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Niall Ó Ceallacháin with his baby son Alfie after the game. Bryan Keane/INPHO

'It's a dream' - becoming Dublin manager, newborn son, and now All-Ireland club win

Na Fianna’s Niall Ó Ceallacháin saw his club make a major breakthrough yesterday.

ON 10 SEPTEMBER last year, Niall Ó Ceallacháin’s name was rubber-stamped as the new Dublin hurling supremo.

Four and a half months later he will make his competitive bow as the county’s manager next Saturday against Antrim as the league opens. 

The location for this landmark game in Ó Ceallacháin’s managerial career will be Croke Park. It will be a familiar and comforting venue, the site yesterday for the joyous moment when he steered his club Na Fianna to All-Ireland senior success.

The juggling act has been hectic on the hurling front. Throw in the demands of his day job with Clúid Housing, and the recent arrival of baby Alfie to him and his wife Sarah, and the achievement in being the manager who guiding Na Fianna to such an impressive national title, is elevated all the more.

“It’s (been) full on. Not the easiest thing in the world but the backroom teams, both here in the club and with Dublin, the load that they have taken off me has been absolutely massive. It’s the work that they have put in over the last month or two that has made it possible for me. I was never going to step away from our club after being appointed but we did change things around and the load that other people have taken have been massive.

“Outside of hurling, one, the help and support from my employers Clúid Housing has been absolutely massive in order to support me to do that.

“Second is Sarah at home – we had a newborn six weeks ago and just the load that Sarah has taken on a personal level as you can imagine. I’m out a lot at important times so I’m very grateful to her as well.

“We have Antrim next week in the league next week so, listen, I’m enjoying this for a day. We’re going back to the club there, to our people, to enjoy this but, to be honest, I’ll be back at it tomorrow. We’ve a game to prepare for next Saturday.”

Before his focus completely shifts to inter-county matters, Ó Ceallacháin hailed the players who shaped Na Fianna’s greatest hurling day. 

They had those days fraught with anxiety in this campaign – scrambling a dramatic Dublin final win over  Kilmacud Crokes thanks to a late Ciarán Stacey goal, scraping past Loughrea by a point in the All-Ireland semi-final.

Yesterday Na Fianna veered away from that pattern and produced a supreme showing.

niall-oceallachain-and-paul-odea-at-the-end-of-the-game Na Fianna manager Niall O'Ceallachain and Paul O'Dea’ at the end of the game. Ken Sutton / INPHO Ken Sutton / INPHO / INPHO

“We’ve had good days but probably our best performance and for the lads to do that on the biggest day, I’m very very proud of them.

“It’s just a testament to the lads. They’ve learned. We could have easily lost any of those games and not be here and had a much shorter year.

“They showed the right stuff in the last five or ten minutes of those games in order to get the outcome. Days like today when you hit your peak performance and everything is flowing are brilliant.

“But I suppose the thing I’m most proud of is when that’s not happening, when it’s not flowing, is that they found a way. Huge amount of character. They’re made of the right stuff.”

Signing off on such a successful note with a club he is so invested in, is a source of delight for the Na Fianna boss.

“It’s a dream. It’s not exclusive to me or the club, but like everybody, when a club means so much, and when you’re in a club all your life, and you throw so much into it over a long period of time, like so many do around so many clubs, it is a dream to be able to finish this out with an All-Ireland club. I’m just very, very proud of that.”

brian-ryan-kevin-burke-and-peter-feeney-celebrate Na Fianna's Brian Ryan, Kevin Burke and Peter Feeney celebrate. Bryan Keane / INPHO Bryan Keane / INPHO / INPHO

And he believes it can feed into a positive outcome for Dublin hurling on a wider scale.

“We’ll just have to see. I mean, I think it certainly can. Those lads, they believe in there that they can compete at any level. There’s no reason why Dublin, be it minor, 20 or senior, can’t either. That’s my fundamental belief, is that we can.

“What I will say is that the more often Dublin are beating teams from Cork, from Tipp, from Waterford, or from anywhere viewed as the hurling strongholds, the more often we’re doing that, the better.”

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