AIB GAA Club Championship preview: Ardfert looking to continue Croke Park love affair on Valentine’s Day

As Valentine's Day excuses go it's probably one of the better ones.

Couples usually box off the February 14 as a day and night to spend with their partners and to 'show the love' in a special way. For the other halves of the Ardfert football team, this Saturday night will be spent in the cold of Croke Park and 2000watt floodlights will replace candlelight to stir romance. The North Kerry side face into a third AIB GAA Club Championship All-Ireland club final in less than a decade this Saturday night, having claimed a junior title in 2006 and then incredibly the intermediate crown the following season. This weekend they face first timers St Croans of Roscommon in Croke Park at 4.45pm in the 2015 Intermediate final. Midfielder John Dowling says the the wives and girlfriends understand the situation but that still doesn't mean that Valentine's will be totally forgotten about.

'She'll be there too so we might have to do a bit of digging around to see what we can do to make up for it. Hopefully we'll have a win so there'll be plenty of celebrations but we'll have to make up for it at some stage. You never know,we might put something in the post Saturday while we're in Croke Park. If we win that will be one Valentine's Day present to me, and I'll help her out during the week to put something together when the dust settles.'

Dowling was involved as a 19-year old in the club's first All-Ireland club triumph in 2006 when they defeated Loughrea. However, he is now known more for his incredible dedication to the Ardfert cause after he ripped up two tickets to the All-Ireland Final last year to donate 2,000 euro to his beloved club. It was all part of an AIB #TheToughest Choice challenge but Dowling says his newfound fame didn't get him very far with his team-mates.

'It happened two weeks before an intermediate championship game with Castleisland Desmonds and it was a good thing at the time. I didn't realise how big it was and I tell you there is no better place to cut you down from your pedestal than Ardfert football training on a Tuesday or Thursday night. I remember we went training the Thursday night and I didn't get much leeway for bringing in money or anything. T'was down to business,we've a match to win and it was nice the club got the money but down to work.'

The hard nosed attitude among the club is one fostered by their manager Pat O'Driscoll. He began a revolution within the club that saw them claim two All-Ireland club titles in a row while also scaling the heights of Kerry's county league, moving from Division Five to Division One in the space of five magical years.

'He's an unbelievable motivator. The talent was there and he just put it all together and I'd say it just took off . There isn't one sole person responsible but he definitely had a big part to play. It's all or nothing with him. He loves Ardfert, he loves GAA and he is what you would call a typical GAA man and passionate about winning, and it just comes out in us. Losing is not an option for him. He'd be awake for months on end about losses. He's one of the main men and Stephen Wallace is great as well.'

[caption id="attachment_353" align="alignnone" width="600"] John Dowling tore up two tickets to last year's All Ireland to help his club[/caption] Dowling is now one of the more senior figures on the panel for the Munster champions, and admits that only four or five players survive in the squad from the club's initial Croke Park success of nine years ago. He explains that the team that will line out on Saturday night is practically a new outfit, but that apart from changes on the field, he believes there has been a massive change on the sideline too.

'It has got a lot more advanced, and more technical and more professional at club level. Before, when you would have talked about tactics and nutrition and diet and the off season, it would have been associated with county panels. But now things are so competitive at club level. Playing style we still do the same as we always did, our mantra is a totally honest effort, give 120 per cent and if you beat your own man you can worry about everything else after.'

Their journey to the AIB GAA Club Championship All-Ireland final was not always a smooth voyage with an extra-time win over Spa described by Dowling as 'absolutely brutal' while the semi final win over Warrenpoint by a single point prompted the 30-year old to recall it as 'just a phenomenal game of football to be involved in'. Their opposition on Saturday are first timers in an All-Ireland club final, having emerged out of a very competitive Connacht championship. Their semi final win was based on tenacious defence and picking off scores when required to edge Sean O'Mahony's of Louth by 0-14 to 2-7. Dowling admits that the players only discover what management want them to know about their opponents in the build up to a game.

'We don't get much information about the team we are facing - management feed us what we need to know. We listen to them and we stick to our gameplan. We trust them to do the research and to give us our jobs individually or as a team.  Even on the day of a final and you're thinking who might get man of the match its always someone you don't think. Form goes out the window a day of a final.'

There are very few clubs that make it to Croke Park even once, and for the Munster champions the chance to reach the decisive game in a AIB GAA Club Championship for a third time in their history is a very special occasion. Dowling doesn't think previous experience of playing under lights for an All-Ireland title gives them a huge advantage, but everyone is determined to soak up the occasion.

'The last time I was there I remember I was in college and I didn't sleep very well the week of the final. Pat O'Driscoll says you are only as good as your last game. We can use it as experience to help us out but it won't win us the game. Last time we were there Pat said 'you'll never again get here lads so make the most of it' and I think for me at 30 years of age, and a lot of lads who have two already, this is our last hurrah. We're going to give it our living best and hopefully it will be good enough on the day.'

In a county littered with All-Ireland medals at every grade Ardfert feel that a win on Saturday would put them up there among their peers as one of the greatest club sides ever to emerge from the Kingdom. Dowling admits that they have often used a lack of county senior players as a motivation when playing other club sides within Kerry. He feels that a win on Saturday night would be a just reward for all involved in the club.

'You hear about the big clubs in Tralee, the 'Stacks and Strand Road and the 'Crokes in Killarney. Having three All-Ireland club medals for Ardfert would be absolutely huge in 10 years. For the guys who went ahead of us, the likes of John Crowley and the guys who played for Ardfert, who played in Division Five and Division Four and just to get out of that and to change it. There will be nobody left in Ardfert on Saturday and the place will be thronged on Sunday. It would be dream come through. '

AIB GAA Football All-Ireland Junior Club Championship Final Brosna V John Mitchels 3pm John Mitchel's must be thinking that if they could only avoid a Kerry side in the All-Ireland final, then they may get a chance to lift a title in Croke Park. Their previous journey across the Irish sea in February ended in defeat to Skellig Rangers in 2009 and this time they face a team from almost the opposite end of the Kingdom. The Liverpool based football club defeated Moate All-Whites of Westmeath by 1-9 to 1-6 the same day that Brosna and Rock st Patrick's were forced to a replay last month Kieran Lynam scored their crucial goal in the semi final while Donegal's Michael Molloy is one of their top scorers  from the half forward line.They have tended to put up decent scores throughout their winning run,beating Oileáin Árainn,the Connacht champions, by 1-14 to 1-9, after winning the British title by 4-12 to 3-11 against Shamrocks. Brosna's passage to the later stages of the All-Ireland series has also been eventful with a dramatic semi final replay win over Rock St Patrick's their most recent outing. They will  take comfort from Kerry's incredible record in the junior championship over the last decade and will be expected,as favourites,to bring another AIB-GAA club title back to the south-west. Mitchel's are the best prepared side from the British championship's to ever reach an All-Ireland final and if they get some early momentum  there is potential for a shock. With so many UK based sides in this weekend's club action at GAA HQ they may get the weekend off to a flying start with  a maiden junior success to bring back across the Irish Sea.