THE LAST POINT: Gaels heed their harsh lesson

Learning the lessons of the past - seems like a simple idea but if that was the case, how many teams would have bounced back and found  instant redemption once they absorbed the lessons of what went wrong? 

If that were the case, Mayo would have got their hands on Sam Maguire at least once in the last 15 years - not that they did a lot wrong, they had the misfortune to come up against the most successful team in the history of inter county gaelic football and the two times they did slay the Dublin giant, they walked straight into an ambush.

It is never as simple as simply 'learning your lesson' because we're all human and defeats leave an invisible mark. Sometimes a defeat inspires a furious reaction that leads to joy but more often than not, losses inhibit confidence and conspire to rob an athlete of exactly what they need at the most important time of their sporting careers.

We know the feeling all too well in Leitrim! How else do you explain decades upon decades of near misses; of performances and players that should have earned greater reward only for everyone connected with the Green & Gold to be left frustrated time and time again as a dream is crushed and broken?

Allen Gaels could easily have fallen into that trap - the story of last year's Intermediate Final is well known, Melvin Gaels performing the ultimate Houdini act with three goals in added time as the joyous disbelief on Kinlough faces was only exceeded by the stunned silence if you were from Drumshanbo.

THE LAST POINT: GAELS' PERFECT FAIRYTALE VICTORY

That sort of defeat leaves a mark - Leitrim never truly recovered from what Galway did to them in 1995, three late points to rob victory from a clearly superior team. The halcyon years of the early nineties ended there and then and the only defeat in my time with the Observer that ranks with it was the infamous 2013 Connacht Semi Final loss to London, a defeat wracked by recrimination and regrets that hung like an ominous shadow over Leitrim football for years to come.

Allen Gaels were in that sort of territory - there was quite a bit of fallout and it would have been easy to let the ship run aground on the shores of recrimination. But James Flynn steadied his crew and  drove them to new heights, the trauma of 2024 turned into a perfect season where the Gaels have not lost a League or Championship game, culminating in  Sunday's historic second ever Intermediate title.

I understand where James Flynn is coming from when he references the disconnect from what he grew up watching as Allen Gaels went  22 years without an adult championship title  because, for in the first ten to 15 years of my career with the Observer, the Drumshanbo men were a force of nature, a club that produced incredible teams. Gareth McWeeney, Noel Moran, Adrian Cullen and Padraig Kenny were giants of Leitrim football, men that bent Senior finals to their will and drove Allen Gaels to incredible heights.

Ballinamore Sean O'Heslins endured something similar, going 30 years without a Senior Championship title. Why that happens, especially for a Town team, I don't know but once a club falls into a rut, it is enormously difficult to escape and climb back to former heights.

Allen Gaels were on the cusp of a breakthrough in 2014 when they led Aughawillan by six points with 12 minutes to go in a  semi-final but the Willies reeled off seven points and went on to claim the first of three titles, ending their own 20 year famine, and a few of the players who saw action that day for the Gaels were still around to end their championship famine last Sunday afternoon.

Truth be told, in most years, St Patrick's Dromahair, Annaduff or Drumkeerin would have walked away with the Frank Reynolds Cup this year - all three are really good Intermediate teams, blessed with good footballers, young exciting players and an experience of what it takes to win at this level. Their problem this year was that Allen Gaels were simply in a different stratosphere.

Nobody in the Intermediate or Junior grades could afford to leave Jake Tobin or Oran Foley on the bench; nobody has the strength in depth and scoring power that the Drumshanbo men have, their average winning margin throughout this championship being 16.67 points a game and their 15 point winning margin the highest in the second tier competition in well over 20 years.

Radek Oberwan was my clear choice as man of the match, controlling the midfield exchanges and setting the tempo - if he wasn't scoring goals, he set them up; he sprayed passes around with the nonchalance of Ciaran McDonald and then popped up in defence to clear any danger Dromahair posed.

Fair to say there were a few other candidates for the gong - I've been a fan of Caleb Duffy for quite a while, telling Andy Moran in his first year to look at the Gaels attacker, and he was superb again last Sunday. Karl Foley, Adrian Sorohan, the Mulvey brothers .... I could go on and on and on and not many would disagree.

THE LAST POINT: A MOMENTARY PAUSE FOR BREATH

The challenge for Allen Gaels is now to build on this remarkable rebirth - they look best equipped of all the teams since Ballinamore in 2016 to make a stab at the Senior Championship in the coming years but, for all their young talent coming through, they are also backboned by a few key players who have given enormous service to Allen Gaels for the guts of ten or 15 years so the step up to Senior is not always a straight line.

Allen Gaels have the raw ingredients but  now, it is about taking that next step and realising that the hard work that went into bringing the Frank Reynolds Cup home to Shane McGettigan Park will have to be doubled if they want to regain the Fenagh Cup for the first time since 2002.

That's a topic for another day but I will say I was delighted for their manager James Flynn. Last year, James fronted up and did an interview after that horrible day in Ballinamore when every instinct would have been to run and hide - and you have to say his team are a reflection of their manager.

That delight extends to great servants of Allen Gaels like Fergal McPartland, Bernie Lynch, Sinead Dolan, Eamonn & Martin McGowan to name but just a few of a club that is the heartbeat of the community in Drumshanbo. All that remains is to congratulate everyone associated with Allen Gaels on their wonderful victory.