A momentous day for us all at Leitrim Gaels - Guckian

Typical of the man, Mal Guckian’s first thoughts were not of himself and what his team achieved but what Leitrim Gaels’ historic Connacht Gold Leitrim SFC triumph would mean for his club and the area, describing it as a “momentous day for us”.

The Gaels manager seemed to almost shun getting his picture taken with the Fenagh Cup and he admitted in the dressing rooms that the 1-19 to 0-14 victory over Ballinamore Sean O’Heslins had not sunk in in any way: “I don't think it has, no. It feels a bit surreal. It's a big day for everyone. A big day for the club and I don't say that lightly. It's a big day for the village and the surrounding area we have around there.

"It's momentous for us. It is - I doubt my words will describe it. The club is there 28 years and, as you know, from the beginning of it, we weren’t supposed to last. It's a credit to the people, the founders, the committees, all the committees over the years, all the coaches, everybody that strived to see a vision that we could be in a place like this year. You've been there with us in Division Fours, Division Fives - Aidan Flynn has been there in Division Fives and Fours.

"We gradually got to Juniors, got to Intermediates. The buy-in the lads got in this year was just massive - the control that they had, everything that they wanted, they nailed it. And you're still not guaranteed anything out of that today but they deserve it all.”

Mal paid tribute to the players for their ability to prepare for the big occasion and to overcome occasional stumbles in the first half: “The lads really prepared for the occasion and, obviously, they have confidence in their own ability. We tried to prepare them as best we could and keep it as low key as possible. They kept it together as well as they could but, in the first half, you could probably see little bits of nerves with turnovers we were in our control, a couple of kicks that were going astray, overcooked fist passes, you know.

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"Whether that was nerves or the occasion or whatever, you could see little bits like that and we were getting punished on too, big time. There was nothing in it  coming into the last quarter and I would say at the beginning of the second half, the momentum looked with Ballinamore but I thought our backline were very good today.

“Ballinamore have quality players but when we were matching them up, I thought Liam Chandler did very well on Paul Honeyman and I think that gave faith to maybe the middle third to even more go after it and going into the last ten minutes, we probably got a stranglehold on breaking ball at a vital time.”

When it was put to the Gaels manager that David Regan had been scoring those type of goals for years, Mal agreed “Oh, he has and he loves it and he will let us all know all about it too as the week goes on. But David, who has come back from several cruciates,  has that in his locker.

“As the game was going on, it was impossible to get messages into the players  but I could see that David was  getting more lively, or he seemed to be getting more space. He was looking into pockets for getting the ball and I think we started to utilise that a little bit, even with Jamie coming down that wing a couple of times.”

One couldn’t approach Sunday’s Final without reading something about the Jones brothers and their impact on Leitrim Gaels but despite the pressure they were under, Mal has nothing but the highest of praise for the Fermanagh siblings: “I know the talk was out there but it has been out there all year, it has just been continuous. But it is water off a duck's back. That band of players, they're tight and I'm talking about the whole lot of them.

“The Jones brothers, as I said before, they're really good people. Their family are good people, they've gone to every game and they've listened to what they shouldn't have to listen to at games. And yet they are still back at the games and supporting us. The knowledge that these boys have brought with the boys that we have is just brilliant. 

Mal also touched on the emotional lifting of the Fenagh Cup by Brian & Evan Treacy with captain Aidan Flynn: “You heard Aidan touching on it up there with the lifting of the  Fenagh Cup - that's another band of brothers that we all wrapped around and minded as one. They'll do the same for us when it is needed and I think really that's the bigger picture. Days like this are emotional but we came together as one when we needed it and we came together as one today again when we needed it.”

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Asked about the impending AIB Connacht Club SFC and his plans for the next few weeks, the Gaels boss said “We'll enjoy a day or two,” said Mal, jokingly adding “just the two” when the Observer asked if that was all he would allow but the long serving manager stressed that the newly crowned champions will want to represent Leitrim to the best of their ability.

“The way we look at it is that we're representing Leitrim, we are representing every club that's in Leitrim. We don't get recognised throughout the country as Leitrim clubs really so we’ll try to do the utmost honour on behalf of Leitrim people. And if you prepare, and you give it your hardest, and you work your hardest at it, you never know.”

Leitrim Gaels will play the winners of the Galway and Sligo quarter final on the weekend of November 15-16, the game set to be away from home as Leitrim clubs had home advantage in the last two meetings at this level.