MICHAEL McDonnell was part of the St Brigid’s contingent that made the trip to the Gaelic Grounds for the Munster club final on December 10th, on a scouting mission.
The St Brigid’s chairman had seen his club crowned Connacht champions one week earlier, so the pressure was off; this was a chance to check out who would be their All-Ireland semi-final opponents.
After Castlehaven braved the storm to reclaim the throne in Munster, winning in a penalty shoot-out after a game they had never led, the travelling Roscommon group were left with plenty to ponder.
‘The one thing that came out of that was Castlehaven’s ability to hang in the game, to stay there, they showed huge resilience. There were times Dingle looked like they would pull away, but Castlehaven refused to be beaten; that is a massive credit to them,’ McDonnell told The Southern Star.
‘They will be looking at Sunday’s semi-final, like we are, as a real 50-50 game and a massive opportunity to get to an All-Ireland final. The reality is, in the national media and everywhere else, everyone is watching Newry (Kilmacud Crokes v Glen on Sunday) after what happened last year.
‘It’s going to be a battle in Thurles. From what we saw, Castlehaven are a big team, they are mobile, and are a physical side. We are pretty physical ourselves in certain areas, but we’re a younger team.’
St Brigid’s are a club that is no stranger to this stage of the All-Ireland series. They have won five Connacht senior club titles since 2006 (‘06, 2010, ’11, ’12 and 2023), and won the All-Ireland title in 2013 after losing in ’11. The current group is younger, McDonnell explains, but the potential is there. Brian Stack and Ben O’Carroll are two of the club’s better-known Roscommon senior footballers, while Shane Cunnane, Ruaidhri Fallon and Ciarán Sugrue were all involved with the county set-up, too. Given that strength, it’s no surprise St Brigid’s target in 2023 was the county title.
‘We won the championship in 2020 with a very young team, and the next two years (’21 and ’22) were very disappointing, we were beaten in the semi-final in both. There was a lot of focus on winning the county title in ’23; the pressure was on to go and win a county title because we knew the potential was there,’ the club chairman said.
‘We played well, we had a good county campaign, the county final was tight and we hung on by a point (0-12 to 0-11) against Boyle who were in the final last year.
‘Once we got out of Roscommon, the draw fell very nicely for us in that the three games we had in the province were all played in Roscommon; it was just the luck of the draw. We were lucky enough to get five games in a row in Hyde Park and that was a help.’
Then came that statement 1-13 to 2-5 triumph against Corofin in the Connacht final that has made everyone sit up and take notice of St Brigid’s.
‘The reality is everyone had hyped up Corofin as the team to beat and we weren’t given much of a chance, and a lot of the commentary was Corofin were building again,’ McDonnell noted.
‘That was a hugely satisfying day. It was a day when things clicked for us, we had big performances all over the field, it all fell into place. We stumbled over the line against Mohill of Leitrim in the semi-final, and after that people said our chances of beating Corofin were pretty slim, but one good performance you are on the other end of the scale.’
Now, St Brigid’s, like Castlehaven, are one win from an All-Ireland final. The Roscommon side are young, fast and skilful, so Castlehaven know the challenge ahead.
