Longford SFC Final: Frankie factor has revitalised Abbeylara into developing a winning mentality

The Abbey manager is former Roscommon star forward Frankie Dolan who has won eleven Roscommon senior football championship titles with St Brigid’s, Kiltoom one Longford senior football championship medal with Ballymahon, several Connacht club titles and the famous All-Ireland Senior Football Club Championship success back in 2013 when he kicked that stunning match-winning point that beat Dublin and Leinster champions Ballymun Kickhams in the final.

Frankie has brought that winning mentality to an Abbeylara side that were battling for survival at senior level just twelve months ago having to beat Ballymahon in a relegation play-off to survive, Now the team are just one match away from Connolly Cup glory and Dolan is excited at the prospect of winning the big prize.

“It is a brilliant feeling to be in the county final. We came in at the start of the year and we didn’t know what to expect. We were chatting to Ciaran Drake and Donal Ledwith and others involved with the club and they were trying to sell the potential within the club to us and they sold it really well. 

“They convinced us that the talent was there and that it was about harnessing that talent, building up the team and getting them to play as a group and not as individuals.

 “You have seen that throughout the championship and in particular in our semi-final victory over a top-class Killoe team in the semi-final who were the champions last year. 

“Our lads battled so hard and gave it everything, our defence was top, top class, and against such an impressive unit as Killoe as well. Going forward we were excellent too and could have scored four or five goals but for some brilliant goalkeeping and defending from Killoe. 

“Our midfield and forwards were top class as well and the fact that we only had five wides as opposed to the fourteen against Rathcline shows how much our attacking potency has improved.

“At the start of the campaign a lot of people would have laughed at the idea of Abbeylara reaching the county final, but when you have a group of players who bought into our ideas and our plans like they did, we knew that anything was possible with this team. 

“The players, everyone connected with the club, my backroom team of Garvan, Derek, and our kitman Kevin Kiernan who missed the semi-final win as his wife had a baby boy that day, so congratulations to them.

“Gerry Gilligan, Mel Brady Senior, Ciaran Drake, John Fay, Dawn Reilly, Aoibheann Smyth and lots of other brilliant people around the club have contributed to this success. It is huge for the parish to get to the county final and you could see the joy on everyone’s faces after our win over Killoe. 

“Having said all that, we have not won a title and Colmcille will be doing their best to make sure our drought since 2006 will continue for another year. They have been very impressive and won four of their five group stage games. 

“They then defeated Clonguish and Mullinalaghta in the knockout phase, two teams who we failed to beat in our group matches, so we know that despite our win over the county champions the last day, Colmcille will be favourites and rightly so.

“Our lads have put the work in all year and have been very disciplined and have made huge sacrifices. Their reward so far has been to reach the county final and hopefully the Connolly Cup will be their ultimate success,” commented Frankie.