IT’S A DRY, bright morning, and across Dublin a group of 35 men are waking up to a day that could change their lives forever.
It’s been 16 years since Dublin last won the Sam Maguire. Today, 18 September 2011, is the first time the county have even made it back to an All-Ireland final since. Old rivals Dublin and Kerry will meet at Croke Park for a 3.30pm throw-in.
Kilmacud Crokes defender Kevin Nolan tells himself it’s just another day. Deep down, he knows it isn’t.
“No-one on the squad had played in an All-Ireland final, so it was a new feeling for everybody,” Nolan says.
“I’d have worked close enough with Caroline Currid and she would be saying if you do find yourself thinking about the game in the build-up, not to be worrying about it or wasting nervous energy, just revert back to what you are going to do with the ball when you get it, what are your jobs, and then just get on with the rest of your daily life.”
Over on the northside, Barry Cahill was taking a similar approach.
“If I was feeling a little bit nervous then that meant it was a big day and an important match, and something I needed to tune in to as early as possible.
“We went over to Mass and then called down to my Mam and Dad for a bit of breakfast. We would have been on the road around 11.30am, Dad would have given me and a few of the local lads a lift up to DCU, Alan and Bernard Brogan, Ross McConnell. That was the routine.
“There was a definitely a bit of comfort when you get to meet up with the guys because everyone is feeling the same, we’re all in the same boat.”
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But not everyone is feeling quite so calm. Over in Swords, Paul Flynn is worried about his hamstring. It popped in the dying moments of the semi-final win over Donegal. The Saturday before the final, he just about made it through a fitness test.
“I actually rang Pat Gilroy the night before the game saying ‘I don’t think I’m going to be able to play,’ and I was teary eyed just thinking about that,” Flynn says. “Pat said ‘You’ll be fine, the adrenaline will carry you through.’
“So I woke up with a little bit of worry that I wasn’t going to get through the game. There was also excitement and adrenaline there, but you had this feeling that you’ve spent your whole life waiting for this, and now you’re a bit worried.”
12pm – The Dublin team meet up at DCU for their pre-game meal before making the short bus journey into Croke Park.
Kevin Nolan: “On the bus I was sitting in with Bryan Cullen, Ger Brennan was behind us, standing up behind our seats.
I remember hearing other lads listening to music in the background. There are still songs played on the radio now that straight away get me thinking of those bus journeys along the roads into Croke Park. It builds you up that you are there for the representation of the club, the county, your family, the group that are there.
“I was looking out the window trying to embrace it all, take in the emotion of other people without becoming too distracted or too emotional about the whole thing. You play the sport to enjoy it. It’s not just the minutes you play on the pitch, it’s everything.”
Barry Cahill: “Once we got on that bus, you really came to the realisation that this was the real deal. You do try and treat it as a normal game but deep down you know it’s different. There was so much at stake for a few of us, myself, Bryan Cullen, Alan Brogan, Stephen Cluxton, we were there from 2001/2002, so it had taken us a hard 10 years and a lot of pain and sacrifice and suffering to get to that stage.
“There was a few of us down the back of the bus. Diarmuid Connolly, Bernard, Alan, I’d usually sit with Mossie Quinn and we’d just chat through anything that was non-GAA really. You try and keep your mind off the game a little bit.”
2.30pm – The Dublin team go through their pre-game routine ahead of the 3.30pm throw-in.
Paul Flynn: “As I got older I used to soak up a little bit more (of the atmosphere), but I was probably a bit more tense back in 2011, trying to stay as calm as I could. Some guys go out soak up the atmosphere, some are listening to music or playing some football, I think I was on the physio table.”
Cahill: “Go out and have a look at the minor game, or into the warm-up area for a bit of stretching and ball-work before you actually get into your gear, and then you get into a proper 15-minute indoor warm-up under Mickey Whelan and get tuned in, refine a few messages that we would have been working on that week, talking to guys around your line that you’d be playing with. Things were just building nicely at that point in the dressing room.”
Nolan: “I would never have gone out to watch the minor games or anything like that beforehand, I always preferred to sit in the dressing room and calm myself down. Get the shorts and socks on early so there is no rushing about, get myself a drink, look at the programme. I tried to take myself away from any possible distractions. I preferred being in my own little zone, ticking my boxes and getting ready.”
3.20pm: The teams finish their warm-ups and line-up behind the Artane Band for the pre-match parade.
Flynn: “I remember going up to Kevin McManamon in the warm-up and saying to him to make sure he was ready, because I still wasn’t certain. Other lads were maybe battling with nerves about the game or how they would perform, whereas all my nerves were centered around my body holding up.”
Nolan: “There was a phenomenal roar. It was just electrifying. I was focused in on the man in front of me, the Áth Cliath on the back of the jersey and the crest. Taking a quick sip of water just to tell yourself that the mouth isn’t dry, but you’re also trying to enjoy it.
“I had a little look in at the crowd and listened to the roars but I wasn’t trying to spot Mam and Dad or anything like that. I was mainly thinking about what I wanted to do with the first ball.”
Cahill: “I definitely wasn’t looking into the crowd! I remember under Tommy Lyons, he had told us to stare straight at the teammate in front of you in the parade, and I was caught in a couple of pictures looking up into the Hill before Leinster finals and before the Donegal game.
“So I would have just been taking it easy and not getting too bogged down with my own internal thoughts on the match, but soaking it up a little bit.”
3.30pm: Throw-in.
Flynn: “You just immediately switch into game mode. I said to myself that I would just go as hard as I can and if something goes, it goes, but don’t think about it. I wore the long Under Armour shorts, which I never wear, and I was heavily strapped underneath them, so I wasn’t able to fully flex out my leg, but once the game starts you just get into the rhythm of a game.
“Under Pat my primary role would have been to lead the defensive charge and bring an intensity around that middle third that created chaos for the opposition and made it difficult for them to get ball into their forwards.”
“It’s not about you, it’s about all the other pieces of the jigsaw – who you are marking, the flow of the game… You’re just trying to get into it, get an early possession, lay it off, get a good tackle in, get a turnover, win a kick-out or a breaking ball, anything at all just to try and be in the game.”
Cahill: “Myself and Bryan Cullen, our role essentially was to try and link the play as much as possible, and stop the opposition half-forward line coming out with the ball and try and get good early ball into the guys inside.
“So it you take myself and Bryan out of the forwards, it was really the other four guys – Diarmuid Connolly, Paul Flynn, Alan and Bernard Brogan – that would be doing most of the damage. They were probably responsible for 75/80% of our scores on the pitch, whereas our role was maybe just to break up the opposition play as much as possible.
“Kerry were still very much at the peak of their powers having won four All-Irelands in the previous six/seven years, so we were very keen to make sure good quality ball wasn’t going into the likes of Colm Cooper, Kieran Donaghy, trying to limit Darran O’Sullivan who was having his best year ever.”
Nolan: “I remember chatting to Ger Brennan before the game, saying that we’re there playing a game, trying to make the lad beside you look that bit better as well.
“You’re just trying to do your job and help out your man as well, whether that’s tucking in or putting tackles in or putting pressure on the breaking ball, things like that. But you are always thinking about your role as a wing-back – ‘Did I do that well enough?’ ‘What do I need to do a bit more?’ ‘What can I do better for the team?’ That’s all going through your head.”
10 minutes played: Kerry come flying out the traps but only have a solitary Kieran Donaghy point to show for it. Dublin have yet to score.
Flynn: “We would have been very good at winning kick-outs in the half-forward line and making good runs into that area, but Kerry played a zonal marking in that space and were occupying it. So we found it very difficult to get that kick-out away. So the kick-outs weren’t going that well and I wasn’t getting on a hell of a lot of ball, mainly because I couldn’t make those hard runs. But I remember doing a lot of tackling, just constantly trying to disrupt their flow.”
Cahill: “I was running around like a madman trying to get on the ball. There was a couple of passes lads could have given to me and they didn’t, and I remember being really annoyed… So then it was a case of right, I’m going to have to go off and win my own ball from a Kerry kick-out or a breaking ball or something.”
Nolan: “There was a lot of just kicking the ball away (by us). It’s completely different when you look at a match these days, there’s never really a 50-50 ball given into the full-forward line.
“Kerry blitzed us in the first few minutes as we were just settling into it, but we always had the belief in our heads. The management team had us mentally and physically prepared that our gameplan was suited to beat a Kerry team. We looked at the Ulster style of football at the time, the physicality with the tackles, how Kerry had maybe struggled with that in previous years.
“When we met the day before the final, the one key word we would have left DCU with was belief. It didn’t matter if it was the first minute or the last minute, we knew we would get chances, so it was just trying to weather the storm as much as possible at the start.”
11mins: Alan Brogan kick’s Dublin’s first point of the game. Dublin 0-1 Kerry 0-1
Cahill: “That was a really significant score. Alan managed to just get the better of Cillian Young and put the ball over the bar from 40-50 yards, and that score and the roar from the crowd just settled everyone in the group a little bit, because we were a little bit ragged, but then we started to come into the game, and we took a fair control of the game for a decent period after that.
We won a few breaking balls from kick-outs, and it was very much a bit of mayhem around that middle third. I had Aidan O’Mahony marking me, a tough, aggressive defender. A lot of bodies around that middle third, the likes of Tomás Ó Sé. So it was a bit of scramble for possession and with that bit of rain there wasn’t too many clean kick-outs in the match.
“We knew that there would be a lot of ball on the ground and it was up to lads to basically be more hungry for the ball and time their runs. You had to anticipate how the ball might bounce and try pick up breaks and try get the play going.”
Nolan: “I was on Darran O’Sullivan, Declan O’Sullivan at times as well, Paul Galvin then came on. They were sort of chopping and changing. We weren’t following men. If I was a left-half back, I was left-half back, and if lads were switching across, you’re communicating with Ger and James in the half-back line then. Sometimes you might look over the line and it’s just a quick gesture with Ger, that’s how we tried to manage it.”
18mins: Paul Flynn has picked up the first yellow card of the day. Alan Brogan adds a second point for Dublin. Kerry hit back with a goal, Colm Cooper providing the neat finish after Darran O’Sullivan bursts right through the heart of the Dublin defence. Kerry 1-1 Dublin 0-2.
Nolan: “Some of the skill, pace and movement of the Kerry players, it was just hard (to match that) from the start. But from previous years, the startled earwigs and all, we had been prepared to make sure that didn’t happen again, being structured and being well set up.”
Flynn: “It felt like they were pure control, they were calm, and we were a little bit frantic and out of control (at the start), which was kind of understandable. They were a more experienced team than us in terms of playing in and winning All-Ireland finals.”
Cahill: “We actually responded very well after the goal. We got the next couple of points to very much stay in the game.”
34mins: Substitute Paul Galvin hits Kerry’s first score for 12 minutes. Bernard Brogan has kicked three points for Dublin, with Stephen Cluxton adding another. Dublin 0-6 Kerry 1-2.
Cahill: “We probably finished a bit stronger coming into half-time, we kept that Kerry attack relatively quiet. They only had a couple of scorers, which was unheard of for that team and the calibre of player they had really. I think going in a half-time we felt we were in a relatively comfortable position.”
Half-time: Dublin 0-6 Kerry 1-2. On RTÉ, Colm O’Rourke questions whether Dublin can keep this intensity up.
Nolan: “We had spent 10 minutes before we got on the bus in DCU talking about what our lined roles were – the fullback line, the halfback line, and so on. At half-time you go back into your groups and have a little chat. We (half-back line) were talking about trying to get tackles on, trying to get turnovers, trying to move the ball to our forwards as quick as possible.”
Cahill: “Our dressing room was always very calm. You have your own little chat amongst your own group, a couple of key messages, and then Pat and the management team would have had their discussion in their coaches room, taking a few stats on board, and got their own heads right in terms of how to assess the first half – pressing home what we were doing well and areas that we could maybe improve on.”
Nolan: “We probably hadn’t played too well so you’re thinking, ‘We’re a point up and we still haven’t done overly well.’ So keep just battering away, doing what we’re meant to be doing.”
Cahill: “We were limiting balls going into the lads inside and certainly there wasn’t a huge amount of good quality early ball going into the Kerry full-forward line. We were doing OK around that middle third. Cillian Young was tagged to follow Alan everywhere, Tomás Ó Sé was on Bryan Cullen and I don’t remember Aidan O’Mahony really going forward at all, so maybe he was hanging back a little bit to try and provide a bit of cover in front of Bernard and Dermo (Connolly).”
Nolan: “Paddy O’Donoghue was over talking about turnovers and tackles. James, Ger, myself, Philly (McMahon), Cian (O’Sullivan), we were all there (in the defensive group). It’s no one voice, everything was easily communicated between us. There was never any roaring or punching of walls in the dressing room. It was always ‘here’s what’s going well’ or ‘Jesus, you did that well,’ or ‘tuck in a bit more.’”
Second-half: Dublin start strongly and add two further points through Bernard Brogan and Denis Bastick, but Kerry then go on a roll with four unanswered scores to take the lead. With 50 minutes on the clock, Paul Flynn is replaced by Kevin McManamon. Kerry 1-6 Dublin 0-8.
Cahill: “I don’t know how Flynner got through the fitness test on Saturday, I don’t know how he got through the warm-up before the game and I don’t know how he got through the guts of 50 minutes. It was a bit of a minor miracle in terms of his resilience and determination and the job James Allen and the medical team did to get him up to that speed.”
Flynn: “The biggest impact I had that day was coming off and letting Kevin come on because he was the winning of the game in the end. I say that as a joke, but if I didn’t play and Kev had started – and this is probably what Pat had been thinking – we could have lost that bit of punch off the bench. Pat was a master tactician so that was probably built into his plan.”
Cahill: “With Kevin coming on for Flynner and then Eoghan O’Gara coming on for me, we maybe just decided to go and be a little bit more direct. Kerry were getting on top at that point and they had a very good 10-15 minute spell.”
63mins: Kerry begin to put the boot down. Colm Cooper adds another superb point to take his tally to 1-3, and the Kingdom lead by four points with less than 10 minutes to play. Kerry 1-10 Dublin 0-9
Cahill: “It didn’t look great when Gooch got that point, it looked like Kerry might see it out with their experience and composure and everything that they had built up over the years.”
Flynn: “When you’re four points down towards the end of the second half, your faith begins to wither a little bit but I still was confident that there was another gear in the group and that that insatiable will to win that All-Ireland was going to get us over the line. And that’s really what it was that day, a will.
“I was sitting beside Paul Casey, and obviously it was unnerving to watch it, but I always had faith that we were going to do something. I just felt something was going to happen. That was probably how I felt about that whole season and that group. I was so confident we were going to get over the line.”
64mins: Dublin hit back with a wonderful goal from Kevin McManamon, followed up by a long-range Kevin Nolan point to level the scores – RTÉ note the equaliser as Nolan’s first ever in Championship football.
Cahill: “No better man than Kevin Mc to finish low and hard, that’s something we would have been practising on the training pitch over the weeks previous for any goal chances. But the quality of the scores is what I remember over the next few minutes. Kevin Nolan hit a ridiculous score with his right foot that I had never seen him kick before or since!”
Nolan: “I actually scored against Wexford in 2010, but it sounds better to say that’s my first score…
I just sort of ghosted into it because Bryan Sheehan was the only Kerry player who came out to try get a block, there was no wing-forward marking the run. The system we had in place, I was working on Bryan Cullen’s side with James and Paul working the other. In previous matches, if the wing forward was dropping back Bryan would have picked him up at times and we held our defensive five or six (shape), instead of bombing forward and leaving our defence exposed. So we sort of kept our structure to it.
“But as the game went on the space opened up. There was a couple of runs up into that space that maybe weren’t seen before it, but then we turned them over on the far side of the field, Alan moved in Diarmuid, Diarmuid moved the ball over to me.”
Cahill: “Then Bernard hit a brilliant one off his left with Marc Ó Sé really tight on him, and Donaghy hit an unbelievable skyscraper score…
“I was thinking that if the game finished in a draw the replay would have been the Saturday week, which was the day my sister was getting married, so that would have been a very difficult situation for me and particularly for my Dad, because I don’t know, I’d say he probably would have gone to Croke Park instead of walking my sister down the aisle…”
70mins+1: With the scores level, Kevin McManamon is fouled by Barry John Keane. Bernard Brogan takes the ball and immediately calls Stephen Cluxton forward to take the kick that could win Dublin the All-Ireland. Dublin 1-11 Kerry 1-11.
Cahill: “Where we trained out in DCU, when you walked out of our dressing rooms onto the pitch you walk out aroundabout that area where Stephen had that free. Every training session for the previous four or five months, Stephen was hitting frees from that little pocket, about 40 yards out from the endline and 15 in from the sideline. That was his sweet-spot area.
“Obviously it was a pressure environment and the clock was ticking towards injury time, and the history and everything that went behind it was there, but cool as ice… Everyone in that Dublin set-up knew he would nail it.”
Nolan: “Again, belief in everything. Whether it was Stephen going up to take the free or Éamon Fennell going up for the throw-up before that, you just sort of believed in everybody. We had really started to come together as a full team.”
Flynn: “You’ve got to credit Pat Gilroy with that. He instilled that belief in us. He’s such a leader and he had us under his spell. He built that belief, and he had to chip away a lot of disbelief that was in that squad.
His approach to the mental side of the game and preparing us, and just making us believe that we would win an All-Ireland eventually got us over the line. I have no doubt about that, because I don’t think the talent particularly changed a hell of a lot. Our gameplan changed a bit, he definitely brought more defensive stability, but it was down to psychology and our attitude and our workrate, they are all things that he built within us.”
Cahill: “I didn’t even watch the ball. Usually if there’s a big score like that I always watch the reaction of the kicker, and as soon as Stephen kicked the ball I knew he had got it long before it went over the posts because he just jumped up and ran straight back to his goal, there was no shake of the head or any sign of disappointment.”
Full-time: Dublin 1-12 Kerry 1-11.
Nolan: “Everything has paid off. All the hard work, all the commitment, all the sacrifices with family, friends.
“If you look at the photos after the final whistle, I went running into the stands looking for people. The photos in the newspapers the next day of the team piling in on top of each other (I’m not there), there’s another photo of me just looking into the stands to see where the folks and the girlfriend were. Then you’re trying to run to lads that you had battled with for years.”
Flynn: “If you watch it back you can see I went to run out onto the pitch on one fucking leg, and I actually just collapsed to the ground. It wasn’t out of pain, it was just pure raw emotion. I just couldn’t believe we had done it. I can’t even explain the feeling, you’re just overcome with euphoria.
“When you start off with a dream, and you work so hard and sacrifice so many elements of your life to try fulfill that, when you actually reach it it’s just magic.”
Cahill: “It’s hard to believe it really. It’s pure elation. I couldn’t wait to get up the steps and get my hands on the cup, I couldn’t wait to see my parents and my wife and family in the stand, everything that went with it.”
Nolan: “The lap of honour was phenomenal. I remember being out on the pitch quite late, just trying to take it all in. They played the Black Eyed Peas, ‘I got a feeling that tonight’s gonna be a good night‘… the hairs on the back of my neck still stand up now if I hear that on the radio. I remember bumping into Pillar Caffrey in his Garda uniform.
“You’re also thinking about family and friends, about the sacrifices they made. Lads who didn’t make the panel on the day, lads who were in the stand, lads who had gone before us who would have pushed us on, previous managers, I thought about all of that after the final whistle because all those people would have had an impact on my Gaelic football career. You want to say thank you and try share the moment with them. That was straightaway in my head – it wasn’t just the team, it was all the families and friends and all of that as well.”
Cahill: “Getting into the dressing room was really special because we just locked the door for about 10 minutes before all the external mayhem took over, and we had our own bit of time in the warm-up room, all 35 of us in a huddle with the management team and Sam Maguire in the middle. That’s something you’ll never forget. A bit of private time before we basically handed Sam Maguire over to the city after that.”
A few hours later, the Dublin team bus slowly negotiates it’s way through the packed streets of Drumcondra and Fairview as the squad head for the Burlington Hotel. That night at the team dinner, Michael Lyster reads out the nominees for the Sunday Game Man of the Match award, which Kevin Nolan wins.
Nolan: “I was the first nominated, then it was Mick MacAuley and then Bryan Sheehan. I remember turning to Lorna and saying ‘Anytime I’ve seen this before, the lad who is nominated first has won it!’
“So that was quickly going through my head – ‘Shit, what do I do?’ I was shocked that I was even nominated. So when they did call me out as a nominee I was thinking ‘Do I need to put my jacket on here?’ I was overawed by it to be honest.”
As the night wears on, a small group make the trip into Copperface Jacks, but most decide to celebrate the success in the privacy of the hotel.
Nolan: “It’s only really when it’s over that the size of occasion really hits you. The majority of the lads would have been there until quite late in the hotel, just sitting around chatting. You’re talking about the times sharing lifts with lads during the year, remember this journey or this thing that happened in training, all of that, the tough times during the year which have all paid off because of what we’ve now achieved.”
Cahill: “There was a clatter of us that stayed in the hotel downstairs in the nightclub area until the early hours. Myself, Alan, Bernard, Declan D’Arcy who I played with in Brigids and was very much a mentor to me during my football career. We had great craic with Dec and the lads and James McCarthy and Pat Gilroy… So there was about 10 of us there to the death. We tried to get a bit of breakfast and I remember getting into bed around 7.30am, and at about 8am Alan knocked on my door and we got a taxi to the Boar’s Head.”
Flynn: “I had one or two beers, but I wanted to savour it, pure and simple. I played for Dublin for 13 years, and while the first year feels like a long, long time ago, it does fly by. You’ve got to savour the moment and I tried my best to do that and enjoy every moment of it, because a lot of ex-players would have told me to enjoy the journey because it will be over before you know it.”
18 September, 2021. Dublin have added seven All-Ireland titles since that breakthrough 2011 success, Tyrone’s defeat of Mayo in this year’s decider closing the book on an unprecedented period of dominance in Gaelic football. Later today, the 2011 squad will gather for a private function to mark the 10 year anniversary of their first All-Ireland win.
Cahill: “It flies by, it really does. You play a couple more years, do a bit of club football, maybe you do a bit of media or punditry… But you’re going to be a Dublin supporter forever, and then you start going to Croke Park with your own kids, I was in for the ladies final the other week.
“Looking back on it, it’s nice to have the medal, but that’s tucked away, I’ve only probably seen it once since. It’s more the memories and the connections and the friendships. I just met up with Mossie Quinn for a coffee. We have our WhatsApp group from 2011 which is very active.”
Flynn: “It’s interesting, that group now, we wouldn’t all be extremely tight, we wouldn’t all get a chance to talk to each other or see one another a lot, but we have a connection forever.”
Nolan: “Ten years absolutely flew by. Even being involved in the team for a couple of years after that and watching on now, the players that have pushed it on since and the standards they have set, you’d be massively proud to have been involved in what was the start of it all.”
Cahill: “Throughout my Dublin career I would have been quite confident and hopeful, and very much believed that we would win an All-Ireland at some point. But I was eight or nine years into my career when we had that very bad defeat to Kerry in 2009, and it was only really then that I thought, ‘Jesus, I actually might end up finishing my career without an All-Ireland.’ That was the first time that came into my head. So when we did manage to do it in 2011 there was a little bit of a feeling of disbelief, and a high amount of relief, but real joy as well that we finally got there.
“And we got to have Sam Maguire at my sister’s wedding.”
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