Tony Leen: Dingle create their own special piece of history

There was a sense that this crop of footballers were as much about building a future as the present. The imperative, if unspoken, was there. They duly delivered. 

WEST'S AWAKE: Dingle captain Paul Geaney and teammates celebrate with the Bishop Moynihan cup after their Kerry SFC final win over Austin Stacks at Austin Stack Park in Tralee Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Kerry SFC final: Dingle 2-13 Austin Stacks 1-12

DON’T doubt it, Dingle know too well the significance of the day. Selector Liam O’Connor - a member of the last West Kerry side to win the county in 1984 - received a message from Astoria in Queens, New York. There, a trembling 91-year-old witness to Dingle's winners of 77 years ago was perched early and eager, desperate for the town's own bit of history at Austin Stack Park.

Even midfielder Mark O’Connor, who knows a thing or two about seismic sporting occasions, had to devise his own small process to manage the moments before the throw in against 13-time winners, Austin Stacks.

“We knew about the history,” he reflected, as his Geelong AFL colleagues gathered around him on the pitch, “and we tried not to get too emotional. We’ve been in this kind of spot before and that probably was a factor. But when you look up to the stand, and you see the same faces that have been there since I was under 10 in the club, well, it’s fairly emotional. I made sure to give a look up to the stands before the game – not sure that helped me in terms of trying to keep a lid on the emotions – but for all those people, it’s just an ecstatic thing. It’s something that will nourish me for a long time to come.” 

Its Paddy Bawns and the Wren casts Dingle’s football and cultural name far – Fungi helped too - but backstage, it’s a harbour town struggling with the limited footprint of a new Ireland lacking developable land. Playing numbers have gotten tight. There’s a sense that this crop of footballers were as much about building a future as the present. The imperative, if unspoken, was there.

“We had big jobs to do,” O’Connor explained, “with Stacks’ age profile, they are going to be there or thereabouts for many years to come. Unfortunately we haven’t had the same flow of minor teams coming up with the population issues, and things don’t look too bright in the short term for us at under age. So we were conscious that you have to take these chances when they come.” 

O’Connor wasn’t the only one to reference Dingle’s great experience on the big day. Darragh Long, the Austin Stacks manager, reckoned Dingle’s extra ounce of big-game nous was telling: “Maybe we were in a bit of bonus territory with this one. The phrase of having to lose one to win one rings loud right now in my head but it still hurts losing this.” 

Long didn’t feel the spoiling conditions, with the rain sleeting north-south, was a ‘game-changer’, but his would be a minority view. Stacks’ 0-8 to 0-4 interval lead, after a fairly, though not thoroughly, dominant first period didn’t feel like nearly enough of a cushion to take down the stretch.

In the algebra of what constitutes a defendable half-time lead after first use of the wind, five points ain’t what is used to be. Stacks never had Dingle pinned and suffering and though they got the first score of the second half via Jordan Kissane, they were taking on water thereafter.

Three successive Dingle points in as many minutes, made it a one-point deficit (0-8 to 0-9) on 42 minutes. After losing Mark O’Connor (black card) and Paul Geaney (head injury) in the opening five minutes of the game, the west Kerry lads now had Stacks where they wanted them.

The Rock hung tough, mind. What will be washed away in the tide of history flowing west of Blennerville Bridge is the performance of 18-year-old Ben Murphy at midfield for Stacks. Only in the coming weeks will the scale of his loss be fully calibrated. The AFL’s Brisbane Lions are getting a gem, and again without a dime of compensation. He kicked three points from play, the third putting the Tralee men 0-10 to 0-8 in front. “His ceiling is whatever he wants it to be,” said Stacks boss Long.

Conor Geaney missed a two-point free attempt after a three-up transgression by Stacks, and for a moment, that weighty cloak of foreboding hung around Dingle like a wet shawl. It was cast off within three minutes, an explosion of noise greeting Paul Geaney’s flick to the Stacks net for the game’s first goal with nine to play. It was the trigger for a 1-4 scoreburst without reply. With the wind, Tom O’Sullivan was now the orchestrator and, after setting up Geaney, he popped over the first of two points himself. Dylan Geaney nailed a two-point free to loosen the noose, 1-12 to 0-11.

Stacks were done, but not quite. Colm Browne got on the end of a Ben Murphy slip pass and was upended by Dingle keeper, Gavin Curran. Penalty and a Cian Purcell conversion made it a two-point game once more, 1-13 to 1-11.

Two minutes remained when a Dingle possession wriggled its way in the opposition’s corridor of uncertainty. When Dingle sub Ned O Riain engineered the ball back to his skipper, certainty took over. Paul Geaney placed it tidily beyond the reach of Stacks keeper Michael Tansley when anyone else would have popped a point and taken the plaudits.

When Tom Long lifted the Bishop Moynihan Cup in 1948, Dingle was a broad church, supplemented by help from neighbouring Lispole, Annascaul and even Gaeltacht. “Dingle have won six county championships but it’s always thrown at you that there were other lads from west Kerry helping out,” manager Padraig Corcoran said after.

There will be no asterisk on this one. On Saturday night, a mischievous Dingle badger hung a pair of club flags off the posts in Gaeltacht’s home of Gallarus. Thanks for putting them up, you saved us the bother, was the delightful Gaeltacht riposte on social media. 

Now they’ve the silver symbols of county success to hop off each other.

Scorers for Dingle: P Geaney (2-2), C Geaney (0-4, 1 2ptf), D Geaney (0-3, 1 2ptf), T O’Sullivan (0-2), B O’Connor, T de Brún (0-1 each).

Scorers for Austin Stacks: B Murphy (0-3), C Purcell (1-0, pen), P Lane (0-3, 1 free), A Heinrich, J O’Connor (0-2 each), J Kissane, G Horan (0-1 each).

DINGLE: G Curran; B O’Connor, P O’Connor, T O’Sullivan; T.L O’Sullivan, C Flannery, A. O’Connor; M O’Connor, B O’Connor; T de Brún, P Geaney (capt), N Geaney; C Geaney, F Flaherty, D Geaney.

Subs for Dingle: (D O’Sullivan for P Geaney, temp 7), N O Riain for B O’Connor, M Geaney for T de Brun (both 51), C Bambury for C Geaney (59), S Og Moran for TL O’Sullivan (60).

AUSTIN STACKS: M Tansley; C Griffin, J Nagle, N Fitzmaurice; E Carroll, A Heinrich, R Shanahan (capt); J O’Connor, B Murphy; M O’Donnell, C Horan, D Kirby; P Lane, C Purcell, J Kissane.

Subs for Stacks: J O’Shea for Carroll (half time), D Casey for Fitzmaurice (36), G Horan for C Horan (41), R Carroll for Kissane (51), C Browne for O’Donnell (54), Blood sub: J Murphy for Griffin (59).

Referee: S Joy (Laune Rangers).