Daniel wants to be a winner like his dad Charlie

YOU know the surname and its association with high-calibre goalkeeping during Kerry’s golden years.

Charlie Nelligan was a minor when, in 1975, Kerry won the first of eight All-Irelands in an 11-year period, and he was involved in the next seven winning teams. During the same period, he won AIB Munster Club medals in consecutive seasons with Castleisland Desmonds and picked up an All-Ireland medal the first year.

Now his son Daniel is poised to win a Leinster Club medal - also as a goalkeeper - when he lines out with Kilmacud Crokes in tomorrow’s final against Sarsfields in Navan (2.00pm).

He already holds a Munster medal, won as substitute six years ago with UCC. The day of the Cork county final victory, he recalls sitting on the bench alongside Eoin Brosnan (whose father Niall won a medal in 1973, in the company of Moss Keane and a collection of other Kerry natives), while Paul Galvin and Eamonn Fitzmaurice made significant contributions on the field.

While the contestants will be driven by the ambition to play in Croke Park on St Patrick’s Day, Nelligan spends his every working day in the stadium, as the GAA’s Ticketing Administrator.

His move to the capital came in 1999, but it was only early last year that he broke the link with Desmonds. And, like so many players who come from the provinces to work in Dublin, it was the result of finding the regular commuting too much to handle.

“I would have started off when I was five or six, like everybody else in Castleisland and by the nine I was playing U-10, I was stuck in goals,” he recalled.

“And, I have been there ever since. I don’t think I ever ventured outside the big square!”

He was in his early teens when he first played with the Desmonds seniors. Two years earlier his father had vacated the position and Mike Courtney held the spot until Daniel stepped into the breach. In sharp contrast to the break he has had with Kilmacud (winning a championship medal in his first season, and another this year), he had little enough success at home in terms of honours.

Indeed in his last year with Castleisland, he had the ‘dubious honour’ of captaining them when they went from senior to intermediate for the first time in the club’s history.

Back in 1995, Kilmacud won the All-Ireland club title under the managership of Tommy Lyons. Since then, the best they achieved was to get to a Leinster club semi-final in 1998, when they lost after a replay to Éire Óg, Carlow.

Again, that was as far as they got last year (after having beaten Ballyboden-St Enda’s in the county final). They lost in Dr Cullen Park to a highly-motivated Portlaoise side which took inspiration on the day from the excellence of Colm Parkinson and Ian Fitzgerald in the second half.

“We didn’t do ourselves justice in that game,’ says Nelligan. “We were missing Darren Magee, who went to Australia earlier in the week, as well as Mark Davoren, who had been the man-of-the-match in the county final.We got a bit of a run on them early on and went a few points clear but they came back strongly. They added on a few more points in the second half and that was the end of it for us. I remember the feeling of disappointment leaving the field. The bus journey home was very long.”

Ray Cosgrove, an accomplished forward best remembered for his miss in the 2003 All-Ireland semi-final against Armagh, provides a link with the 1998 team which competed in Leinster. Johnny Magee and Mick O’Keeffe were also involved, along with current captain Ciaran Kelleher, son of Robbie Kelleher.

With Fermanagh player Liam McBarron also in the side, Kilmacud were impressive in their win over Offaly champions Rhode last Sunday, when Cosgrove and Davoren both contributed goals. Dublin defender Paul Griffin was an absentee (holidays), but will be back in action.

The teams know each other fairly well, Nelligan points out, having met twice in challenge games earlier in the season.

“They have their big names, too. Dermot Earley and Alan Barry are very strong at midfield, they have Stuart McKenzie Smith and Padraic Brennan in the forward line and a number of players with Kildare experience. All round, they are a strong outfit. It should be a cracking game.”