Recently appointed Dublin hurling manager Niall Ó Ceallacháin will bid to win back to back Dublin SHC titles as manager of Na Fianna on Saturday when they play Kilmacud Crokes.
By John Harrington
Na Fianna defender Kevin Burke has backed Niall Ó Ceallachin to be a success as Dublin senior hurling team manager.
O’Cellachain led Na Fianna to the club’s first Dublin senior hurling championship last year and has once again guided them to tomorrow’s final against Kilmacud Crokes as the Drumcondra club aim for back-to-back titles.
Burke admits he was initially surprised when when Ó Ceallacháin was announced as Micheál Donoghue’s successor last month but is confident he and his management team of Donal McGovern (Kilmacud Crokáes), Nigel O'Hara (Na Fianna) and David Curtin (Ballyboden St Enda’s) will have a positive impact.
“He just said it to us at training the night it was announced,” says Burke of Ó Ceallacháin’s appointment. “I was very surprised but it’s a great appointment.
“Him and the Crokes manager and Curtin – they’re three lads who really know the club scene inside out from the last few years. I think it’s a great appointment. They’ll know every player in Dublin. It’s a great start to have.
“One thing he has brought to us in Na Fianna the last few years is the really good structure. The structure is nearly as good as an inter-county team. Which is really what you need. Obviously you need the players and the coaches but as a manager, he gives us that high quality setup and it just breeds success from that.
"I was delighted that it’s Dublin lads coming in now. Not that you can relate to them more but you can see they’ve come through the ranks at a Dublin club.
“It definitely adds something a bit different and a bit special to be involved with.”
Kevin Burke, left, and Donal Burke of Na Fianna after their side's victory in the 2023 Dublin County Senior Club Hurling Championship final match between Ballyboden St Endas and Na Fianna at Parnell Park in Dublin. Photo by Stephen Marken/Sportsfile.
Leading Na Fianna to a fourth Dublin final in succession testifies to both Ó Ceallacháin’s management nous and the quality of their panel.
It’s no surprise really that their first ever Dublin senior hurling championship last year didn’t sate their collective appetite.
The pain of consecutive county final defeats to Kilmacud Crokes in 2021 and 2022 was always likely to ensure they’d come back hungry for more success this year.
According Burke, the memory of those two final defeats is still a source of motivation.
“They were really tough, to be honest,” he says. “Really hard to take. Especially the manner in which they happened. Like we probably did deserve to win the first one. It was really tough.
“But if we hadn’t lost that game, I don’t know if we would have gotten over the line last year. It was great experience for the lads to get together and it’s the majority of the same group. You learn a lot from days like that.
“Really tough loss to take. But I’m not sure if we’d have gotten the win last year without those two losses the year before. You learn from it and build from it. It works in a weird way.
“It definitely takes a couple of weeks or months. Even talking about it is still not nice. But whenever the next season comes up, it just give you the chance to move on. That’s the great thing about sport, it doesn’t allow you too much time to dwells on victories or defeats.”
Na Fianna are one of the largest GAA clubs in Dublin. Back in 2019 a study found they had 1,938 registered players and 166 teams, and the numbers have only grown since then.
Burke doesn’t believe the club’s rising fortunes as a hurling force are down to sheer weight of numbers, but due to more traditional values.
“It’s a massive club but then, when you look at the team, it’s very close knit. The same families. Burkes, Curries, Feeneys, Murphys, the Ryans. There’s a lot of families from the area that are the heartbeat of the team really.
“That makes it even more special, training and paying week in and week out.”
Na Fianna certainly won’t have an edge in the numbers game against a Kilmacud Crokes team with even more registered players.
The Stillorgan club don’t rely on their large pick for success either, they have a great track-record of bringing though talented young players and the side they’ll field tomorrow will feature a lot of new faces that weren’t around for their last Dublin championship success in 2022.
“It’s really impressive, it’s just a credit to their underage setup,” says Burke. “They have serious new lads coming in every year. You have a couple of lads who are starting and they look like they’ve been around for five or six years.
“But we’re the same. We’ve a few new lads coming in. Will Wheatley, he’s playing minor championship as well. And lads like Joe Kavanagh, Ciarán Stacey, Jack Maher – they’re lads you need pushing lads on and them breaking into the team is exactly what you need from a squad.”
