RATHNEW’S LEINSTER CLUB SFC quarter-final victory over St Vincent’s sent shockwaves around the province.
Dublin clubs have reigned supreme in the competition in 21 of its 47 season, and a side from the capital have lifted every title since 2012.
It may have been an upset to most, but inside the Rathnew dressing room there was an steely confidence they could dethrone the reigning Leinster champions.
It’s no surprise that they’re a confident bunch. Rathnew are serial winners in Wicklow and have won 15 senior football titles in the last 21 years. Goalkeeper and club secretary Peter Dignam reckons that competitiveness is “hardwired” into the local community.
“You could see two lads in Rathnew playing pool and the blood vessels would be bursting on their necks trying to beat one another – and they’d probably be related!
“So it definitely has to be hardwired,” he says. “The success in the village through darts, pool leagues, soccer, everything. We’ve been successful and once you’re successful you’re hungry for more of it and I think that’s probably where we’re coming from.
“You’re growing up in houses with fathers or brothers who have won a couple of medals. Like, my own brother would have played Irish ‘A’ rugby, played at a high standard, so the standards are set by the ones that go before you and then you just have to try and reach them, if not surpass them.
“That’s where the winning mentality comes into it.”
That trait was evident from their style of play, where they pushed up man-on-man on St Vincent’s rather than dropping bodies back like Ballymun Kichams did in the Dublin county final.
It was a brave move by Rathnew manager Harry Murphy, an astute mind who spent three years in charge of Wicklow and has delivered eight senior county titles to the village club during two separate spells.
“In the modern era you can get a good look at people nowadays and we had seen their county final,” says Dignam.
“We thought that Ballymun stood off them so we thought why don’t we try the other tactic because it didn’t work for them.
“It probably wouldn’t have worked for us anyway if we’d tried a different tactic because we don’t do it (in Wicklow). We would have been tried out if we tried to flood defence. We would have been picked off, I think.
“We stuck to our guns, we played nice attacking football and had a really good day at the office. We’d only been playing for 20 minutes or half an hour in most games, but on the day we were well worth the win.
“Obviously at the start only a few of you think you win, maybe only the 20-odd lads involved with the panel, but, no, we had a good little belief in ourselves that we could do it. It shone through anyway.”
Moorefield represent the next obstacle in the semi-final on Sunday, but it’s not unchartered territory for Rathnew. They defeated Dublin powerhouse Na Fianna in the Leinster final replay of 2001, back when Dignam was just 21.
Na Fianna had a side stacked stars like Kieran McGeeney, Jason Sherlock, Dessie Farrell and Senan Connell, but Rathnew claimed a famous victory.
“It’s funny, the memories from that match, you piece them together after chatting to lads in the pub ten years later,” he smiles. “I don’t know if it’s like Chinese whispers and if half the stuff actually happened.
“But I remember the celebrations coming back on the bus, coming into the village and it was just a complete mass of bodies. There was fireworks. I remember there was a Christmas light coming out at the time and it was in red and green. Ah it was brilliant.
“Listen, to get back there would be brilliant and we’ve had chances to get back there. The luck we maybe got in 2001, we didn’t get in other championships. You can’t get lucky all the time.
“But that was some trip, the matches and there was replays…It was a great, great journey. It was the journey more than the matches, because there was a good few away matches in it. But winning it was brilliant.”
Incredibly, four members of the Rathnew squad from that day in December 2001 started against St Vincent’s two weeks ago – Dignam, Leighton Glynn, Damien Power and Stephen Byrne.
“Stephen Byrne is still playing, Damien Power who was corner-back, he’s full-back now and he marked (Diarmuid) Connolly in the Vincent’s game. And Leighton is captain. Flipping evergreen, he’s getting better and moving better.”
- Rathnew (Wicklow) v Moorefield (Kildare), Aughrim, Sunday 2pm
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