Peter Lappin doesn’t recall much of the 1998 SFC final, Madden’s first and most recent appearance on the big day. The experienced defenders didn’t even play for the Raparees last year, so the build up is all new for him.
It’s all new for a lot of people in the club. The older heads will fondly remember their run 27 years ago, but a number of the current crop weren’t even born back then, so it’s new territory for a lot of people.
Madden are there on merit having defeated defending champions Clann Eireann in the semi-final. Mark Harte and Adrian O’Donnell’s men were extremely impressive in the first half and saw things out after the turnaround.
Long time coming
“I was 11 and I didn’t even play for Madden at the time,” Lappin said on the ’98 final. “I only started playing for Madden when I was 14 so I wouldn’t even remember the ’98 final, I wasn’t involved so it’s completely knew territory for me.
“Some of the boys would know more but in saying that, a lot of the boys weren’t born in ’98 either. Hopefully this is a new stead for Madden and it’ll allow younger boys to come along and think they can do it too.
“To all the wee boys and girls looking on, those boys are their heroes. They’ll not remember me in years to come but they’ll remember those men and they’re some men to look up to.”
When Madden were in trouble against Clann Eireann, they looked to their All-Ireland winners. Niall Grimley and Darragh McMullen really stood up to be counted at different times and Lappin notes the shift in mentality.
“It’s unreal,” he said after the full time whistle in the semi-final. “It hasn’t happened in 27 years so you have to be proud of everybody in the squad and the team for the shift that they put in.
“It was difficult, Clann Eireann put us under immense pressure in that second half but the boys kept at it. They didn’t put the head down, we chipped in with a couple of scores at the end there.
“There were some big catches by Niall (Grimley), D Mac (McMullen), the boys stood up. In years gone by we probably would have folded, heads down, but with the management team we have in place, we have a never say die attitude.”