No complaints but Dromahair manager Casey rues missed chances in Smith Monumentals Leitrim IFC Final
Smith Monumentals IFC Final Dromahair reaction
Stressing that his emerging side would learn quite a bit from Sunday’s Smith Monumentals IFC Final defeat to Annaduff, Kenny Casey nevertheless sees a bright future ahead for St Patrick’s Dromahair even as he rued missed chances that he believed cost his team a chance of making a bigger impact.
A thoughtful analyst of the game, the Dromahair manager was quick to acknowledge that Annaduff were the better team on the day but stressed the Intermediate showpiece in Heartland Credit Union Pairc Sean Mac Diarmada came down to a few moments.
“No, it doesn’t,” Kenny told the Observer when it was put to him that the final margin of victory didn’t reflect how close the game truly was, adding “I’m sure when you look at the video, they probably scored maybe 2-2 in maybe six minutes and look, fair play, that's what good teams do. They smelled blood and they took it. I said it to you before, the Intermediate Championship, I've definitely seen a big improvement in the teams this year, how they were prepared. All the teams were very professional, strength and conditioning. There's no messing but Annaduff are the only intermediate team in 2026 that are actually undefeated so, fair play to them.”
Looking back on the game, Kenny felt his team didn’t make the most of the chances that came their way: “First half, we were on top and we just didn't take our chances. We had one or two attempts from placed balls, maybe picked the wrong option at certain times during the normal course of open play. And then, obviously, maybe that penalty wasn't a penalty. Was it a penalty? We didn't even get a free.”
But again, the Dromahair boss wasn’t inclined to make a big issue over the decision but felt it could have given his team huge momentum: “You get a penalty at this game, we would have been, from my memory, five points up. A huge boost and obviously, then for Annaduff, it's the opposite for them. But in fairness to Paul, he clearly said it wasn't a penalty. He's the guy with the whistle so we've no complaints. We're beat by the better team. We started with three U20 forwards and as long as they're learning, developing and developing. And the old cliche, you learn more from a defeat.”
Sometimes the progress a team makes can get lost in the pain of defeat but Kenny sees a bright future ahead, particularly with the U17 team winning the Division 2 title, a team featuring his own son Karl: “If you said this to me 12 weeks ago, that Dromahair, with all the injuries we had, would reach a county final and 10 minutes into the second half that you were level against a very good Annaduff team, virtually a senior club, we'd have bitten their hands off.
“These losses, you have to take them on the chin, absorb them, learn from them and develop. There is a bright future, I got to see the first half of the U17s and fair play, they seem to have probably upped it in the second half to win so I'd like to say congratulations to them. My son was playing Carl, so fair play to you, Carl. There are four or five of those lads, hopefully, that decide to come up to senior football for 2027. They will add to the mix. There's a lot of that U17 team, you're probably looking at nine or ten of that team that is actually U17 in 2027. So, there is huge development.”
And as he had all year, Kenny goes back to the work going in to develop young players in the club: “This has to go back to the club, the ethos of it, develop. We need to continue developing those young kids, the nurseries. The work that went on ten years ago, you're only seeing it now. The boys that were, say, five to nine years of age, a lot of work went into them, maybe between 11 and nine years ago. They're all coming through now. So, again, the work we do in 2026 with these young kids, you won't see that work until 2035 so we have to be realistic.
“But I have to put our hands off to our club and to the lads today, they never give up. You have Oisin Conlon there, Oisín is under 20 again next year and he is marking a guy there probably seven, eight years older than him so he's going to take learnings from this. He scored a cracker of a two-pointer there. He's a great man. It's tough playing midfield, it doesn't matter if you're junior, intermediate or senior championship, midfield is a very physical, tough battleground. And in fairness to the lads today, they hung in there at certain times.
“I go back to the first half, we won a lot of breaks. We won three or four clean balls and there was a hunger there but we didn't just finish it. We just hadn't that finesse and maybe sometimes, it was nerves. We hadn't that small bit of composure, just to take two seconds on the ball, we were slightly rushed but look, as they say, goals win games.”