GAA: 2011/12 ALL-IRELAND CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS:FOR SOMEONE who could quite possibly and fully justifiably be entering a third week of unrelenting celebration Kevin Nolan looks remarkably fresh.
Man of the match in the AllIreland football final and scorer of that majestic equalising point, Nolan may actually have had extra reason to rejoice in Dublin’s famous win over Kerry, and whatever late-night revelling that might have involved.
But, for a start, he doesn’t drink.
“Plenty of people on the team to drink for me,” he says. Indeed, Nolan was back at work on the Wednesday morning after, for an 8.40am assembly at Adamstown Community College in Lucan, where he teaches PE, and it was there the realisation of what he’d achieved with Dublin this summer began to hit home.
“The principal had it arranged that there’d be a bit of congratulations and all that,” he says, “so 350 kids were there wishing me well, and congratulating me on what I did. There were banners up around the school, so it was nice to go back into that environment, to see how proud people were.
“It’s a new enough school, only open three years, and the student population is about 50 per cent Irish and 50 per cent foreign nationals. A lot of them wouldn’t know much about Gaelic football, but, hopefully, this will encourage them to get involved.
“I’m sure I’ll be given the management jacket for the Gaelic team in the school. I’m looking forward to it because to manage kids and pass on what I’ve experienced in my short career so far would be nice.”
Nolan was speaking yesterday in the Faugh’s club, Dublin, at the launch the 2011/2012 AIB Club Championship. Like most of his Dublin team-mates, Nolan has also found himself back in club action, with Kilmacud Crokes, and next up is the fourth-round clash with St Brigid’s – a repeat of last year’s final – most likely on Sunday week.
Yet, the 22-year-old wing back has already accomplished a lot in his short career, including an All-Ireland club title with Kilmacud, and what made winning the AllIreland with Dublin that extra bit special was that it ended all the what-ifs, including a decision during his teenage years not to pursue a potential soccer career in England.
“There were regrets, I won’t lie, that I didn’t go over and actually try it. But with everything that’s happened with the club and with college and now the county it’s been a nice few years for me and I have no regrets any more.”
Other potential regrets might have been losing the league final to Cork earlier in the summer, yet Nolan believes that was the sort of experience that ultimately saw Dublin through against Kerry. “We probably would have been labelled as bottlers then. There were different reasons why we lost to Cork, but you don’t want to be peaking to win the league,” he says.
“You want to peak by the third Sunday in September. We corrected the criticisms we’d had after the failings of previous years. Not many teams can say they came back against Kerry in an AllIreland final when they were four points down to win by a point – especially against that Kerry team in particular and the quality of players they have and have had.
“Even against Donegal a lot of people might have been annoyed that we were losing by two points for so long, but the key word for us there was patience and it eventually paid off for us. Against Kerry, the main word was belief. We knew we’d get chances – we just hoped that we’d take them.”
As for his equalising point – following Kevin McManamon’s smashing goal – Nolan smiles about it now, knowing it was something of a once-off.
“My first thought when I got the ball was, ‘where’s Bernard Brogan’? But no, I’d scored a point against Cork in the league final from around that position.
“We also brought a lot more attacking to it this year, while still doing the basics, where we defended properly and as a unit.
“For me to get man of the match was nice, but if any of those six defenders were taken out of it we would have failed. And it’s not just the starting 15. A lot of lads would have praised the 20 lads who played, but everyone from 1-35 bought into it.”
Nolan then addresses the inevitable question of how important it is for Pat Gilroy to remain as manager – when there are strong suggestions he may walk away while at the top. “The situation he’s in, with young kids and work as well, is a huge commitment.
“I’d love for Pat to stay on for what he’s done and I’m sure he’d have the backing of everyone. I’ve loved playing under him because you know what you get from him.
“But I think what they were trying to do as well was facilitate us in a way so that it’s the team that are running it, that we’re responsible for our own actions.”
