Season of Sundays come full circle for Cahill

THE fall before the rise. The trough that preceded the peak.

Barry Cahill remembers it only too well. He wouldn’t say he was scarred by St Brigid’s relegation from Dublin’s top flight league two years ago but it’s stayed with him.

He wouldn’t say it was a blessing in disguise either but, as it turned out, it kick-started a revival.

“I think it would have been a turning point because the team would have been going averagely for a few years after 2003,” recalled Cahill.

“We got to a couple of county finals but a few lads were maybe not as committed as they should have been.

“I think the relegation in 2009 was a wake-up call for the club and the team and all the players.

“Gerry McEntee and Mark Byrne came in as the joint management in 2010 and they’ve been fantastic.

“Getting relegated, it was an embarrassment to be involved in it. We were used to being in county finals so I think everyone just sat down and thought over things.

“We didn’t say it publicly but we knew deep down we had to do better and we managed to win every game in Division Two last year and get back to the county final. This year we got there again thankfully which was great.”

The Navan Road club’s progress has been impressive given the volume of games over such a short time-span.

To say the Dublin championship was condensed would be putting it mildly while the games against Summerhill and Horeswood came in quick succession.

After six games in seven weekends, the two-week break before the semi-final against Portlaoise was manna from heaven.

“I think if we had played Portlaoise straight away after beating Horeswood it would have been very difficult.”

Cahill agrees the win over the then favourites for the Leinster title has given Brigid’s huge confidence.

“It was an incredible game to play in because it looked two or three times like we were dead and buried and the game had gone away from us.

We managed to get back level and then in extra time we got a couple of scores at the very end.

“The game was level at half-time, full-time and half-time of extra-time.

“We showed a lot of heart and commitment that day.

“One thing that’s been good about that team over the last few weeks is that we’ve used 25 players and lads have been able to come in with 15 or 20 minutes to go and it hasn’t weakened the team.

“And if anything it’s strengthened it. They’ve been able get us over the line.”

Laois’ John O’Loughlin has played a major role in Brigid’s journey to tomorrow’s decider.

In the week that Dublin secretary John Costello suggested possibly making players transferring to Dublin clubs declare for the county, Cahill isn’t so sure about the idea.

“There are a lot of county country players playing in Dublin football and it makes it that bit more competitive.

“I think Dublin have enough players to pick from. You wouldn’t like to see so-called weaker teams losing their better players going to Dublin or anything like that.

“I can’t see it being a runner.”

The likes of Fermanagh’s Rory Gallagher have lined out for the club before, the introduction of non-Dublin inter-county players lending to Brigid’s tag as a “super club”.

But Cahill believes to label them as that is lazy analysis.

“We won the Dublin championship in 2003 and we had still 12 lads on the team that had played with the club from U10 level and I was injured so I didn’t even play that day.

“This year, 90% of the team have been with the club since they were 10 or under.

“It’s up to clubs, it’s their own decision whether they want to bring in lads or not.

“Some lads join a club because they’re based in Dublin and they’re perfectly entitled to.”

These past couple of weeks Cahill’s phone and Twitter account have been inundated with messages from his holidaying Dublin team-mates.

The “wish you were here” ribbing from the Cayman Islands doesn’t wash with him. He’ll get a break with his wife to New York next month but he could think of nowhere better to be at the minute than a Leinster final.

After what’s been an incredibly long season which started way back in the muck and cold last January, he reports no signs of fatigue, physically or mentally.

“No, I feel fine. I haven’t thought about it at all. I suppose the more you think about it the more tired you are going to feel.

“Go and get (a) pool session in and resting up in between training.

“It’s been a long year and it seems like a long time ago that I played O’Byrne Cup back in January in Parnell Park.

“It has been very enjoyable and once you are winning the tiredness and fatigue isn’t there.”

There’s a novelty about it too, this only being their second Leinster final appearance. It’s why he feels Garrycastle, runner’s-up in 2009 and having doing the three-in-a-row in Westmeath, should be regarded as favourites.

“I think there are only three or four St Brigid’s lads that were involved back in 2003 (one and only other time they reached the provincial final). I know Garrycastle got to the final two years ago.

“They’ll be looking to try and make up for that. They’ve gone through Westmeath and have been going very well in their Leinster club campaign.

“They definitely would have set their eyes on winning Leinster this year, whereas for ourselves we were just looking at a Dublin championship and trying to get over that hurdle first.”