Bouncing back
LISNASKEA had been relegated from the Fermanagh senior championship in 2009 but they were still a senior league side and Daniel Kille, who had made his senior debut in 2002 as a 16-year-old, was part of a side that was determined to bounce back. ‘The ’Skea’ set their sights on the intermediate championship and used the league campaign as preparation for it.
“We weren’t over-confident when we started out but we had an inner-belief,” says Daniel.
“We had a good togetherness and that only grew as the games went on.”
Lisnaskea proved too strong for Aghadrumsee in the first round of games and eventually got the better of a stubborn Coa outfit to reach the Fermanagh final against Irvinestown.
“Fermanagh club football was dogged then,” Daniel explains.
“In the early stages it was very cagey but as soon as we got in control of games we never relinquished our lead. Coa gave us a fierce game of it but Leon Carters got injured and that hampered their momentum and then we got on top and took over.”
Brewster Park on a Saturday night
THE decider against Irvinestown followed the same pattern as the previous games – it was nip and tuck early on but when Lisnaskea got their noses in front, they stayed there.
“It was a wet night and it was a very tight affair for the first 20 minutes,” recalls Daniel, who scored 1-8 on that final.
“I got a goal before half-time and they put it up to us at the start of the second half but in the last 15 or 20 minutes we played some serious football. That performance in the second half gave us great confidence for what lay ahead and we won by nine or 10 points in the end.”
Pulling balls out of the sky
GOOD fortune with injuries helped that year and Lisnaskea were able to field a settled team with the same starting 15 in almost every game. In John Woods, Mark McKenna and Niall McIlroy they had tenacious defenders and Brian Og Maguire and Conor Curran won a lot of ball in midfield.
“Brian Og was a great leader who put his body on the line every time he went out,” says Daniel.
“He was an inspirational fielder – he wasn’t the tallest fella in the world but he had a great leap and pull balls out of the sky.
“The half-forward line – Mark and Aidan Little and Steven Carters – was very strong, a real engineroom and they did a lot of unselfish work for the team. Up front it was Shane Ingram, Paul Curran and myself. But wasn’t about individuals, it was team performances the whole way through.”
The Minders
PETER Clarke was the manager and alongside him were Gerry McIlroy, Collie Curran and trainer Terry McCann. The four-man think-tank combined hard work with painstaking planning and it produced results on the field.
“Peter was very full-on, very intense but he went above and beyond to have the right structures in place,” says Daniel.
“He did his homework on every team right through the journey and we gave every team the same respect.
“Gerry had helped out Pat King with the Fermanagh senior team and I’d say he was one of the wisest men I’ve ever heard talking about the game of football. He played forward himself and he used to say: ‘You’re going for the ball, not the man’. His advice was always brilliant.
“Like Gerry, Collie was a club legend and he had played for Fermanagh and Ulster and when you got advice from him you listened.
“The training was done by Terry McCann, from Killyclogher. He brought a lot of craic to the set-up with his sense of humour. His training was very good and he got us in serious shape. We were flying fit.
“And on our journey we got full support from our club and whatever we needed we got. It was all put in place by the chairman at the time Collie McCaffrey.”
The march of the underdogs
THE month between the end of the Fermanagh championship and the start of the Ulster series was spent working hard in training and Lisnaskea’s opponents for the first round were Down champions Tullylish. Despite their impressive performances in their native county, Daniel says the Ernemen “always felt like underdogs” outside of their own borders.
“Every game we felt we were going in as underdogs and we went about our business very quietly,” he says.
“We had an inner belief within the group that we didn’t express outside it. We were quite confident but we kept that quiet.
Manager Clarke watched the Down championships which were still ongoing after Fermanagh was over and the planning and preparation paid off as the Down champions were beaten 2-12 to 1-8. Next up was Antrim’s Rasharkin.
“We played them in Omagh on a very foggy night and they were a quality team,” says Daniel.
“It was a tight game the whole way through and it took a serious performance from us in the second half to shake them off. Mark Little had a very good game for us – he was untouchable that night.”
Happiness is a win against Doohamlet
MONAGHAN champions Doohamlet were the opposition for the delayed Ulster final (the first meeting was postponed due to wintry conditions) at Kingspan Breffni. With county star Colin Walsh at centre half-back, the O’Neill’s outfit had won the Farney county final by a double-scores margin and had looked impressive throughout their provincial run.
“The lad who was marking me was calling me a ‘junior footballer’ that day but I had the last laugh on him,” says Daniel.
“It was a peculiar game and it was one of the toughest games we had. We were two or three up at half-time but they took over completely at the start of the second half. They were well in front going into the last quarter but we had a never-say-die attitude. Pierce Collins, our full-back, cleared a ball off the line and if had gone in, it was game-over.
“We started to get it right going forward and we got the momentum. We had serious support from the Lisnaskea crowd and we ended up winning by three points (0-13 to 1-7).”
The ghost town
THE support increased with every game. As the red and green machine rolled on, the Lisnaskea (and Fermanagh) faithful became entranced by their club’s progress. On match days, Lisnaskea was a ghost town.
“There would have been very few left in Lisnaskea as that run progressed,” Daniel recalls.
“They never let us down and when we were behind in games they kept driving us on. When we started to find the scores in the Ulster final, the supporters gave us an extra lift and got us over the line.
“And we had great backing from around the county. You would meet people from different clubs and they were full of praise, they gave us great support. It didn’t happen too often with Fermanagh clubs teams in Ulster or the All-Ireland.”
One game at a time
DERRY football guru Brian McIver and Chris Lawn (who’d managed Cookstown Fr Rock’s to the All-Ireland intermediate crown the previous year) were brought in to add their experience and expertise ahead of the All-Ireland semi-final against Kildare and Leinster champions Ballymore in Pairc Tailteann, Navan.
“That was probably our best performance,” says Daniel.
“We got a great rhythm and chemistry going and we were untouchable that day. Everything was flowing, we had runners coming from deep and they weren’t able to cope with us. A team from Fermanagh going to play a team from Kildare… We were thinking: ‘Are we good enough?’ But at the same time we were confident and we won it 1-12 to 1-5.
“Brian Og was marking James Kavanagh in midfield and he had a great game.”
Afterwards the team celebrated the win. There was no drink ban but after taking a deserved time-out, the ’Skea men returned to training to focus on the next hurdle.
“If there’s anything to learn for someone reading this, it’s that we took it one game at a time,” says Daniel.
“We didn’t look at winning Ulster, or the All-Ireland, it was one step at a time. As a group we knew we had to step up the training after each game because we were going to come up against better quality after every game. We put in the hard yards and there was no whingeing although I did fall out with Peter and missed a session or two! He had to call up to the house to talk to me.
“I wasn’t fond of the tackling back, he was always saying: ‘Press, press, press’ and I disagreed with him but it was quickly forgotten about.”
The Kingdom cometh
DANIEL recalls how the build-up to the All-Ireland final was “surreal”. St James’s of Galway were the opposition and Lisnaskea made their final preparations amid a sea of red and green bunting that had gone up around the town.
“There was a serious buzz that something was about to happen and it was a dream but we had earned it at the same time,” he says and you can sense the emotion building in him as he recalls those days.
The Lisnaskea squad visited Croke Park the week before the final to get used to the surroundings at ‘Headquarters’ and afterwards went for a training session at the Parnell’s club with Brian Talty. But they liked to have their homework done on their opponents before each game but the management had found it almost impossible to get any footage of St James’s before the final.
Luckily, a recording of their All-Ireland semi-final against Gneeveguilla was sourced in Kerry at the eleventh hour and the players and management were able to get a look at what they would face at Croke Park.
“You like to know some wee thing about the opposition and Peter got a DVD from Gneeveguilla so we watched it on the Thursday night before the game and somebody else got a newspaper report on the game as well,” says Daniel.
“They were the two bits of info we got about them. It was late but better late than never.”
Kille strikes at the death
TWO evenly-matched sides went head-to-head in the All-Ireland final at Croke Park. A nervy first half ended with the Ulster champions three points ahead but the Galway outfit – with Paul Conroy outstanding in midfield – took the initiative after the interval.
With 10 minutes to go, St James’s were three ahead and Lisnaskea’s hopes hung by a thread. Then manager Clarke sent Ryan Clancy into midfield to curb Conroy’s influence and Brian Og switched to full-forward.
Mark Smith scored a point from the wing and Kille’s free left a point in it but Conroy had a chance to seal victory for St James’s. His free was (debatably) ruled wide by the umpire and that slice of luck proved to be the turning point.
“If that had gone over we were probably beaten,” Daniel admits.
The game was in injury-time when Lisnaskea were awarded another free and, with only seconds left, it was down to Kille to save the day with the last kick of the game.
“One of their players got injured so I had to wait over a minute before I could take it,” he recalls.
“It was a wee bit off-centre and I stole a few yards when the player was getting treatment. Miss, and the game was over, score and we went to extra-time.
“It was serious pressure, especially with the delay and there was a lot of whistling from their fans. I tried to think positive that I was going to score.”
He took a deep breath, swung his right boot and the ball sailed over the black spot to guarantee Lisnaskea extra-time.
“It’s a great memory,” he says.
“It was Croke Park, with your club… If it hadn’t gone over the All-Ireland dream was over and if I had missed I’d have been thinking about what could have been for the rest of my life. Scoring meant a lot to me and it meant we were still in the game.”
A second bite
LOSING what had looked like a match-winning lead at the death felt like defeat for St James’s and meant Lisnaskea held the initiative for the extra 20 minutes. A goal from Niall McIlroy sealed a 1-16 to 0-15 win.
“You could name every emotion under the sun when the final whistle went – elation, excitement, relief… Winning an All-Ireland with your club, seeing your club colours at Croke Park, every man going ballistic…,” recalls Daniel.
“They were moments that I’ll never, ever forget.
“A big moment for me and the team was returning home late on Saturday night on the bus with the cup to be congratulated by our fans. It was first time after the victory we got properly integrating and communicating with them as they couldn't get on Croke Park pitch after the game.”
Memories we’ll bring to our grave
HIP injuries have meant that Daniel has reluctantly had to hang up his boots but he is involved in the management of the team now alongside Peter Clarke, the architect of that 2010/11 success. The players from those glory days hope to mark the 10th anniversary of their win later this year.
“They are great memories to have,” he says.
“When any team from Fermanagh goes outside the county they’re given no chance so we know how good our achievement was. They’re memories we’ll bring to our grave with us and it’s great to be able to show the youngsters coming through now the success that we had and be able to remind them what can happen if you put the work in.”
