UCD Marian going for Cup glory: ‘It was like a movie. You couldn’t write it’

Sporting rivalries don’t always crackle and fizz.

Manchester United and Liverpool have served up more than their fair share of duds between them in recent years and Munster’s defeat of Leinster at Thomond Park over Christmas was their first truly venomous get-together for a long, long time.

UCD Marian and Pyrobel Killester don’t seem to do drab. Not when it comes to finals anyway. The Dublin giants meet in the Men’s Hula Hoops National Cup final in Tallaght this evening and previous chapters have ensured that everyone is eager to turn the next page.

This all started in 2011. Killester were the undisputed big dogs in the men’s yard back then. They would claim a second successive league title later that year and few were biting on UCD’s chances in January as they faced a side making a fourth cup final appearance in as many attempts.

By the third quarter, everything was on script.

Killester were 14 points up before the worm turned but the deficit was down to seven come the start of the fourth and one of the most dramatic finals in Irish history ended with UCD hitting a three-pointer and Killester missing a redemption shot on the buzzer.

“It really speaks to the fact that the cup is a different beast,” says Cathal Finn who played for UCD then and will again tonight.

Every single game is a one-off. In the league, the way it is, anyone can beat anyone else on a one-off day if you hit your stride. People still talk about it to us.

“That was such a crazy thing in that we probably won about four games all year and we managed to get a run going in the Cup.

“It’s great now that the club has got to a stage where we are looking at getting to a Cup final every year. It’s come a long way from those days.

“That Killester team was coming off years and years of dominance coming into that game. They had serious, serious players with serious résumés. Our American (James Crowder) pulled it off on the day and everybody else had great performances.”

Matt Kelly, like Finn, Neil Bayles and Conor Meaney, provides a link between the UCD Marian ranks then and now – as does assistant coach this weekend Conor James - and he remembers how there was no sense of panic among the ranks when Killester pushed the lead out to double digits.

UCD had worked with Enda McNulty on their mental preparation prior to that decider and coach Fran Ryan doubled down by preaching a step-by-step recovery guide on the day. Get the lead down to seven by the fourth, to five with five to go.

And on and on...

That’s exactly what happened and the reward was a first major trophy for the club in 40 years and scenes of raw emotion.

“It was just one of those things,” says Kelly. “It was like a movie. You couldn’t write it.”

It went into the annals as an instant classic. Seven years later and the sides were at it again.

It shouldn’t have come to a winner-takes-all play-off for the Super League title. UCD Marian had backed themselves into that corner by losing a couple of games they ought to have won at the back end of regulation so they couldn’t countenance losing the title from there.

And not to Killester.

This wasn’t 2011. They were no rank underdogs this time and neither side would construct a lead anything like as daunting as their Cup final classic. But the ending was laced with the same madness, starting with Ciaran Roe’s three-pointer to tie it for Killester with 12.1 seconds to go.

Mike Garrow reclaimed the lead for UCD by drawing a foul and landing the first of his free throws but his miss with the second left both sides poised agonisingly between elation and despair until the clock finally ran out on their city neighbours.

The final score: 72-71.

“It was an insane atmosphere and a great game as well,” said Kelly. “It went right down to the wire and not entirely dissimilar to the Cup final in 2011. I just remember the elation, you don’t know where you are running, you just grab the first fella you see. There’s no better feeling.”

It hasn’t all been sweetness and light on the big days. Is it ever?

Finn reckons he went one-for-six in national underage cup finals with his school Calasanctius College, Oranmore. He and Kelly have a few U20 sob stories to tell too, while UCD Marian have been second best in The Big One in 2015 and again last year.

The 2018 defeat, to Templeogue, was particularly galling. Trailing 65-62 with time wearing thin, UCD Marian were in the throes of an attack when coach Ioannis Liapakis was whistled for encroaching on to the court to pass on instructions and called for a technical foul. Templeogue claimed the free throws and saw out the last moments.

It was the ending that, understandably, dominated the discourse in the aftermath 12 months ago but it is telling that Kelly doesn’t even mention the controversy, or any aspect of that fourth quarter, when recalling the events now.

It’s not something you forget,” he says of the loss. “We would pride ourselves on being a veteran team. A lot of us have been around, there is a huge amount of experience. Guys have played in a lot of cup finals and won leagues and played at international level.

“We came out flat in the first quarter, put in a poor performance. We were probably a little bit nervous and played the occasion rather than the game.

“There’s definitely unfinished business there for us and we’re not getting any younger.”

Finn shares those sentiments.

The majority of Liapakis’ side this evening are in their thirties now. Freezing under the bright lights of the National Basketball Arena and in front of the TV cameras is a prospect that sits far beyond the pale for these guys at this point.

“You are hitting your stride at this stage,” says Finn who has been struck by the surge in professionalism since arriving back from a five-year stint back west with Maree in the summer, “and you want to start putting some trophies away with that experience behind you.”