Mattock determined to write own script

Mark Gallagher looks at how Reilly put the boys from Collon firmly on the map

THEY are only a typo away from being a group of octogenarian lawyers who spend 45 badly-acted minutes each week cross-examining hapless youths to the delight of pensioners everywhere. Now, that would really cause a stir in the Leinster club championship. The Matlock Rangers, by day, beating teams like Moorefield. By night, putting young people in their place-behind bars.

The name’s Mattock though, not Matlock. And despite a club championship that could have used old Ben’s sly courtroom tricks and theatrical methods of defence (particularly in Leinster), it takes a fanciful flight of grey matter to imagine Grandpa Simpson and his cronies from Springfield nursing home in Navan tomorrow, wheezing at the top of their lungs, “Maatttock! Maaattock!”

The story of Mattock Rangers doesn’t need the fine wine qualities of Andy Griffith in a starring role. And their season has all the unpredictability and sense of drama that Matlock, throughout its 178 episodes, sadly lacked.

Not that the tale isn’t familiar at this time of year. A small club (aren’t they all!) from a small parish (aren’t they all!) on the verge of a Leinster final, Mattock’s story has more substance than most. Firstly they are from Collon, a spot on the road between Ardee and Slane. They have also built on their first county championship to be the first Louth team since Cooley Kickhams in 1976 to record back-to-back wins outside the Wee county. Tomorrow, they are aiming to be the first Louth side since that Cooley team to contest a Leinster final.

Moorefield, from more established footballing ground, stand in their way, but if the Kildare champions are thinking of under-estimating Mattock, they only need to take a short spin to Tullamore. They will be told there of Mattock’s hunger and drive, of their relentless belief and not a small dollop of talent.

“It’s a bit of a surprise, alright, coming this far,” team manager Brendan Reilly says in a laconic drawl that could only come from the Louth/Meath border. “The big thing was winning the county, because there was serious pressure on the team to win the championship. Everyone had us as favourites to win the thing before it started, and the club never won the championship before. That put the lads under serious pressure.”

The ‘favourites’ tag came from an impressive campaign in 2001, right up until the final when they were beaten out the gate. That dismal display was a chief motivating tool for Reilly this year. “The lads knew they let themselves down last year. But, that was a team in the county final with a few minors and a half dozen under-21s. Their drawing on that experience.”

So, after they dispensed with St Brides in the Louth final, everything else was a bonus. Fortunate enough to escape with a draw against Wexford champs Starlights in Ardee, they hammered them in Enniscorthy in the replay. And Tullamore were trounced.

In his third year in the job, Reilly finds himself pinching himself turning up for training on these wintry nights. “We started back in January, and there was nothing like the attendance at training. Like, usually, when there’s the bit of rain, you have to be ringing fellas to get them to train, and you’d hear excuses of a flu or a bad back or a sore leg. Now, they are all ready to go before I even arrive. It’s great.”

Navan tomorrow will be full of the drawling cheer of Collon. That the village will be deserted is a given, the club, named for its pitch lying on the banks of the River Mattock and not a telly lawyer with a 99.9% success rate, celebrated its golden jubilee with a dinner-dance in Drogheda recently and 400 people turned up, over half the population of the village. “The whole place is buzzing like I have never seen,” says club chairman Peter Murphy, for whom this weekend is a double celebration, as he brought his daughter up the aisle yesterday.

At the recent club dinner, goalkeeper Micheal Englishby’s services were rewarded with the senior player of the year award. Englishby’s steady performance in goals haven’t gone unnoticed.

At 36, he is twice the age of some of the players and remembers a time, not that long ago, when Mattock Rangers were struggling to get out of intermediate competition. “The timing has been right, this year. We have the right blend of youth and experience. We don’t know that much about Moorefield, but they must be strong to be Kildare champions. At this time of the year, though, anything could happen.

“Once we came out of Louth, because we had been waiting to win the county championship for so long, we said to ourselves, we would just have one major crack at it. Last year, we didn’t deliver on our potential. But, I knew this team had the right blend to win a county,” Englishby, called cubbie by his team-mates, said.

And they are putting Louth football, barely threading water in the doldrums, on the map. It’s been five years since a Louth club reached the penultimate stage of the Leinster championship, 26 years since they reached the final. A small club from Collon may be about to redress history.

“Well, if you look at clubs like Cooley, Clan na Gael and the Blues, who have all Drogheda to pick from, they could never make a dent on the province,” Reilly says. “But, here we are, from a small village and we did more than they ever did in the club championship. I think country clubs can do better at this stage, because they are close-knit, they are all neighbours. It’s not like a big-town club.”

Tomorrow is the rural club against the big town. Mattock Rangers had another chance to prove Reilly’s theory correct. Then, its the Leinster final and dream-time. That would be a plot-line so unbelievable that it would make the hackneyed hacks who scripted Matlock blush.