By John Harrington

Seven years ago today, Roscommon club St. Brigid’s defeated Ballymun Kickhams of Dublin in an epic AIB All-Ireland Club SFC Final.

As a match it had everything. Great scores, a heroic comeback, and a nail-biting finish.

For St. Brigid’s, their victory was a reward for years of hard-work and no little heart-break along the way.

They’d lost the 2011 All-Ireland Final as well as All-Ireland semi-finals in 2007 and 2012, so their 2013 success meant all the more because of those gutting defeats.

When Senan Kilbride looks back on it all now from the remove of seven years he can see all sorts of steps up the ladder that eventually enabled the team to scale the mountain.

But the appointment of Kevin McStay and Liam McHale for the 2012-2013 season was definitely one of the most important ones.

“The introduction of Kevin and Liam in 2013 was a big one for us,” Kilbride told GAA.ie

“They would have brought a level of clarity to everyone. They put a really good structure in place. They're obviously excellent coaches and they were also excellent man-managers and put in place very high standards for us.

“Definitely everyone knew what their job was from one to 30. If anyone came on it was seamless, really, because everyone understood the roles and what they had to do in their positions and for the team.

“It could have been small details like that that made the small difference for us in the end in 2013.”

St Brigid’s swept through Connacht that season, defeating Melvin Gaels, Salthill-Koncknacarra, and Ballaghaderreen on the way to claiming the provincial title.

That set them up for an All-Ireland semi-final clash with Crossmaglen Rangers, a team they knew all too well.

It was Crossmaglen who had defeated them in the 2011 All-Ireland Final as well as the 2007 All-Ireland semi-final, so this was the ultimate litmus test as far as St. Brigid’s were concerned.

The manner in which they finally slayed the Armagh dragon – courtesy of a late goal from substitute Conor McHugh – made the victory all the more satisfying.

“It was a very satisfying win, definitely,” says Kilbride. “We endured a bit of heartache against them and it was a match we had a bit of time to prepare for and we were really focused on it ever since the Connacht campaign that year. 

“Arriving up in Mullingar that day we were all very focused. I suppose we put in a really, really good shift. Everyone just really worked very, very hard and did their job. 

“There were players who were given specific roles to do who played superbly in the semi-final but who then didn't play a minute in the final, so we really went with a horses for courses approach the management had come up with for that match against Crossmaglen.

“And even at that, we were fairly lucky to get through it in the end because Crossmaglen had close enough to an open goal near the end of the match but Shane Curran just managed to put enough pressure on the player to take his eye off the goal a little bit and he hit it wide. 

“We knew we were very lucky to get through the game, as satisfying as it was to win.”

Ballymun Kickhams were always going to be formidable opponents in the All-Ireland Final.

They’d scalped some big names along the way including Kildare champions Sarsfields, Laois champions Portlaoise, and Kerry champions Dr. Crokes, and could call on Dublin stars like Dean Rock, Philly McMahon, and Dean Rock.

Kevin McStay had done his homework on the Dublin and Leinster champions, though, and confidence was high in the St. Brigid’s camp they had the better team and game-plan.

As Mike Tyson once famously said, though, everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth, and St. Brigid’s looked to be reeling against the ropes when they trailed by 2-3 to 0-1 after just ten minutes of the match.

“We had decided early on to test their full-back line and we had planned to just hit a few long balls in and see if we could get some bit of value out of that," says Kilbride.

“But they snuffed that out fairly handily and I think they got an outrageous lead of eight points. Luckily enough, we didn't panic. Everyone stayed fairly focused minute by minute and didn't look at the scoreboard.

“I felt anyway that if we got it back to four or five points at half-time we'd be still in with a good shout. We changed tactics, led by the likes of Karol Mannion and Ian (Kilbride) in midfield. We changed the way we played and started creating openings.

“Also the defence started to get a handle of their men as well and we started to snuff their attack out a bit and create a few chances ourselves up front.”

It was Kilbride himself who ignited the St. Brigid’s comeback with a badly needed goal mid-way through the first-half.

Had it not arrived when it did, then there was always the potential for heads to start dropping.

“Yeah, it came at a great time,” he says. “It cuts into that lead straight away. It was a super ball in from Karol Mannion and it was great work in the defence before that from the likes of Darren Dolan who played a great ball to Karol just before that.

“At the time when I hit it I was going for a certain corner but it went into the other corner. I was chatting to the Ballymun ‘keeper afterwards, he came out to me, and he goes, 'you were going for the other corner, weren't you?'

“And I said, 'I was!' I just got a nudge while I was kicking the ball that put me slightly off balance and, luckily enough, it went in at the end.”

In big matches like All-Ireland Finals a team needs its leaders to really set an example and Karol Mannion delivered in spades for St. Brigid’s.

It was his perfectly weighted pass that set up Kilbride’s goal, and he scored two spectacular points before half-time to give his team added momentum.

Then, early in the second-half, he improvised brilliantly by to level the match when scoring the Roscommon club’s second goal by fisting the ball to the net.

“Yeah, what a player, and a great leader as well,” says Kilbride. “He just comes up with the goods when you need it most. The points he got in the first half were ones I don't ever think I've seen the likes of in Croke Park. They were just absolute boomers from 50 yards out.

“He's always good to sneak in around the back of the defence and that worked out well in the second half. He just snuck in there and it was a moment of genius from him for the finish as well. It was just an instinctive handball type finish.

“When he got that we were close to level if not level and you would have gotten the feeling that we'll drive on from here. But, in fairness to Ballymun, they settled quickly after that and started creating chances and it was just so tense for the last 20 minutes or so.

“No team could find a score, the conditions deteriorated a bit, and it was just a dog-fight. Nobody seemed to be able to create chances or openings to get a bit of daylight between the teams.”

In the end it was fitting that Frankie Dolan should score the winning point for St. Brigid’s.

He’d won his first Roscommon title with St. Brigid’s in 1997 and had been the team’s guiding light through three decades.

A forward of rare skill and nerve, he displayed both qualities to shift onto his left-foot and kick the winner under considerable pressure in injury-time.

“The opportunity came thanks to some hard work from the likes of Niall Grehan and Gearoid Cuniffe who won the ball back for us because Ballymun were on the counter-attack as well,” recalls Kilbride.

“No better man to get the ball to than Frankie in any situation like that because he's just absolute deadly. Left or right, he could do anything.

“He is just one of the most skilful players you'll ever come across. As well as that he has this fierce determination and belief in himself as well.

“He just never stops, he never gives in. He's always willing to try things and give it a lash. He wouldn't have been afraid or doubting himself in any way when the ball came to him. He only had one thing in mind.

“He had put in years and years of practice kicking off both feet, so to be able to just turn onto his left like that in that moment and knock it over from 35 yards with the final kick of an All-Ireland Final, that was thanks to all that hard work he had done down through the years to have the belief and ability to do that.”

So, what does it feel like to be on the winning team when the final whistle blows in an All-Ireland Club Final?

How do you instinctively react? How do you process the enormity of the achievement?

“It's hard to describe,” says Kilbride. “Kevin had talked to us a few nights before the game and he had spoken about when the final whistle blows, try to think about that person who has been with you through all of it.

“We've all grown up together and we're a very tight-knit group, but when the final whistle went the one person I wanted to find was my brother (Ian).

“We had played together for so many years and as family had gone through everything together and knew each other inside-out. I suppose once I saw him and we embraced, it was very, very emotional.

“I met Dad then in the dressing-room after the match. He obviously taught myself and Ian most of what we knew about football, so that was a very, very emotional moment for everyone as well.

“Then, obviously, getting back home and crossing the Shannon in Athlone, I got to meet my mother for the first time and that was a great moment too.”

The victorious St. Brigid’s players were welcomed back to Athlone that evening by throngs of joyous St. Brigid’s supporters.

When a club wins an All-Ireland title everyone associated with it feels a part of the success in a very real way and that’s because they are. A club is only as strong as the community that supports it.

“That's the beauty of it, really,” says Kilbride. “You obviously have the players who are on the field and people might talk about them the most. But without everyone working together you're not going to achieve that success.

“You have people after every single training session that making sandwiches and meals for the players. People organising the pitches, all the people in the background of the squad itself.

“The physios, the kit-men, the executive who are doing everything they can to raise funds for the team throughout the year and every year, non-stop.

“There are so many people included and it's great when you met them all afterwards in Athlone or the GAA club for the homecoming and showed your appreciation for all they had done and the work they did behind the scenes without getting any headlines.

“It's hugely important for any team to have success to have people who are willing to give those hours and willing to do the little things without getting all that praise.

“We lost a great club-man in the last week or two, Jimmy Mannion, who would have been one of the founding fathers of the club back in the 1980s and set the standard for the rest of us when we started to play football.

“Brigid's wouldn't have been a big club but we had a few men and women with big ideas. Jimmy Mannion was one of them and it was thanks to the likes of him that we were given the platform to progress.

“It was through the structures put in the club and the coaching that he and others did that gave us the opportunity to go and succeed and achieve what we achieved.

“In the last week or so it's been a tough time for the club losing another person from the club like that who was so universally admired and loved and respected.

“It was thanks to people like Jimmy that we were able to experience winning that All-Ireland in 2013.”