Overcoming a heartbreak defeat made it all possible for Gneeveguilla and Patrick O’Riordan

Pa Riordan of Gneeveguilla, ahead of the All-Ireland club final. Picture: Seb Daly/Sportsfile

Patrick O’Riordan won’t forget the night of September 5 last in a hurry.

Beaten in the delayed 2020 Kerry junior premier county final by a last-minute goal at the end of extra-time, from a penalty, which he admits he conceded himself, the Gneeveguilla goalkeeper cut a fairly inconsolable figure.

A grim night?

“Ah it was, Jesus, it was hard enough to see a way back that night,” admitted O’Riordan, who doubles as team captain. “You had fellas saying this team is young enough to come back and all the rest of it, all the sort of stuff you don’t really want to be hearing as a player afterwards. But the following Wednesday night we got back training and we had 28 players there and we just outlined that we were lucky to be getting going so quickly again. That was the overriding feeling and you could see a chance to hopefully put things right fairly quickly.”

Five months later, O’Riordan will lead Gneeveguilla out at Croke Park for an All-Ireland club junior football final that wouldn’t be possible if opponents Ballydonoghue hadn’t won and scored that penalty last September.

“Sure I meant to give away that penalty!” smiled O’Riordan. “I’ll claim that it was all a grand plan if we can get over the line this weekend.”

Five of the last All-Ireland junior winners have come from Kerry; Na Gaeil (2020), Beaufort (2019), Glenbeigh-Glencar (2017), Templenoe (2016) and Brosna (2015). It bodes well for Gneeveguilla too that since overcoming Skellig Rangers in the county final, which went to extra-time again, they’ve hit Boherbue (Cork), Ballina (Tipperary) and Denn (Cavan) for 3-14, 4-18 and 5-8 tallies. Clearly the Gneeveguilla forwards are firing well.

“They’re moving the ball around well, nobody is being selfish and that’s why the goal chances are coming,” said O’Riordan. “I think two or three of the goals the last day were hand-balled in so it just shows that when the ball is being shifted left, shifted right, moved quickly, you create chances.

“There’s serious quality at the back too, Eoin Fitzgerald and Darren Brosnan have All-Ireland minor medals with Kerry, they’ve marked the best players in Kerry, we have Pa Warren in the half-back line, Padraig O’Connor was a Kerry junior player so we are very conscious of our defending and we work hard on it.

“We’ve been renowned for producing defenders over the years so it’s great for the lads up front to be getting the headlines now for a change.”

Despite being just 32, O’Riordan first played adult football for Gneeveguilla back in 2007. The high point so far was a Munster intermediate triumph in 2010 though a win this weekend would probably eclipse that.

“I’ve played all three levels for the club at this stage, junior, intermediate and senior and we’re back up to intermediate now. I’ve seen Division 1, 2, 3 and 4 so my geography of Kerry is pretty good, we’ve seen a lot of places! Losing the All-Ireland intermediate semi-final so long ago and getting back and getting through now and up to Croke Park, it’s like the full circle journey for us but getting to Croke Park alone isn’t enough. We definitely want to go there and win.”