Revitalised St Brigid’s have a point to prove

Where do we go from here? It’s an inevitable question for a club that has reached the peak. After St Brigid’s made the summit theirs in 2013, it was obvious there would be a few players recognised the only way was down.

“Some people in the panel saw this was the top of the mountain,” admits midfielder Karol Mannion. “’This was what I had played for the last 10 years we were contesting Connacht. We have lost players since then, people have gone travelling or drifted away. The core lads that have driven this team for so long have always been ambitious and wanted to win. Winning the All-Ireland was fantastic but a lot of them still wanted to keep winning and play at this level. With people drifting away and some people not having the same drive, we had tailed off in the years after. Losing to Castlebar the year after was a tough one and then Ballintubber beat us quite easily and losing in Roscommon last year was another sign of our decline.”

The graph has changed this year, though, as the Kiltoom outfit has experienced a rebirth of sorts under player/manager Frankie Dolan. “In fairness to Frankie he’s realised that for a team to come back and replenish itself with more energy, that we had to change it up a bit.