By Niall Gartland

CHRIS Dornan didn’t quite know what to expect when he and the Brídíní Óga girls arrived back home after Saturday’s All-Ireland Junior Championship final win over St Dominic’s of Roscommon.

The Cushendall native has been in attendance at homecomings but was still completely overcome by the reception afforded the Glenravel-based side when they landed back with the cup.

It was their second All-Ireland Junior title in four seasons, though last time around Rodney Kerr was in charge, so Saturday’s win brought particular satisfaction to Dornan.

On the celebrations, he said: “I couldn’t believe it. I wasn’t involved a few years back, so I just thought it’d be a few club people standing outside and a few flags.

“So I could hardly believe it, there must have been over 300 people in the hall, up the steps and outside. I was speechless to tell you the truth when we pulled in on the bus.

“I’ve been with my own club Cushendall when we’ve won championships, but to see what it meant to Glenravel was just amazing.

“Fireworks went off when we arrived, and I said to the old manager Rodney Kerr, that I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

Dornan brushes off the idea that there was any managerial magic involved in their run to another All-Ireland, preferring to praise the girls for their efforts on the pitch. Playing in Division One of the league was challenging, both in a positive and negative sense, but it steeled them in the long run.

“I always say to the girls that all the management can do is offer a bit of advice and talk them through different scenarios, but that when you go over the white line, it’s up to the players – they have the ability, they have the skill, so it was up to them whether they wanted to achieve their potential.

“That’s the way we left it at the first team meeting. We were in Division One of the league – there are obviously four teams who are ahead of us, but we wanted to try and get on the coat-tails of the likes of Ballycastle.

“We had a good half against them in the league but fell away and that maybe knocked the stuffing out of the girls, but we regrouped and pushed on.

“We worked out the average of what we conceded in all our championship games, and it was an average of eight points a game. If you offered that to any manager in any grade or code, a lot of them would take your hand off.”

Brídíní Oga ran out 1-8 to 1-5 victors in Saturday’s All-Ireland showdown, racking up a seven-point lead at the interval and showed fierce determination to fend off a determined second-half fightback from their opposition. Their goal-scorer was Molly Woulahan, a player with a remarkable record of finding the net.

“Molly’s a savage player. She’s such a nice girl and she gives you everything. She got booked and you’re almost panicking that she might get another one.

“It was early on and someone behind me said ‘you might want to look at taking Molly off.’ I said, ‘if I take Molly off now, you won’t see me again, I’ll probably be buried somewhere!’

“She plays with her heart on her sleeve – she can score worldie goals, dirty goals, she kicked a goal to the net in the county final. Six goals in six games is phenomenal and that’s the second time she’s done it – she did it during the run to the All-Ireland a few years ago as well.”

Dornan also had warm words for team captain Tori Edgar, whose seven points, including six from the dead ball, were of the utmost importance on the day.

“Tori sometimes doesn’t get a lot of credit because she’s our free-taker. We played Cushendall in the league and we got a free about 80 yards from goal and she nailed it. There’s not too many camogs that I know of, who can strike a ball as well as Tori.

“In the semi-final of the championship, we needed a goal, and she stepped up from a 21-metre free and nailed that as well. We were within a couple of minutes of going out.

“She’s a big game-player and so is Molly. Some of the other forwards don’t get the recognition they deserve but everybody else worked so hard as well.”