TWO FORMER ENEMIES met on the golf course earlier this year. They had clubs in their hands. If it was a different time, when tension and spite ruled, they might well have caused a scene.
But it’s 10 years now since Dane Massey of Dundalk and Johnny Dunleavy of Cork City were involved in one of the League of Ireland’s greatest season finales – the start of a bitter rivalry that would dominate for five years.
The ill feeling never dissipated over that time but as they met for a round with mutual friends they could laugh about it all, and respect the driving force of respective managers Stephen Kenny and John Caulfield.
“The two clubs hated each other and we want to beat each other,” Massey says. “It was the same for the managers, that’s how they felt.”
“We really wanted to beat them and we knew they wanted to do anything to beat us because it felt like the start of something,” Dunleavy says. “There was an aggression to the games, a nastiness that is maybe filtering out of football now when it’s not as much blood and thunder.
“We wanted to be the best and wanted to beat the best, that game summed up the aggression because everything was on the line.”
A decade ago this month – October 2014 – Cork arrived at Oriel Park for the last game of the season leading Dundalk by one point.
“They were so competitive and had a massive drive. They were the enemy, absolutely no bones about it,” former Dundalk centre back Brian Gartland, now Kenny’s assistant at St Patrick’s Athletic, says.
“It’s what you relish as a sportsperson. It was a cup final for the league and you couldn’t write it any better or want to win a league in any other way; at home in front of your fans against the enemy.”
For the first time since that emotional, raucous occasion in Louth the League of Ireland title will once again be won on the final night of the season tomorrow.
Circumstances are somewhat different for Shelbourne and Shamrock Rovers. They’re not playing each other, and the drama will be split between Damien Duff’s side facing Derry City at the Ryan McBride Brandywell and the Hoops welcoming Waterford to Tallaght Stadium.
There was only one place anybody wanted to be 10 years ago.
No one saw such a grandstand finish coming, most of all the Cork players after they drew 2-2 away to Athlone Town in late August and trailed Dundalk by six points.
“We did think ‘right, that’s it, it’s gone now’,” Dunleavy says.
But Caulfield had revitalised Turner’s Cross since he took over at the start of the season while Kenny was in his second campaign and already surpassed expectations by finishing runners up in 2013.
They led from the front early on but, in the final month of the season, drew back-to-back games with Shamrock Rovers and struggling Bray Wanderers.
“I hate the term ‘bottled it’ because it gets thrown around so easily and we knew it was still down to us to just beat them at home,” Gartland says.
After that draw in Athlone, Cork won their next six games. Just like that, the dynamic changed completely and they only needed a draw to take the title. “I had been relaxed all week but then the night before the game I didn’t sleep, I did not get a minute of sleep,” Dunleavy says.
“In the tunnel coming out for kick off all I could see were flares and then smoke coming towards us, for some reason that is when I started to feel calm and enjoy what was about to happen.”
Massey’s memory is similar. “There a steel shutter that comes down on the tunnel and it’s so tight, all you could hear was the banging and then the smoke. But you didn’t dream of even looking over to the fella next to you because you were in the mindset of them being the enemy and there was no f***ing way they were winning.”
Billy Dennehy struck the post for Cork with a free-kick in the first half and Mark O’Sullivan went close too.
“Myself and Mark O’Sullivan kicked the s***e out of each other, and I mean we kicked the s***e out of each other,” Gartland says. “But in between we’d be laughing, chatting. Not a bother. Then the ball come would come near us again and elbows, arms, all sorts would be flying to smash each other.
“You’d give each other a pat on the back picking each other up after ‘ya alright yeah?’ We loved it.”
There are other links between then and now. Sean Gannon was right back for Dundalk that night but will be hoping to win his 10th title of a stunning career with Shels.
When Chris Shields went off injured early in the first half, he was replaced by the experienced Ruaidhrí Higgins. These days, of course, he is Derry boss and would have been hoping his side were also in with a shout on this final night until St Pat’s, managed by Kenny and assisted by Gartland, ended their interest last week.
Then came the breakthrough, captain Stephen O’Donnell scoring three minutes into the second half to add another emotional element to the fairytale occasion.
A serious knee injury six months earlier threatened his career because of a blood clot. “It was in the lung, it had worked its way up from the leg. I got to hospital that evening and I was very lucky as the next place for the clot to go after the lung was the heart,” he said at the time.
When O’Donnell scored, on his first start since April and having also picked up a separate injury in a friendly a week before to help with match fitness, his mother was in tears in the main stand. “His Mam and Dad were beside mine,” Massey says. “They knew everything he had been through that year, we all did. He is such a natural leader.”
There were similar feelings on the pitch when Gartland made sure of victory, and the title, with a second goal six minutes from the end. The Stephen Kenny era, one that would lead all the way to the Republic of Ireland job, was up and running.
And so was Gartland as it turned out.
“I sprinted to our fans and then to my family. My Dad died at the start of that season, he followed me everywhere with football but never saw me win anything. So straightaway I was thinking of him.”
The celebrations began for Dundalk once the full-time whistle blew. Dunleavy remembers making it home to Cork in the early hours and sitting on the side of his bed unable to move, or sleep.
“I was heartbroken, but they are the nights you miss. It’s why you play football, to come close to those emotions and feel those emotions.
“The result didn’t go our way, but it’s not really close, it’s still the best occasion and game I was involved in. For it all to come down to that game, playing each other for league. It was a special night.”
A decade has passed in a flash and in 2025 the once great rivals will again play in different divisions.
Cork return to the top flight while Dundalk’s demise has been played out for all. Massey felt compelled to attend Oriel last week for their final home game, relegation already confirmed and the club’s future bleak.
“I went because I wanted to be there. I had so many great moments at Oriel Park but that is the night and the trophy I remember more than any other.”
The Rebel Army a few years later are in huge financial trouble and relegated. Dundalk now in same position and City are on the up.
This is so typical of league of Ireland clubs after a bit of success. Shels in the 90s spent big and the disappeared soon after from been league contenders.
This season is the best I have seen it with full houses galore across the league I hope this is a sign of development.
Cork City next season are going to add to the big crowds. Believe in our league
@Steve Ó Flynn: Drogheda were the same shortly before that Steve and Cork City were our primary nemesis then too!!
I REMEMBER DUNDALK COMING TO TURNERS CROSS WINNING 1 NIL TO WIN THE LEAGUE WAS A YOUNG PUPPIE THAT DAY