GAA: Pride of Marino ready for semi decider

ST VINCENT’S have a chance to cement their reputation as one of Ireland’s greatest club football teams when they take on Slaughtneil in the AIB All-Ireland Senior Club Football Championship semi-final tomorrow.

The Marino side have lead the way in Dublin club competition over the few years. As well as winning two All-Ireland titles in 2008 and 2014, Vincent’s have won both the Dublin and Leinster Championship in three out of the last four years.

While some of the most successful club teams of the past have featured a litany of inter-county stars, Vincent’s captain and talisman Diarmuid Connolly was the only regular feature in Dublin’s starting inter-county team this year.

Selector Niall Curran has been involved in the Vincent’s management team throughout these last four years and explained that the key to their success is the result of a variety of factors.

“For us, it’s the sum of the parts. To blend that experience with youth; you have the likes of Diarmuid (Connolly), Mossy (Quinn), Ger Brennan who have been with us for years and then you have guys that are 21,22 who are being lead by those guys and are quite happy to be lead and learn from them,” Curran says.

“It’s also the hunger that comes with all of that too. That, and motivation, is behind all of our success. As a management team, we’re just there to facilitate, enable and create an environment where the team can flourish.”

Apart from Connolly, panel members Shane Carthy and Michael Savage and former Dublin stars Ger Brennan and Tomás Quinn, many members of the side would be unknown to most fans.

Given their track record, there’s no doubting the quality of these players at their disposal. Listening to Curran speak though, it’s clear that the mentality present in both the squad and the club is crucial.

“We came out on the right side of those games, and that’s what’s really important, but when we did go ahead of teams we struggled to put them away and that’s something we needed to correct,” Curran says.

“You have to take it step by step. You’d be foolish to look any further ahead than the Dublin Championship. It’s such a difficult championship to win and you have to do anything to get through that.”

The success the club is having at senior level isn’t a unique phenomenon within St Vincent’s. The Northsiders are widely considered to be one of the strongest clubs in Dublin, with many of their juvenile teams competing in Divisions 1 and 2.

When asked is it simply a case of there being a winning mentality in Marino and at St Vincent’s, Curran replied that he “hopes that is the case” and hopes that his team can help contribute to the success by leading at the helm of the club.

“I think we (the senior squad) will have failed as a group if we don’t help other sections of the club. We are certainly open and want everyone to come together and share collective intelligence amongst teams to improve the standards of the club as a whole,” he says.

“At the end of the day, it’s all about the community, all about bringing people together with a goal and a purpose.”

This is a golden age for Dublin GAA, with both inter-county teams and club teams including Vincent’s, and the likes of Cuala and Ballyboden St’ Enda’s, all filling trophy cabinets around the county.

At the moment though, it is very much St Vincent’s leading the charge and it will only take two more wins for them to cement themselves as possibly the greatest club team in the history of Dublin GAA, providing they can get past their next opponent.

“Do I think we’ve more to come?” adds Curran. “I’d like to think so. There’s potential within the group, it’s really about whether we can show that against Slaughtneil. That’s a story though that’s yet to be told.”

• St Vincent’s will play Slaughtneil on Saturday, February 11 in Newry. 

REPORT: Daniel O’Connor