Harbinson: lessons of the past inspired us

ST GALL’S players have incurred their share of painful losses, but manager Lenny Harbinson believes the lessons learnt from those setbacks were central to their success in yesterday’s All-Ireland Club SFC decider.

Four years ago the club came up short in the senior football final and last month they succumbed to Kilkenny side St Lachtain’s in the All-Ireland Club IHC decider.

Several of the St Gall’s squad had tasted defeat with Antrim last season in the NFL Division 3 final and the Ulster championship, but after bouncing back from those knocks they received their reward yesterday.

“What happens in the past stands you in good stead from an experience point of view,” said Harbinson.

“We spoke very briefly about four years ago a few weeks before this game. It didn’t have any negative impact on the team and was more a learning experience. When I looked at the talent in our team and our club, I felt with a wee bit of organisation and a few other things we could do well in this competition, regardless of what happened in the past.

“The experience that our lads had of playing county football with Antrim and playing at the All-Ireland club stage in hurling and football, stood to us out there. It’s tremendous first and foremost for the team. It’s tremendous for the St Gall’s community, for Belfast and Antrim as well. We’re delighted.”

St Gall’s exerted complete control over this game with their ball retention the chief foundation of victory.

Their familiarity with and success in seven-a-side competitions has sharpened their skills when it comes to keeping possession, and Harbinson reckoned that manifested itself at 15-a-side yesterday.

“It’s no small coincidence that we like playing seven-a-sides. We have a great tradition playing seven-a-sides in the Castlewellan and the Kilmacud (competitions). There’s no doubt that stood us in good stead, first in the Ulster campaign. Fundamentally it’s down to the players who did it. That win is a testament to the footballers within our team. We’ve a large number of fantastic gaelic footballers who can play the ball first time, who can do all the basic skills and at the same time when we need to retain the ball, we’ve several guys who are very comfortable on the ball. We knew our football ability at some stage would come through as long as we had due respect for Kilmurry. We needed to bring a high intensity to the game and a good work ethic. And that’s what we did.”

St Gall’s captain Colin Brady admitted he had doubts about their ability to return to this stage after the 2006 defeat.

“Sitting on the pitch that day, I didn’t think that we’d be back. But that’s just the feeling straight after a defeat. Once you get things together again, you begin to look at it differently. It took us about a year to get over that loss and it’s taken us until now to get back to a final. It’s been a long year but it’s a great feeling to have ended it successfully.”