St Mary's Ardee stalwart eyeing big prize at 38 after leaving relegation battles behind
St Mary's are bidding to become the first Louth club to win the Leinster club title as they take on Dublin champions and hot favourites Cuala in Saturday's final at Croke Park.
From regularly fighting relegation in Louth to now being one of the last two clubs in Leinster, Robert Leavy has just about seen it all with St Mary’s, Ardee.
Now 38, Leavy first played senior for the club way back in 2004 and around the middle of his career, county titles couldn’t have been further from his mind. Just avoiding being part of the side that dropped the club into the intermediate grade for the first time was the height of his ambitions. One year against Knockbridge over in Castlebellingham, it went right to the wire in a relegation play-off.
“There was a few times times when I was still playing football at this time of year to try and survive in senior football,” says Leavy. “That’s where we were for a long time. My mind for a long time was not wanting to… winning a senior championship mightn’t have been a reality but not being part of a team that got relegated was probably the goal.
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“Things have changed, thankfully, but like any club there’s always barren times and we just went through a little bit of a spell.”
They’re going through a rather different spell right now having just completed the three-in-a-row in Louth and after last Saturday’s dramatic win over St Loman’s, they’re the first club from the county to reach a Leinster final since Mattock Rangers in 2002.
The formidable challenge of Cuala is in their path, but they gave the Dublin champions’ neighbours Kilmacud Crokes plenty of it last year, which stiffened belief that they could do something in the province.
So, what changed? Leavy and Co had turned things around sufficiently for the club to reach the county final in 2016, their first in 13 years, which they lost by two points to Sean O’Mahony’s, but then a rich crop of underage talent emerged.
“I was 30 when we were bet in ‘16 and we would have been aware of that particular underage team, we’d have seen them play and the ability of some of the players, like they stood out from underage and then they went on and won the minor in ‘17 and ‘18.
“It’s not an easy thing to say that they’re naturally going to come in and start winning senior Championships. It took us nearly three or four years but you could see there was the makings of a team there. I think we got eight or nine lads off a minor team which is massive, like.”
Leavy’s role has changed to impact sub these days and he’s realistic about it.
“I’m 38 now, you know, it’s kind of a little bit unrealistic to think I could get 60 minutes. The team is predominantly lads in their early 20s, mid-20s but look, there’s a couple of us there, older lads, that might be able to do half an hour or two minutes, whatever we’re asked to do to try and steady the ship a wee bit.”
He added: "There is a good bit of a buzz. A lot of my friends wouldn't be involved anymore and there's more of a buzz from them than the team itself. We've been together as a team a couple of times since the game in Mullingar and everything is quite calm.
“Obviously families and people are getting excited. In fairness, that's what it's about too, they're allowed to get excited. If you're not getting excited about going to Croke Park, what's the point of it? The town hasn't gone completely berserk but that might change if things go to plan on Saturday night."
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