We, Dundalk Gaels, are hogging Inside Track space once again

This story comes with a warning: it’s peppered with the words ‘us’, ‘we’, and ‘our’. Those who buy this paper each week and turn to the Inside Track pages would know straight away what’s coming next, something about Dundalk Gaels.

We were out in the Louth intermediate championship final replay in Darver last Saturday night, taking on Hunterstown Rovers. It ended in a win for us, bringing with it a quick return to the senior championship.

Straight away it has to be said that it was first and foremost a great game, some neutrals describing it as one of the best in any grade for quite some time. It takes two to tango, and contributing as much as us were Hunterstown.

My view on the drawn game was that we should have won it, but were lucky to get away with a draw. Ryan Burns, the county player, was central to the narrative in that game and on the lead up to it.

One of Rovers’ best, Burns shipped a big injury in the semi-final and was doubtful for the decider. He played, but wasn’t at his very best, especially with his free-taking.

On Saturday, we saw the real Burns, the No 11 scoring a succession of fine points that helped his side wipe out a four-point deficit and go in at the break in front.

He wasn’t as effective in the second half. We, you could say, tightened up at the back, manning many roadblocks en route to Aaron Culligan’s goal.

But it remained nip and tuck, and even after Tom O’Connell bagged the second of his two goals, putting us four points clear, Rovers wouldn’t give up. A hugely exciting game, which had, for us, a nerve-jangling finish, ended with two points dividing the sides.

Tom O’Connell got man-of-the-match, after bringing to three the number of goals he claimed in the two matches. And we’re wondering, will we have him for the greater part of next year’s league campaign. If any of the Louth management were present, they could only have been impressed.

Which of the leagues that will be is still open to question. We have still to play Stabannon Parnells in this season’s league, and if beaten, will have a battle on our hands to avoid dropping down the junior league.

Yes, the junior league. Just imagine, us playing in next season’s senior championship, but competing in the third tier’s points competition.

From that, you can detect that we weren’t at our best in the early part of the season. Very poor, in fact. Badly needed was the boost in confidence provided by the draw with Mattock and a win over Glyde in the championship league section.

It took off after that. A narrow win over Kilkerley and another in a re-match with Mattock was the admission ticket to the final, and a double set-to with Hunterstown.

Kevin McKernan, centre-half on the Down team beaten by Cork in the 2010 All-Ireland final, is in first year as manager at The Ramparts.

He almost brought off a significant double. On the day of the drawn final, he was on the Burren squad for the Down County final. Multiple champions, Kilcoo, proved too strong for the former kingpins.

McKernan is an advocate of, let’s call it, the ‘modern’ game. He’s been unflinching in his belief, even when there were more defeats than wins in the league, some of them by huge margins. But he got things working after that after that, his plan working to perfection on Saturday.

Regardless of how next weekend’s league match results, we’ll be out the following week, taking on Dublin’s Naomh Mearnóg in the Leinster championship.

We’ve a good record in this competition – played in one and won it. We’ve been followed onto the podium by Mattock Rangers, Geraldine and Seán O’Mahony’s. None of us went on to contest the All-Ireland final.