By John Harrington

It says a lot about the standards in St. Brigid’s GAA club that it was deemed unacceptable in 2015 when they failed to win the Roscommon senior football championship for the first time in six years.

In the previous five years they’d also won three Connacht titles and one All-Ireland title, but the failure to win last year’s county championship nevertheless set alarm bells ringing in the club.

According to club stalwart and former Roscommon star, Karol Mannion, the problem was that the inner drive of too many players was dulled by their 2013 All-Ireland Championship success.

“I saw some people in the panel saw that this was the top of the mountain, this was what I had played for the last 10 years, or whatever amount of years we were contesting Connacht,” says Mannion.

“We have lost players since then, people have gone travelling or drifted away. The core lads that have driven this team for so long have always been ambitious and wanted to win. Winning the All-Ireland was obviously fantastic, but a lot of them still wanted to keep winning and play at this level.

“With people drifting away and some people not having the same drive, we had tailed off in the years after. Losing to Castlebar the year after was a tough one, and then Ballintubber beat us quite easily the next year and losing in Roscommon last year was another sign of our decline.”

The powers that be in the club decided things needed shaking up if St. Brigid’s were to bounce back this year, so they made the decision to appoint Frankie Dolan as player-manager of the team.

One of the most gifted footballers of his generation, Dolan has fire as well as flair, and he quickly set about reigniting the team’s appetite for success.

“In fairness to Frankie, this year since he has come in as manager, he’s possibly seen all that (the team’s decline) and realised that for a team to come back and replenish itself with more energy, that we had to change it up a bit,” says Mannion.

“Frankie made some decisions during the year with certain players, put heat on a lot of the older lads that we can’t keep going the way we’re going, or we’re not even going to get out of Roscommon anymore.

“He brought in some younger lads who have proven that they are good enough to start in the team. There’s two lads in the half-forward line, Conor Murray and Brian Stack, who are good enough to start. Some of the senior lads who have started All-Ireland have lost their place.

“That kind of move by Frankie has been well received in one way because players with ambition who want to win understand if they lose their place to a better younger lad.

“I know one lad especially, Niall Grehan, who was the man that intercepted the ball for Frankie’s winner in the All-Ireland, lost his place this year, but Niall is such a good clubman...He is happy as anyone to see them [younger players/> come into the team.

“Unfortunately he has lost his position, but thankfully there is that maturity and honesty in Brigid’s that young fellas can come in and demote some of the older lads. I think that’s why we have come back strong this year to contest a Connacht Final.”

Dolan has been an unqualified success so far as manager, but Mannion admits today’s AIB Connacht Club SFC Final against a crack Corofin outfit will represent a major step up for the St. Brigid’s team boss.

“I think it’s been a learning exercise for him. I definitely know that through the year he has adopted to it.

“He hasn’t been a closed shop, in that he has his way of managing and he sticks to it. He has been very good to speak to the older guys in the team and to take some lead from us. You can see that our performances have improved toward the end of the year as well.

“I think he has done very well so far and he will continue to improve, but it is a learning exercise for him.

“He can lose the rag the odd time, no more than when he was playing. Frankie was a bit of a character, but the next game is going to be a test for us players, a test for management as well and Frankie will have to show that he has it for the side-line as well because he will have to make some tough decisions the next day when the game is in the melting pot for Brigid’s to push over the line.”

St. Brigid’s have twice previously defeated Corofin in provincial deciders – in 2011 and 2006.

Despite having the whip hand over them in the past, they’ll go into this match as underdogs in most people’s eyes. Mannion believes that’s fair enough.

“I suppose you can’t really say the All-Ireland winning team of 2013 with St Brigid's will be playing Sunday. From what the team might line up as, you might only have seven starting.

“From the last day we played Corofin we might have only have had eight starting. It is a different team when you talk about getting to this level.

“Possibly within Roscommon people will see it as the same team, but outside we still are a relatively new team. Our success at All-Ireland level was a lot further back than Corofin.

“Corofin, now, have had a year off and generally speaking in the first couple of years after you win the All-Ireland, the momentum and the bunch of players sticking together will be enough to get you back to that level.

“We’re not back at that level yet, while Corofin are. That’s why we’re not as fancied, I can see why. We have to prove the next day that we’re at that level.”