Resilient Denn hope to bring some joy to the community

JFC final preview

Bernard Gaffney is a man of relatively few words but when he speaks, others in the dressing-room listen. Denn's full-back turned in an inspirational performance in the replayed semi-final against Knockbride last Friday and he's well aware of what a victory this Saturday (6pm, Kingspan Breffni) would mean to the club and wider community.

The Denn area has been rocked by a number of tragedies over the past couple of years and, says Gaffney, it has taught the footballers the importance of resilience and sticking together.

Losing the delayed county final 10 weeks ago was hard but it was only a game of football and Denn's mantra was clear: put the head down and come back again.

“It was difficult but in our parish, over the past while we have learned that in life in general, you have to be resilient and we are very lucky that our football team is much more than a football team,” Bernard told the Anglo-Celt.

“The character those lads show is second to none so that's something that is really relished in our place. We just go at it again, it becomes a way of life really...

“Ten weeks ago when Templeport beat us, we went back to our home village and the reception we got was phenomenal so I can only imagine what it would be like to win. As I always say, our group of players have a chance to bring just a little bit of joy and happiness into our club and if we think we can do that, we will certainly try our best to do it.”

Tactically, Denn got things spot on for the semi-final replay and the players delivered the goods when needed.

“After last Sunday, we knew we were going into a battle, we went back to training and Stephen and Jerome and Ken and Raymond looked at our strong points and our weak points and we worked on those.

“I think we came back for the replay knowing we just had to perform a little better and go out with a better attitude. I think we did that and we got the result we wanted, we got the win.

“I suppose a lot of it is just instinct. We knew Knockbride have a very dangerous forward line and we had to take that into consideration and work on that. I think we did that reasonably well.

“We have very good forwards and have to try and utilise them the best we can. The man in the best position gets the ball. We try to keep it simple,” he said.

The older members of the squad have played a key role behind the scenes, he revealed.

“We still have some old war veterans still battling away, the two Franks (Martin and Adrian Cahill) and Mossy and Eddie Halligan and Mousey, he got the knees freed up again! It's very important to have those lads there and pushing us on.”

Captaining the local club to a county final is always a proud day and Denn will be cheered on by the entire parish, young and old, including the next generation whom Bernard hope will soon be knocking on the door of the senior panel.

“We have some exceptional talent coming up through the ranks and when we are up training, we are looking down at the underage training knowing that some day they are going to be putting pressure on us and that's a good thing. It's a real positive to see in our club, watching the underage and seeing real potential and good work going on there.

“Hopefully we can keep them interested and they can keep us interested.”

Asked what responsibility he feels as captain, he was quick to heap praise on the rest of the squad.

“To be honest, there is not much responsibility because we have over 30 leaders. As I do say, every number on a jersey is a character and a leader in their own right so to captain this Denn team is a real privilege but to know you are surrounded by captains makes the task an awful lot easier.”