If Mullinalaghta can do it, why can’t your club?
A club of 155 members against a club of 4800. A club who amalgamates underage and can still barely field against one of Dublin’s super clubs. A club from a county who had never had a representative in a Leinster final before against a club who alone, have won four.
St Columba’s Mullinalaghta against Kilmacud Crokes. The previously unheard of underdogs against one of Ireland’s most successful ever clubs.
One way traffic, right? A foregone conclusion, right?
Wrong, and what transpired when David met Goliath in O’Connor Park on Sunday afternoon is the most beautiful thing of all the beautiful things about club GAA.
It’s that no matter how small you are, it’s that no matter how disadvantaged you are compared to the rest and the best of them, it’s that no matter how many times you’re written off, you’re still in with a chance once you’ve a group of lads who believe in one another and who believe in themselves.
Prior to Sunday’s final, their key player James McGivney spoke about every family in the parish taking turns in making the sandwiches to ensure the team gets fed after every training session. That wouldn’t have to happen in Kilmacud Crokes and it wouldn’t have to happen in the majority of clubs but that kind of thing builds spirit and it builds togetherness.
Mullinalaghta went out and they defeated all the odds on their day of days, their man Paddy Fox keeping one of the country’s best forwards quiet and that act typifying and summing up the scale of their achievement.
After the game, they roared out, “We’re from Mullinalaghta, we just won the Leinster Cup! Allez, Allez, Allez.”
What dreams are made of!!! #LeinsterChamps @TheLaurelsM representing @OfficialLDGAA in the @AIB_GAA Leinster final! #ClubIsFamily 🇶🇦🏆 pic.twitter.com/fZliyPXZbp
— Bláithín Brady (@BlaithinBrady1) December 9, 2018
On Sunday night, the team returned to the other half of their parish in Gowna, holding the cup aloft to loud cheers from the locals.
That’s what it’s all about.
