No club still wrestling for the AIB championship is more in need of a breather right now than St Vincent’s. If the physical exertion of recent weeks wasn’t demanding enough the mental one certainly was, not least in playing out the last two games with 14 men.
It’s still unclear whether the Dublin champions will successfully appeal the straight red card shown to captain Ger Brennan early on in last Sunday’s Leinster quarter-final win over St Loman’s (though Brennan is pleading his innocence): what is certain is that Diarmuid Connolly also remains suspended from the red card he received in the Dublin final replay, and the best they can hope for is to have both men back for the Leinster final on December 8th, assuming of course they make it that far.
In the meantime there is a two-week break before the semi-final showdown against Meath champions Summerhill - and after playing four games in the previous 13 days, St Vincent’s are certainly glad of it. Coming from behind to beat St Loman’s at the death on Sunday wasn’t made any easier by the fact they’d lost Brennan after only seven minutes, but according to Tomas Quinn, sometimes playing with 14 men isn’t necessarily a major disadvantage.
“When you go down to 14 men, you just try to adjust as well as you can, and try not to think about the long-term consequences,” he says. “It was obviously a long time playing with 14, it was so early on in the game, but you just try to stick to doing what you’re doing, and just hope that everyone can step up. Mental strength is the big positive of this team, not to panic and not to go away from everything we’ve practised all year.
St Vincent’s will be at home for the Summerhill game on November, and Quinn is adamant that whether Brennan and Connolly are there or not it won’t be used as an excuse: “There was a joke in the dressing room, that we’re going back to our best 15, because we play without them all year anyway with Dublin. But no, your team doesn’t get better without Diarmuid Connolly or Ger Brennan. But you’ve just got to adapt. Guys have done it all year, and other guys are going to get an opportunity to start. It’s not ideal, but you just do what you do.”
Hunger
Yet handling both the exertions of recent weeks and the loss of two big players underlines the hunger of the Dublin club: Quinn puts that down to the old cliché that nothing beats playing matches.
“We’ve done a huge amount of work all year, and I always say training is the hard part, playing games is fun. This is what we train for. You enjoy playing games; you enjoy being challenged. It’s not ideal but we’re young men, we’re fit. You just want to play matches. You could turn around and say we’re tired or we don’t have this or we don’t have Ger or we don’t have Dermuid, but excuses aren’t going to get you anywhere next week. And I think when you weigh it up and look at the bigger picture, (being) tired is a miniscule part of it. That’s the way I approached it anyway.”
The progress of the Dublin champions has also afforded Eamon Fennell the chance to show his worth once again, having dropped off the county scene, and also endured a lengthy transfer process before joining St Vincent’s, after leaving O’Tooles.
“Well Vincent’s are rich in history and hopefully this team can keep going,” says Fennell. “We’ve worked hard over the last few years to get things right, and to have a full year with Vincent’s now, compared to previous years, has been great for me. I’ve just got to understand the club a bit more and got to understand the roles a bit more. I feel like I’ve gelled into it now.”
