Brady hoping history repeats itself 33 years on

SFC final preview

Gowna chairman Ciaran Brady’s sons Fionán and Cormac will take the pitch for their first Senior Championship final on Sunday, 33 years after their father made his bow on the big day.

Back then, a young Gowna side went into the final as underdogs against a star-studded Laragh but got over the line comfortably.

“It’s a long time ago, 1988. We played Laragh in the final, they were an exceptionally strong team. PJ Carroll was the manager and they were full of county players, John Brady, Donal Donohoe, Ray Cullivan, Adge King, Fionán McDonagh. They were a class team, we were young and coming up,” Brady remembered last week.

“I was just turned 18, Dessie [Ciaran’s brother and fellow county player] was probably just gone 20, the likes of Bernard Morris, Laurence Brady, Sean Pierson, Seamus Madden, Tommy Kelly, a lot of our team were from the 22 back to 18 bracket.

“No more than at the moment, we were young and we probably had no fear either and went for it that day and I think it was a low enough scoring game, 1-6 to 0-3 or something like that, we dominated Laragh on the day and it was phenomenal. It was great to go and win it but after that we didn’t win another one until ’94, six-year gap between our first and second one which was a long time.

“The first one was fantastic. It’s a long time ago now, it’s 33 years. During the lockdown, we got a lot of our games put on social media and people looked back on them and I suppose gave out about the standard of football back in those years! But it was nice to look back and watch it again.”

Three decades plus change have passed; Gowna had their dominant period, went into the doldrums and now they’re back. It’s a new team but some things remain the same – the green and red, the buzz in the area and, of course, the familiar names.

“Look, we don’t have any choice in Gowna. It’s not crying the poor mouth but it’s a small area and it’s a lot of the same surnames that are appearing again and please God will appear in generations to come.

“Maybe when we started winning championships in Gowna, we took our eye off the ball at underage levels and maybe the work wasn’t done on a continuous basis. There has been a lot of work done at underage in more recent years and we’re hoping that that work will continue to be done to keep providing players.

“It’s a numbers game, we have had good numbers up till the last couple of years at underage. At the moment, we have an U15 team in the Division 1 final but another year or two after that, the numbers are starting to dwindle again.

“It does come down to numbers, I know people from the bigger town clubs would say about the problems that come with larger numbers but it’s only when you’re dealing with the smaller numbers that you can see there is a balance to be struck between the two of them.

“We’re happy with the numbers and there are definitely parallels [between the 1988 and 2021 teams] but we are just hoping that we can keep bringing players through.”

The family ties are strong. Aside from Ciaran’s sons, Aaron, Conor and Ryan are sons of Laurence Brady, Cian and Tiarnan Madden sons of Kevin. Robbie and TJ Fitzpatrick’s Dad Timmy won championships, as did Ryan Donohoe’s father Gary and Oisin Pierson’s father Sean, among others.

Adding to the sense of hype in the area is the fact that Mullinalaghta, who share the parish, are in the Longford SFC final on the same day. There is a bridge where the two areas meet; back in 2000, Gowna won the Senior Championship and Mullinalaghta the Intermediate and photos were taken on that bridge of both cups. Football is the pulse of the parish; home were the heroes.

Just missing out were another neighbouring club, Colmcille.

“Mostrim beat Colmcille in the semi-final, it would have been lovely if the three clubs that border each other were in the final. Mullinalaghta have been a huge example for clubs of that size, winning a Leinster Club championship a couple of years ago.

“A lot of people might have assumed their days were gone but they are back in the final and on behalf of Gowna, I’d like to wish them the best of luck in their final. Two half-parishes playing in the county final in different provinces is probably unprecedented in the GAA.”

Two winning them surely would be.