Curran dismisses omens as Kickhams fully focused

History appears to be extending a helping hand to Ballymun Kickhams as they return to the Leinster Club football championship though manager Paul Curran isn’t taking much notice.

The newly-crowned Dublin champions take on Mullingar Shamrocks in Sunday’s provincial opener — the same side they met, and overcame, when they won their first Dublin title exactly 30 years ago.

Ballymun went on to contest that year’s Leinster final and were only beaten by Portlaoise, the eventual All-Ireland winners, so this year’s draw is surely a good omen. But while fellow Dublin legend Barney Rock has been busy reminding Curran about the significance of Sunday’s event, the manager isn’t overly convinced.

“It’s not been mentioned in the dressing room,” said Curran. “I heard Barney telling that story in the last week or so all right. But it’s not something we’ve talked about as a team. What happened 30 years ago doesn’t have any relevance to this weekend.

“I think the Leinster championship is a completely different animal, not just year on year but from one month to the next. It’s a competition that’s played in November and December and that’s very different to your normal county championship, which finishes up in October.

“The pitches are not what you’re used to. Cusack Park in Mullingar is actually a nice ground but you could easily get an unbelievably bad day and that’s a real leveller for two teams.”

Ballymun recently collected their first Dublin title since 1985, holding off favourites Kilmacud Crokes to secure a one-point victory.

“We hadn’t won it in a long time. But we genuinely felt we would win it this year from a good way out,” said the All-Ireland winning half-back. “So getting the focus back or losing the run of ourselves hasn’t been a problem, absolutely not.”

Curran says the celebrations were put to rest on the Thursday after their win over Crokes, just 72 hours later. Since then they’ve had several training sessions. He says they’re physically sound and injury-free and though he admits their mental focus may still require some tweaking he’s confident it’ll be spot on by Sunday. “I think the boys are going to be energised by it all, hopping onto a coach for the first time this year and heading down the country to a big ground,” he said.

“The majority wouldn’t have played there before. That’s another little plus for the Mullingar lads. They’re a side that have to be respected. Any side that beats the Leinster and All-Ireland finalists (Garrycastle) after a replay has to be respected. But it’s not really about them for us, it’s really just working towards another big performance.”