM: Paul and Cathal, what was it like for you younger boys coming into the team. PM: Derry winning the All-Ireland in 1993, there were three men on the team and Eugene was involved.  There was a lot of big players around the club at that time.  Personally, and I’d say Cathal was the same, you idolised to be like them.  That was my goal.  Then you had my brother Ryan who had success with Derry minors, Emmett and Geoffrey McGonigle.  At that time there was a lot of success about and you were striving to get there. Cathal Grieve: My thought from it was – in 1996, Bellaghy beat us in the county final.  Francis Dillon, John A Mullan and big Brian (McGilligan) were going to pack it in.  Everybody thought we were finished.  Then Eugene (Kelly) came in and got everyone flying fit at the start of the year.  It was a matter of getting everybody in shape to keep up with the county men. As far as the Ulster Final goes, we had Kieran (McKeever) for Peter Canavan and Beefy (Emmett McKeever) for Eoin Gormley – that’s why I knew we were going to win.  We had the scoring power as well. M McM: I suppose, that was the leadership the younger boys looked up to. PM: Would you believe it, even at that time Dungiven had as many county players, we suffered as a club.  Trying to get ourselves together, whenever you are missing those leaders all the time.  You mightn’t have seen them until championship time – that’s why it was hard to get the thing pulled together. CG: Aye and Derry were busy at that time. EK: To elaborate on that, when Paul’s father was managing in the early 1990s - at the opening of Celtic Park, we had seven of the starting senior team and seven of the starting minor team.  And we couldn’t win our own championship.  That was 14 men involved in county football and you would have four five men playing county hurling. PM: I think at that time, the county player – you never seen him until the championship.  Things have changed. E McK: It was up to you to get to the shape the county player was in. PM: Now more is given to the club, with the competitiveness of the club scene in Derry is unbelievable and it was back then, but we suffered because of it. M McM: Despite winning Ulster 1997, if you look back to the start of the Derry campaign, there were a couple of tough battles with Glenullin out at Drumsurn. EK: We didn’t have our players at the start (with county duty) and it sort of grew momentum after that. PM: Yes, and there is a general feeling that that team should have won more.  When you look back at it. E McK: We missed an All-Ireland. PM: We are still glad to have it (Ulster) but there is a regret we didn’t go any further. Ryan Murphy: I think the Lavey rivalry was a big thing in that championship (1997) as well.  I think if we had met Bellaghy or somebody at that stage it would’ve been different.   We lifted ourselves for Lavey. CG: Lavey done us a favour putting Bellaghy out in the first round. M McM: After having to dig out a result against Glenullin and beating your biggest rivals, is there a lull almost? EK: We knew whenever we beat Lavey, we were going to be county champions, unless we collapsed. E McK: Going into the Castledawson game (final), you weren’t saying it, but you knew you were going to beat them. M McM: Would there have been an element of pressure in the background to that game?  From being favourites or from losing to Bellaghy in the previous year. EK: I don’t think we even talked about the year before.  I was in as manager and I had no tie to 1996.  Paul (Murphy) and Cathal (Grieve) weren’t established players the year before. Then because we had men retired, The Bee (Pauric McCloskey), Skinny (Stephen O’Kane), Gareth (Murphy) and a few boys came in…so it was a different setup. M McM: That’s that blend of youth Emmett was talking about… CG: Dungiven won the Ulster minor in 1990 and there was a lull for a while.  We were competing, but you had Ballinderry and Loup coming strong and Bellaghy.  We were always behind them, we weren’t that bad a team, we just weren’t winning anything.  So it was that mix of youth and experience that come at the right time. M McM: Cathal spoke about men pondering retirement.  Brian Kealey stayed on too and came on as a sub in the Ulster games... E McK: Kealey had some part to play, I thought.  When he came off the bench he was superb.  Every ball he got, he gave a 50 yard pass – he was superb at it. CG: He was the secret weapon. EK: That was something else we had - we had a strong bench.  You had the likes of Barry Kelly and Raymond Tracey.  We had 21 or 22 men.  There were four of five young boys and boys who had played a lot of football. CG: We lost Lynch (Eugene), he went to Australia.  Barry (Kelly) went to America…they only came back when won the championship. M McM: Cathal spoke about the hurt of 1996 and losing to Bellaghy.  Dungiven obviously celebrated winning Derry in 1997.  When does the thoughts of Ulster come around? EK: We were very lucky in that we got a handy draw – we got Newtownbutler. E McK: We beat them 0-16 to 0-5 - we beat them easy. EK: Then you are into the last four and we got St Paul’s (Antrim) in Clones.  St Paul’s gave us a better game than Errigal did.  They had the Kennedys, Paul McErlean, Anto Finnegan and a good sprinkling of Antrim players. RM: I remember Eoin’s save that day. CG: Aye it was in the last 10 minutes – it was full-length.  He pulled off a few brilliant saves through the campaign. EK: He wasn’t our goalkeeper in 1996, it was Gregory McGonigle.   He was carried off and Eoin came on for him.  He (Eoin) had visions of playing out the field.  But there were no short kick-outs back them.  He could just drive them out and we had Cathal (Grieve) and Paul (Murphy) standing at wing-half forward who could win the ball.  What people didn’t realise, outside of Brian McGilligan, we hadn’t another man of six foot on our team. M McM: Is that were Brian Kealey came in when he came on? EK: Not really. E McK: Eugene, your own game of coming in around and winning breaking ball.  That made a big difference. EK: Eoin McCloskey was taking a lot of the pressure off us.  The only time our midfielder had to contest the ball was on the opposition’s kick-outs. E McK: Roaney Harry (McCloskey) had some game on Pascal Canavan in the final – he completely marked him out of the game.  He done the job he was sent out to do. PM: Aye, Pascal Canavan was some player at that time. E McK: I remember him going down the line along the stand side, hand-toeing the ball and McGilligan stopped him up – it was the best tackle I ever saw. PM: Aye, Big Brian was just trying to slow him up. EK: Nobody realised the pace of Brian McGilligan.  I remember, it was 1991 or 1992, and Derry was training up at the Mary Peters track.  There was 36 at training and there were sprints. Moran (Mickey) put them into six groups of six and every winner went through to the final.  It was up a hill for 60 metres.  Out of the six in the final, there was Joe (Brolly), McGilligan and Damien Heavern and Kieran (McKeever)…and McGilligan won the 60 metre sprint. Joe Brolly: We did a thing out on the field one night - Dinny McKeever took the training.  We were doing a sprint off - over 21 metres.  It was a mucky enough auld night and boys were getting dropped out every time.  I was like a scalded cat.  I was naturally, unbelievably fast and it ended up with me and McGilligan in the 21 metre sprint.  I couldn’t beat him.  He is so powerful. EK: And his knees never came up, he was never really taught how to run. JB: He hit Gerry McEntee in the 1987 All-Ireland Semi-Final.  McEntee was an unbelievable man, was very hard and it wouldn’t occur to him that anything was too difficult to do.  McGilligan just emptied him and McEntee went down, got up, rubbed himself and just got back on with the game.  Three or four days later…I said to McGilligan ‘I couldn’t believe that man got up’.  McGilligan, said ‘Brolly it was like running into a five bar gate.’ M McM: Joe, looking at winning Ulster, what was your standout moment? JB: Eoin Gormley, he was a big guy, he was about 6’ 3” and he was two-footed.  I remember watching him and thought ‘this guy is unbelievable’ he had destroyed Crossmaglen.  It would be fair to say that Emmett absolutely destroyed Gormley (in final).  Here was this big guy towering over Emmett and I was thinking to myself ‘this crater doesn’t know what is about to happen him here’. EK: Nobody should put wind into Brolly’s sail, but I am going to now. Leading into the match, I had Emmett marking Canavan (Peter) and Kieran marking Gormley.  At the time I thought it was the right move.  Then I remember Brolly saying ‘are you wise, Kieran McKeever has a mental thing over Gormley’. JB: Emmett was made for Gormley – because Gormley was shy.  Emmett is a force of nature.  The advantage he has over Gormley is his courage and his unbreakable spirit.  That’s not enough against Canavan.  Kieran, in my view, is the greatest player Dungiven has ever produced. M McM: Was that the advantage you had, having a man who could mark anybody? JB: The big advantage was that we always played good football – ambitious football.  The greatest disappointment of the last 10 years is to see that Dungiven have not produced footballers.  We had a great team and we should have won the All-Ireland.  We lost by two points, we had a man sent off after two or three minutes.  They double marked me and I had never seen that before. M McM: Was that the first time you would have experienced a sweeper. JB: Nobody had ever seen it.  It was Sylvester Maguire, from Donegal, their assistant coach who suggested it.  The extra man dropped back in front of me and in very bad conditions we lost by two points.  They (Corofin) walked the final.  I just kept thinking ‘oh my God’.  Erin’s Isle were a poor team. EK: But they had four county men.  The two Barrs (Keith and Johnny), Charlie Redmond and Mickey Deegan. CG: Corofin were a good all round team. EK: If I knew then what I know now, from we won Ulster until we played Corofin – we needed a Henry Downey, a Joe Kernan or somebody.  I felt within the whole club – not just the players, or me as manager or the committee.  I just thought we were a bit naïve when I look back on it. E McK: Another thing was Ballyshannon – it was a tight pitch.  I still believe if we had a bigger pitch. CG: If it was Clones we’d have beat them.  It was a joke of a venue.  It was a small pitch worse than Slaughtneil (smaller) but it was a bog.  We needed to go down and play a match in it.  We knew Corofin had went down and played Donegal seniors two weeks before match. M McM: Lads, thanks very much for the chat.  It has been great. E McK: No bother. PM (as he laughs): You got far more than you bargained for.