Club Focus: Kildallan are doing it their way

Our grounds

SUNDAY, January 6, 2019 was a proud day for everyone associated with Kildallan, a small club based in Ballyconnell on the Cavan-Fermanagh border.
Hosting a McKenna Cup match mightn’t be a big deal for the townfolk of Omagh, Armagh or Newry, but it was a big honour for this Division Three club.
It was a happy occasion all round as Cavan overcame Queen’s University with plenty to spare, while Kildallan clubman Ryan O’Neill scored a goal on what was his debut for the senior inter-county team.
That’s not to say that they don’t have history – in a previous guise they were known as Ballyconnell First Ulster’s, the oldest club in Cavan and Ulster (hence the name, obviously, and it was founded in 1885 in case you were wondering).
They already had fine facilities before this year, but they haven’t rested on their laurels either and have made First Ulster’s Park even better this year, as their secretary Patrick Reilly explains:
“We have a good set-up, we’ve done some work on it recently. We’ve put up a new stand in the last six months, it was started just before the pandemic and we finished it about a month ago, there’s a new entrance and new turnstile, new toilet blocks and a shop as well.
In terms of the upkeep of the grounds, Reilly says there’s a small but committed group of people involved. It’s a recurring theme in our focus on Kildallan.
“It’s really myself, the chairman and the committee who does most of the work and our vice-chairman Declan Timmons generally lines the field. We have a development committee at the minute but they’re mainly involved in other jobs.”
The Covid-19 pandemic has obviously thrown up all sorts of problems for the club (it seems a long time ago now that Cavan was a hotspot for the virus, come to think of it), but they’ve responded in fine fashion. The club’s underage coach, Roisin Shannon, says that they make sure everyone who attends their matches goes home feeling that they’ve been part of something safe.
“We’ve tried to adhere to the regulations as best as possible and a number of referees have mentioned that we have someone at the gates making sure everyone’s sanitised. The refs have said they haven’t seen that from other clubs. It’s a difficult year so it’s good to be recognised that we’re doing something.”

Memorable seasons

A famous win and some near misses

1977

KILDALLAN haven’t won too much down through the years, but they recently commemorated their sole Junior Championship triumph, which was won in 1977. The men who took the title back to the club were: Jim Donohoe, Brian Fee, Peter Smith, Brian McManus, Seamus Murray, Frank Murray, Jim Carroll, Jim McManus, Liam Byrne, Frankie Freehil, Cathal Reilly, Noel Lunney, Brendan Murray, Jimmy Kelly and Noel Corcoran.

2001-2002

Kildallan reached the Junior Championship final in 2001 and 2002, but unfortunately lost on both occasions. In the first year they lost against Drumgoon by six points, albeit they actually led by a point with six minutes left, and they fought all the way in 2002 before losing by 1-6 to 0-6 to Butlersbridge. As an aside, they actually lost the semi-final against Mullahoran in 2002 before the result was reversed on a technicality. Players from that era deserving of a mention include Enda Herron, Barry Rudden, Noel Maguire and Trent Fitzpatrick.

2017-2019

Kildallan had three fine seasons between 2017 and 2019 under Terence Reynolds, who stepped down last year. They came close to achieving promotion on two occasions, and were beaten by Knockbride in a Junior Championship quarter-final replay in 2017. Unfortunately, Reynolds has been left with a lot of ‘what ifs’ from those years, while pointing out that he’s still been left with a lot of great memories.
“In the first two years we got to a league play-off and lost on both occasions by a point. The first year we would have gone up on scoring difference, but a few games were conceded so it had to go to a play-off instead.
“It was disappointing, we had a very good side with a great attitude. In the first year Shane McPartland was our main player, but he did his cruciate and I remain convinced to this day that if he was fit we would’ve been promoted and could’ve won the championship.
“I think we were the outstanding team going into the summer before he got injured. It knocked the confidence out of the team and took a while to bounce back.
“In the second year we just ran out of road, but we thought we’d enough in us to go for a third year. Ryan O’Neill, who played for Cavan, did his cruciate when he was spending time in America and Shane tore his hamstring so it didn’t go to plan.
“But we had great craic and the players enjoyed it. It’s important that we had a reserve team too, it was important for the players who might’ve have sat at home otherwise.”#

Underage

Doing it for the kids

KILDALLAN claimed the Division Four U-17 title last October with a 5-14 to 2-14 victory over Denn.
They seem like a good bunch of players: not only are they good with a size five, but the likes of captain Eoghan Brady and Dylan Bannon help out with coaching in the local schools, as underage secretary Roisin Shannon explains:
“They’re very interested in coaching and helping out the kids. We hoped that if we got them into it at an underage level we might be able to hold onto them as the years go on.
“They’d like to teach in a coaching capacity so it’s of benefit to them in a long run as well.
“We’ve a great bunch of coaches generally – there was a course in Breffni at the start of the year, 12 were at it and six were from Kildallan. They try to introduce new drills and there’s a good parent-body supporting us.”
Shannon notes that numbers are down from last year at underage level as a consequence of the pandemic, but on the bright side there’s a lot of new kids who have joined who weren’t there before.
“We’re down a good bit because of Covid. We had 93 kids last year at all underage levels and this year we have 67. We’ve done the best we can and co-operated with the parents by relaying them the relevant info, but it’s their individual choice at the end of the day and we can’t cajole them into sending their kids back.”
Terence Reynolds is a Leitrim man, but he can’t be faulted for his commitment to the club. He managed the team between 2017 and 2019, but his role as Principal of Scoil Naomh Brid is just as important in producing players at all levels (Kildallan National School and Ballyconnell Central can’t pass without mention either). He says the most important thing is the enjoyment factor.
“We haven’t won competitions but what we do is we participate in every blitz going, some would be cross-border.
“We play across the border in the St Aidan’s High School, Derrylin transition blitz for year sixes and we play a lot of teams from Fermanagh.
“It’s great craic, it’s a low pressure situation at a very high standard and then every summer we play in another blitz in Derrylin run by the primary school, we’ve had a bit of success there with both girls and boys recently,
“I think the more blitzes they take part in the better. Heading away for the day is much better fun than this thing of having a few coaching sessions and playing two or three league games.
“We do a lot of preparatory work based on the new PE Literacy Curriculum which focuses a lot on athletic development rather than honing in on one sport. If those fundamentals are dealt with, they’re nearly able to take up any sport.
“We also have the Cavan GAA coach Nevin O’Donnell who comes in every weekend. We have a hurling coach as well.
“In the school itself we try to run little blitzes – lunch-time leagues we call them.
“Obviously Covid has thrown things but we normally run an indoor hurling-league, and little GAA and soccer and basketball leagues. We find the more sport they play the better.”
Reynolds also says they do their best to include non-Irish nationals.
“We have a large cohort of newcomer Irish, whose parents could be from eastern Europe. We find they’re mad to play. It’s just about making it available to them, and the work of the coach coming in from the county board is very important there.
“In fairness the quality of players in the last couple of years has risen by a considerable margin as the club has put in such a big effort across the board – people like Joe O’Reilly, Mick Power, Noel Maguire, Gabrielle O’Neill, Roisin Shannon and Patrick Reilly.”

Community

Rowing together during the pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic that’s swept the globe has presented challenges for every club, but also opportunities. Kildallan has done its bit to help vulnerable members of the community.

Club Secretary Patrick Reilly said: “The club got involved with the local shops to help out with deliveries. We’ve a big Supervalu in the town, they’re one of our main sponsors and they approached the club asking if we’d help out.

“A group of volunteers set up a Whatsapp group and we helped out people from throughout the local area.”

With Treasurer Roisin Neary deserving a special mention, the club also raised a total of €5,337 for the ICU in Cavan General Hospital in their fight against Covid-19.

Future plans

Not resting on their laurels

THE club will want to get out of Division Three under their new managers Emmett Curry and Mickey Cadden, but that won’t be easy with a host of players injured at the moment. Still though, they’ve brought in half a dozen members of last year’s U-17 Division Four Championship winning team, and that can only be positive going ahead.

Kildallan have also had to shelve, for now, phase two of their redevelopment plans due to the Pandemic. They’d hoped to redevelop their dressing rooms and extend their gym, and hopefully that’ll come in time.

And in a message to supporters, the Kildallan club lotto draws place on Monday night with a jackpot of 3000 euro, and you can play at smartlotto.ie.