Captain Keith never doubted his brother or team-mates

By Noel Dundon

Brothers know each other best and when Upperchurch/Drombane captain Keith Ryan threw the sliotar to his brother Gavin to strike the last puck of the normal time in search of an equalising point in the All-Ireland Intermediate Club Hurling final on Saturday, he had no doubts that extra time was on the cards.

Keith has been watching his brother striking those long range frees for many years now, and in this campaign, they have been particularly important as ‘The Church meandered their way from the mid championship right through to Croke Park on All-Ireland final day.

The technique remains the same when hitting those frees and while the venues and the significance of each placed ball differs, every free taker dreams of this one – the one which will save the team or win the game. In this case, Gavin’s strike probably did both.

“It was serious courage by Gavin to take that on and put it over the bar but Gavin actually took a knock just in the play before it and he was down on the ground on his honkers,” the Upperchurch skipper revealed.

“I just picked up the ball and gave it to him and said, ‘you have this in your locker’ and not a bother to him. He has been nailing those frees since he was 10 or 11. He has come up trumps for us throughout this year and I didn’t have one bit of doubt about him nailing that one at all.”

As captain, Keith has led Upperchurch/Drombane with real style all season long. But the enormity of the achievement of his charges had not quite sunk in by the time he came to speak to the waiting media.

“This is the stuff of dreams,” Keith continued.

“It is an unbelievable feeling and I don’t think it has really sunk in yet. Going back twelve months ago when we started back training, we did not think we would be here. But when we got the opportunity, we knew that was a once in a lifetime one and we didn’t want to leave anything behind us. Thankfully we didn’t do that but we didn’t make it easy either.

“In fairness to Tooreen, they are a savage team, and we had to do everything in our power to get over them. We are just grateful to get out the right side of it.

“It was fairly over-whelming when you look down and you see all the panel of players in front of you and the management team and all of Upperchurch and Drombane there. It was quite emotional and it is a day that will live with me for a long time. It’s unreal.

“There are many lads in our dressing room who hadn’t won anything with Upperchurch/Drombane up until the last two years. We may have county leagues but nothing of significance, so this year is really special. To win a county, go on and win Munster and then have the crowning glory with the All-Ireland, is really special for those lads.

“There are lads like Paudie Greene, Colm Ryan, Paul Ryan who have played for this club for the last fifteen years at senior level and when I was a young lad looking up to them, I wanted to be them. So, to just grace the field with them is a huge privilege and it is lads like those men who have driven the standard in the club for the last few years.

“We were down Paudie (Greene) and Paddy (Phelan) was probably only at 70% but there was nothing stopping him playing. He wanted to get on that field and some other lads went down too and some went off with cramp and came back after 10/15 minutes for us. You need a panel and in fairness the lads who came off the bench made a big difference as well and got us over the line as well.”

The captain was cheered and feted as he ascended the steps of the Hogan Stand to collect the silverware. And the level of support really struck him as he tried to drink it all in.

“Whatever we do in hurling or outside of hurling, everyone just buys into it and backs each other. We are just grateful to be part of Upperchurch and Drombane.

“We will remember this day for many years to come,” he concluded.