Dowling ambitious for top of the town

Leinster Club SFC final, Focus on Moorefield:  Ian O'Riordanhears from the Moorefield manager about the club's quest for provincial glory

It's probably the wrong time of the week and year for a history lesson; something light and lively is what you want on a Saturday in December. But when a club like Moorefield are only now contesting their first Leinster final it's hard not to reminisce a little.

Founded well over 100 years ago, providing Newbridge with its first GAA team and a part of the town's evolution ever since, Moorefield have survived a chequered past to get to this moment, which makes it all the more celebratory. To understand what winning tomorrow's club football final against Rhode would mean you have to know where they're coming from.

Back in 1882, two brothers, John and James O'Kelly, of Moorefield Road in the old town, assembled a football team and arranged games against neighbouring opposition such as Eyrefield, Mountrice and Kildare town. Calling themselves JJ O'Kellys, the club frequently endured the intervention of the occupying forces, intent on suppressing this "foreign game".

When the GAA was founded two years later, in 1884, it was decided no team could be called after a living person or persons, so JJ Kellys became Moorefield.

Success, however, was slow in coming; it was 1932 before they won a junior title. During the 1940s, much work was done in expanding the club, by the likes of Tommy Dowling, who also played on the successful junior team of 1948. The Dowling family also had a role in the club's first county senior success, in 1962, Jimmy Dowling being part of the team.

During those years the clubhouse still stood on the original site on Moorefield Road, but that was eventually sold and turned into shops, and the club is now situated on ever-expanding grounds at Pollardstown, northwest of the town, towards the Curragh.

Much of this information was kindly supplied by Séamus "Sos" Dowling. His name is clearly rooted in the club; Tommy was his grandfather and Jimmy his father. He also happens to be manager of the team now poised to make history. To the general followers of Kildare football, "Sos" Dowling is better known as the right-half back on the 1998 All-Ireland final team that lost out to Galway.

Dowling "happens" to be manager because, he admits, it all happened by chance. Despite being manager of the club's under-21 team that won back-to-back county titles in 1997 and 1998, and also coaching the successful minor team of 1998, he had not intended to take over the senior side just yet.

"I always said I'd leave it for a while," he explains. "Two years ago the club asked me would I give them a hand to look for someone. So we went around and asked a few people, one of which was Tom Cribbin, who was with Laois for a while. He just turned around and said, 'Sos, why don't you do it?' and that he didn't have the time anyway.

"Then our chairman at the time, Tom McDonnell, came back a week or two later and asked me to take it. I still wasn't sure. His brother came down then, Eric McDonnell, a local publican in the town, and asked me again. So eventually I agreed to take it. So that's how I ended up here."

Though now in his second year as manager, Dowling also admits his surprise at making the Leinster final so soon: "I would have known a fair few of the team from the under-21s and that. I would have played with a few as well. I knew they had potential, but I was thinking I'd leave it for another year or so.

"So it has turned out well. I'm a little surprised, to be honest, because we've a lot of young lads on the team. I'd say the average age is around 22. I thought we might have been a year too early to do anything in Leinster, but it's worked out okay.

"We have struggled through a lot of our games, playing well in patches, and playing badly in other patches, and that's a sure sign of a team that still needs to get some experience.

"But they've a lot of heart and a lot of fighting spirit for a young team. The only thing I would worry about on Sunday is the lack of experience compared to Rhode. But we've had four games to get here, so we're well prepared. We've trained hard, been planning well, worked hard on things that went against us in the last couple of games. Like we hit 13 wides the last day, and if we hit that amount again against Rhode we won't beat them, simple as that.

"In fact, we know it's another step up really, so everything has to go well. If we lack any little thing on the day you'd have to fancy Rhode. But if everything goes to plan we will take beating."

Still, Moorefield have been gradually building to this level. In 2000 they won their first Kildare senior title since 1962, and their run to this year's final has seen them beat St Patrick's of Wicklow, Horeswood of Wexford (after a replay), and just last Sunday, Tyrrellspass of Westmeath.

In more recent years the club's history has been defined by their rivalry with Sarsfields, the other main GAA club in Newbridge. Traditionally, Moorefield represented the top end of the town, and Sarsfields the bottom end, and that rivalry has brought out the best in both clubs. They've won six titles between them in the last eight years, Sarsfields winning in 1999, 2001 and 2005, and Moorefield in 2000, 2002 and 2006.

"We would have quite a big pool of players, even though there are two big clubs in the town," says Dowling. "Our underage has been very successful for the past 10 or 12 years now. There are a couple of smaller clubs on the outskirts, such as Milltown, but it's really only been the two of us. It's been very competitive in the town for five or six years, and that's been a good thing."

Raheens remain the only Kildare club to have captured the Leinster crown, in 1981, but given his family's great tradition with the club - and given he is the only Moorefield man to have played in a modern All-Ireland final - it would be fitting if Dowling led Moorefield to their first success.

"Of course it's been a huge honour to get this far," he says. "And just to make the final for the first time is a great thing in itself. But you still want to give it your best shot when you're there, and that's all we're hoping for now."