YOU KNOW the years are turning to dust when someone as fresh -faced and dashing as Dessie Dolan is playing the role of seen-it-all veteran.
Yet there he was, wet nursing his team to a Leinster final victory yesterday with all the wiles and ways of an old-timer.
The 32-year-old was everywhere, taking most of the Garrycastle scores himself in the first half and chasing back into midfield and the half-back line when possession dried up in the second. The only wonder was that he didn’t commandeer the last-kick free for himself.
“With my track record?” he joked afterwards.
To the winner, the gags.
“It’s incredible,” he said. “Just incredible. This group of lads, we’re together since we were seven or eight years old. It’s moments when you’re under pressure that you know from all those years of training what to do.
“It did look bleak there for a spell but it just shows the character of the lads to come forward there and get the score in the end.
“It’s a small club in Athlone and to win this is just incredible. Probably my best sporting moment. I knew we won the Leinster in 2004 (with the county) but the club is special and to win this competition is unbelievable. We’re here playing Christmas week and there’s loads of families here and it’s just incredible.”
Come February, their Roscommon neighbours St Brigid’s will hold up the stop sign keeping them from St Patrick’s Day. With the two clubs only separated by the Shannon, there are threads to weave them both. None stronger than the family ties between a plethora of Dolans, with almost a quarter of the players on the pitch the next day related to each other.
“Yeah, Christmas will be fun in the Dolan household,” said Dessie. “St Brigid’s have shown the way to us for a long time. We’ve been looking at them in envy because they’ve won the title and we haven’t. But Frankie, Garvan and Darran are super footballers and they’ve all been playing well this year.
“It’s a great occasion for the family – we’ve Gary (Dolan), James (Dolan) and Alan Fox is another cousin. So there’ll be seven involved. They know us and we know them. It’s a big occasion but it’s a game of football at the end of the day. They know that and we know that.
“But there’ll be no love lost. I don’t expect them to be extra-friendly to us because we’re cousins.”
