Dark days inspired Allen Gaels to glory says manager James Flynn

It seems incredible that Sunday’s Smith Monumentals IFC victory was the first adult championship title for Allen Gaels’ first team in 22 years but an emotional James Flynn pointed to the resilience and commitment of his players as key to seeing off St Patrick’s Dromahair and bringing the Frank Reynolds Cup back to Drumshanbo.

Asked about the contrast between last year’s final loss and the wild scenes of joy in Heartland Credit Union Pairc Sean Mac Diarmada, James admitted “It's absolute joy. When I was 15, 16 this is what I was coming on to the pitch to celebrate the older lads winning senior titles. Then things went downhill and when we eventually went down in 2021, it could have gone one way or the other.

 “There was a bit of turmoil for a year or two but we reset and last year has been the making of those lads. I've said it so many times, the difference in effort, commitment and everything else this year has been phenomenal. They needed to realise what it's going to take going ahead into senior football, the effort and commitment that's going to be needed.”

In some ways, the traumatic loss when Melvin Gaels hit three late goals to wipe out an eight point Allen Gaels lead proved a turning point but James stressed that this Allen Gaels squad had come through some far tougher days, citing the unimaginable loss of Ronan Moran in February 2023: “It was a really good lesson but these things happen, it happened over in Mayo on Saturday. When we were back in the dressing room last year, it was a quiet room; it was a dark room, but it wasn't the darkest when we had been in,” recalled James.

“I'll never forget the evening we met in the clubhouse after poor Ronan passed. These boys came back playing after that and then last January, they came back to a meeting   and they said, this is it, we're going to go. I can remember Adrian Sorohan making the statement, we want to go unbeaten in this league and championship and we have.”

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Allen Gaels built their victory on dominance of the middle third and James revealed that they targeted Dromahair’s middle eight after the north Leitrim side’s semi-final victory:  “We needed that because in the semi-final, Drumkeerin would have been known for being strong in the middle. In that second half, Dromahair totally dominated that middle third so we knew that's where the battleground was going to be. 

“We knew that there was an awful lot of talk from media, etc, that we were raging hot favourites but we knew that Dromahair were there thinking there was going to be an ambush coming. We knew that that ambush was going to start in the middle third and that's where we needed to make sure we were going to battle hard and get the chances for the lads up front.”

Even the concession of a penalty on the stroke of halftime didn’t faze James: “The penalty, as soft as it was, came at a good time because we went in at halftime and said that's the bit of oxygen that they needed now and we have to  shut that off - no better way to answer than a goal straight from the throw-in.”

The Gaels manager was full of praise for his players, from man of the match through to the impact of sub Oran Foley: “Radek was phenomenal again but he has serious back-up. Teams like to try and avoid him with the kick-outs and then they realise, oh, we're going the other side, we're kicking on top of Brian Mulvey.

“I've played with Brian for so many years and he's been super for us this year. Along with Caleb Duffy in the middle, Dromahair didn't know what to do. Thomas Mulvey came back from Australia, he watched the game last year in the middle of nowhere and he was superb as was Shane Walsh.

“You could go through them all - poor Raff (Martin Raftery) getting that yellow, we knew that they were going to target him in the second half, so we made the call. Oran, his first year up in senior, he's ready for it and he was super in the second half - high ball, low ball, it didn't matter, he was winning it.

“Just to a man, a testament to everyone from the goalies out to the last man on the panel, it's just been about everybody this year and I just can't wait to get back into that dressing room now.”

Next up is Strokestown in the  Connacht Club and James is determined that Allen Gaels  represent Leitrim with pride: “Strokestown had a really good win the last day, they were Roscommon senior champions only a couple of years ago, so they'll be a formidable outfit. 

“These lads will realise that they're not just representing Allen Gaels, they're representing Leitrim and I've no doubt after a couple of days celebrating that they'll knuckle down and try to represent everything that's good about this group of footballers.”

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As for himself, a dye in the wool Allen Gaels man, what does it mean to James personally to lead the club to glory - “Just everything! It's been a long time coming and I'm just so grateful for having the boys there to help, like Stephen, same age as myself, who has been at it for years as well. 

“John Walsh came in this year and just talking about driving the lads on, he's phenomenal. Paddy was doing stats last year and we got him in as full select this year and the work he's done is unreal. James Deane has been incredible for us, the work he's done with his analysis and his drills.

“And the craic we've had as well, the four or five of us together, it's just been so enjoyable. For that management team it's just been brilliant and I think we reflected what was happening in the team and it was just all good.”