Brian Fenton turned on RTÉ's coverage of Kilmacud Crokes' Leinster quarter-final victory of Éire Óg earlier this month, "wasn’t too impressed" and quickly switched it off.
Four weeks previous, Fenton's Raheny side had been on the verge of reaching what would have been the club's second Dublin SFC final of their 65-year history.
They were three points up in injury time against Crokes but Luke Ward's 63rd minute goal brought the teams level and took the game to extra-time. The reigning All-Ireland champions eventually won after a penalty shootout.
24 September 2023; Brian Fenton of Raheny in action against Tomás Quinn of St Vincents during the Dublin Senior Football Championship quarter-final match between Raheny and St Vincents at Parnell Park in Dublin. Photo by Tyler Miller/Sportsfile
"It’s sour enough!" says Fenton about the aftertaste from that loss.
Just as the game itself had been close, so too was the shootout. Crokes won 5-4.
"I couldn’t kick snow off a rope that day!" says Fenton, speaking at the announcement of Staycity Aparthotels as the new main sponsor of Dublin GAA.
"I haven’t kicked one in years but I would usually back myself. I had been missing all day, I don’t think I scored and had missed a really easy chance from the 20-metre line.
"When Dublin are practising them I don’t practise them. I went up to Brian Howard and said ‘What do you think? Should I take one? I can’t kick a ball all day.’
"Then I heard the five and it was the lads that play a bit of soccer and fancy themselves so I thought ‘Over to ye’. You look back and think ‘Should I have?’ but only one lad missed and it went over the bar.
"I would have played a lot soccer underage and any peno I ever took seemed to miss so I’ll leave that to the forwards. Might take one next year!"
7 October 2023; Brian Fenton of Raheny, centre, before the Dublin County Senior Club Championship Football Semi-Final match between Kilmacud Crokes and Raheny at Parnell Park in Dublin. Photo by Stephen Marken/Sportsfile
Raheny surprised themselves with their run to the semi-final, their first since 2002.
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"The year previous we were in relegation against Clontarf – gladly sent them down, our local rivals – but it shows you it can swing whatever way," Fenton says.
"A sense of surprise but when you watch it back, we were well able for that standard and in control at times.
"Myself, Brian Howard and Sean McMahon have been with Dublin a long time now and people have said to us ‘How come ye aren’t achieving more’ so it was nice to bring it on this year."
Earlier this year, Mayo goalkeeper Rob Hennelly transferred from his home club Breaffy to Raheny. Fenton feels Hennelly was key to raising standards within the club this season.
7 October 2023; Mayo's Rob Hennelly looks on as Carlow's Darren Lunney of Raheny takes a penalty in the shootout during the Dublin County Senior Club Championship Football Semi-Final match between Kilmacud Crokes and Raheny at Parnell Park in Dublin. Photo by Stephen Marken/Sportsfile
"We got a great bounce off Rob Hennelly joining our team this year, a couple of other lads, Darren Lunney from Carlow, he joined us because he’s working in Dublin. We’ve been following the Crokes model in many ways of bringing lads in but they added to us massively," says Fenton.
"Definitely. We felt that with Rob Hennelly. It was tough for us because you would finish with Dublin and come back into Raheny and you want to add but you don’t want to be the county player that’s just coming back in and taking over either. There’s a balancing act there.
"But Rob was brilliant behind the scenes, adding in things we had never done on a club scene like prepping kickouts. He was a consistent free-taker we had never had.
"So you can feel the benefit of that standard dropping into your team straight away and it brings on players who are training with them every day. We got a huge bounce off it."
2 April 2023; Mayo players, from left, Rob Hennelly, Matthew Ruane, Aidan O'Shea after the Allianz Football League Division 1 Final match between Galway and Mayo at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
This year's Raheny run has built an "eagerness and momentum for next year".
"That brings its own kind of pressures but it was great for Raheny," says Fenton.
"We were kind of living with a sense of ‘We’d like to achieve but we probably won’t’ or ‘We’re a few years away from it’ and it gives us the sense now that we’re close-ish, maybe. If we improve next year we could have a crack at it so it could be a long year again hopefully.
"On the pitch, [we need to] just finalise game plans and stuff like that. Very basic levels like having a consistent free-taker, which was huge for us because we had never had that and lost games by a couple of points over the years.
"But off the pitch as well, develop our training facilities, which we’re trying to do this year with a fundraising effort.
"The week before the Crokes game we were training on half a soccer astro and the ladies were at the other end training for their own final. That’s not ideal so small things like that would help massively. But it just shows you, you’re not that far away and if you tick a few things you never know what can happen."
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