Ipswich switch has rich pay-off for Supple

THE AIB club championship prides itself on the spirit of community and special allegiance and Shane Supple now understands exactly what that means.

Two years ago, at 22, he walked away from a professional football career with Ipswich Town, candid in his distaste for the game, or at least some of the motivations behind it – actually describing it as an “empty existence”.

Once tipped to be Shay Given’s successor as Republic of Ireland goalkeeper, Supple had won an FA Youth Cup with Ipswich in 2005, and seemed destined for a big career, and the big earnings to go with it. Instead, he longed for something more fulfilling, and that brought him home to Castleknock and St Brigid’s GAA club.

On Sunday, Supple captained the team that won only their second Dublin SFC title (the first was in 2003), and kept a clean sheet in the process – not easily done when Alan and Bernard Brogan are on the opposition.

It was the perfect response for anyone who still doubted his decision to leave England, or that he was bound to regret it, especially given the manager he walked out on was a certain Roy Keane.

“This justifies it all, definitely,” says Supple. “It’s something I really wanted, and to kind of prove to myself as well, that I’d made the right decision. So I’m absolutely chuffed to bits now.

“Winning this title is the best day of my life, in footballing terms, without a shadow of a doubt. It’s all I wanted to do. There’s nothing better than winning it with your mates. It’s a special bunch of lads down in Russell Park, the management and all the rest of them. They’ve done fantastic to turn the club around in the last two years. It’s hard to describe unless you’re in amongst it.”

Supple targeted the Dublin title from the moment he returned home, and they recommitted with even greater purpose last year, when he was vice-captain of the team that lost the county final, to Kilmacud Crokes. “You want to play at the top, amongst the top lads. It’s not been an easy road for us but we’ve got there in the end. It’s just great to have the cup there at the end of it. We don’t think we did ourselves justice last year in the final. When we went back up this year and started in January we made a promise to each other that we were going to get back to the final and we’ve done that.

“And the work the lads put in this year, and throughout the summer, has been unbelievable, because it’s been a long time waiting for this championship to get going. We’ve had to reel off the games very quickly.”

Supple even goes as far as to say the commitment of his club-mates surpasses anything he’d witnessed in professional soccer: “Obviously, it’s an amateur sport so it’s totally different, but compared to when I was in England, I’d say these lads give 100 per cent more than anyone else I’ve ever played with.”

He also favourably compares Gerry McEntee (who manages St Brigid’s along with Mark Byrne) with Keane, suitably enough, given they were both ferocious midfielders in their day.

“Yeah, they’re similar in some ways. Gerry at the end of it is an absolute gentleman behind it all. When he needs to be tough he gets tough, but I think he’s kind of mellowed a bit in the last few years with old age. He’s fantastic and Mark Byrne with him. The two of them are fantastic and kind of play off each other.”

They’ll be no resting up for St Brigid’s as they’re out again this Sunday in the Leinster championship against Meath champions Summerhill – who will have home advantage in Páirc Tailteann.

“It’s a short turnaround, but we’d rather be there than not so we’ll deal with it. In the last few years it’s been St Vincent’s and Crokes in the All-Irelands and so we definitely want to add our name to that and it’s the last chance possibly for a few of the boys on this team as well. They’re not getting any younger, but they’re certainly going to do all they can to get it.”