Column: At the End of the Day
Drumconrath’s Premier triumph has a lasting message for all of us
They travelled in big numbers. From Drumconrath to Navan. Their red and white flags waving, their hopes high that this would be their day. They were the supporters of the Drumconrath football team who made their way to Pairc Tailteann for the Premier FC Div 3 final the other week. There, their team defeated Dunderry - and in that reality there is a profound lesson for all of us.
To some clubs a Premier FC Div 3 decider might not seem such a big deal. To Drumconrath it was huge, major stuff.
After all, they are one of the few first teams competing for honours at Premier level; a fact that tells its own story. The club has endured more than it's share of bad days.
They couldn't buy a victory for years - four years a clubman told me. They did well to even field a team at times; to even keep the club alive, certainly as a separate, independent identity. Those who ensured they did just that deserve praise, they have done their parish some service.
Then there was the beguiling fact that it was 25 years since the club had last claimed a championship title. Back in 1996 they made it to a JFC showdown. There they faced Meath Hill. This was real rivalry. Two parish teams taking on each other in a county decider, the very essence of the GAA.
"The meaning of parish rivalry will never be more evident than at Pairc Tailteann next Sunday ......when Drumconrath and Meath Hill meet in the JFC final," wrote then Meath Chronicle journalist Paul Clarke in his preview of the game which was not played until November of '96 because Meath had reached the All-Ireland final that year.
As it turned out Drumconrath won 1-10 to 0-10 with Seamus Hickey earning a certain level of immortality in the locality when he scored the only goal of the game. How the celebrations must have gone on ... and on.
Drumconrath pushed on and got better, making it to an IFC final 15 years ago when they lost out by a single point to Rathkenny, 2-6 to 1-10. It might have been expected that Drumconrath would continue to be a force at that level. It didn't turn out like that. They slipped back ....and back. Always operating on limited resources in terms of playing personnel, they kept sinking. They endured that long famine without even the morsal of an occasional victory to sustain them. Imagine what a losing streak like that can do to morale. They were bleak, barren years. Dark days.
Yet there were those in the club who kept believing. Players turned up for the games; people maintained the grounds. Others went about the unsavoury yet essential business of collecting funds. Sustaining the club. There are always expenses to be met, the electricity bill for the clubhouse, a new set of those reds jerseys, a batch of footballs. Like the rest of us clubs have to pay their way too; expenses are always there.
Then the Co Board took the decision to ensure clubs, mostly second teams, have plenty of football by setting up the Premier FCs. It has proved an inspired move. The Premier concept is a success - and Drumconrath have proved adept at making most of the opportunity presented. They halted the slide, won a few games and, under joint-managers Raymond Clarke and Brian Roe, reached the Premier FC Div 3 final.
It turned out to be truly cracking contest too, full of drama and ending in victory for Drumconrath 6-5 on penalties. The Premier FC Div 3 final might not be high in the grand scheme of things yet the delight on the faces of those Drumconrath supporters as they left Paric Tailteann - car horns blaring - indicated just how meant to them. This was major.
Drumconrath's victory was a triumph for persistence; a sweet victory for those people within the club who believed that someday, somehow the bad days would end; that the dark night would give way to a new dawn.
In that there is a hopeful message for all of us.
GOUGH AND COLDRICK SINGING FROM THE SAME REFEREES' HYMN SHEET
A few years ago I was talking to a young woman who works in the hospitality sector in the Aviva Stadium. She served food and drinks to people and she told the tale of how she "loves" working on those days when there is a big rugby game at the stadium.
The reason for that is the people who frequent those games are normally "so polite." They don't get nasty when they have too much drink on them. The soccer internationals are different, she said. Often at these games people are not so pleasant especially when the old drink is flowing.
What is is about the soccer fraternity that it seems to harbour people who love to have a go at others, whether that is hospitality workers or referees? I was reminded of that question when I read of the comments of Slane referee David Gough last week. He was forceful in refuting the claim by Fine Gael TD Alan Dillon that soccer was "no different" to the GAA in that referees regularly came in for a barrage of abuse.
Gough instead insisted that in his experience at least the amount of nasty comments directed towards him has been minimal.
"That's not to say it doesn't happen, but it would be quite small in relation to what is being reported within the FAI," he said.
That viewpoint was echoed by another Meath referee who was interviewed by Meath Chronicle earlier this year.
Blackhall Gaels' David Coldrick, who is one of the GAA's highest-ranking officials, is a big Manchester United fan. He follows soccer closely, and has done for years, yet he wouldn't want to be a referee in that sport.
"No matter what sport you are looking at you tend to hone in on the referee, not just his performance, but how players respond, that whole respect thing, and in soccer there's not that much respect shown," he told me in the interview.
We have to be grateful to those officials who do continue to take charge of games in the so called beautiful game - especially at grassroots level. Grateful while also wondering how they put up with it all.