Sarsfields' Tommy Gorman on a county final win, 25 years on

The Sash claimed the 1999 Kildare Senior Football Championship and also reached a Leinster final later that year

The 1999 Senior Football Championship winning Sarsfields team will be honoured at half-time of this year’s county final. The commemoration of course lines up the re-opening of St Conleth’s Park and the 25th anniversary of the side’s title win.

Captain of the '99 team, who also reached a Leinster Club Championship final, was Laois man Tommy Gorman, who led Sarsfields to a 0-15 to 1-5 victory over Allenwood in the last Championship final of the century.

“It is nice (to be honoured), but the joy when you win is always the minute that final whistle blows and you have got that 20-30 seconds of euphoria. It is a great feeling, if you could bottle that feeling and sell it, you would be a well off person,” Tommy said.

“The few seconds after the final whistle goes is where the real joy is and sharing that moment with the lads you have been training with all year. After that, you take the enjoyment of celebrating when you can and you can never really have it enough times. It never lasts forever either.”

The Sarsfields starting 15 on the day was without suspended star Niall Buckley and lined out as; Kevin Nolan; Nigel Campbell, Tommy Gorman, Martin McIntyre; Niall Hedderman, Liam Sex, Brian Moylan; Dermot Earley, John Whelan; Padraig Brennan, Brian Nolan, Ed Donoghue; Kevin Horgan, David Earley, Enda Freaney.

“We started off well, Brian Nolan got a couple of scores early on and I think we had four up before they registered something. We were just in control for most of it, but they still had good footballers,” Tommy recalled.

“Ken Doyle was a winner, a quality footballer and Johnny Doyle was another brilliant footballer, but he was only really coming into his own at that stage. For Johnny, he just got better as the year’s went on and maybe 1999 was a bit early compared to how good he’d become.”

The Championship win was the Newbridge club’s first for five years after a spell of titles that were shared by Clane and Round Towers. It was Tommy Gorman’s third season at the club and, one year after a county final loss to Clane, they got over the line in convincing style.

Sarsfields would also go on a brilliant run in the Leinster Club Championship that year before meeting a star-studded Na Fianna side in the 1999 final, which contained the likes of Kieran McGeeney and Dessie Farrell.

“It was magic for us. It was just a great run and a pity not to win it. Maybe some of us didn’t perform that well, Nuxer (Buckley) in that final was on a different planet to everyone else. Dermot (Earley) was excellent that day as well and there were probably too many of the rest of us that didn’t perform. That was an excellent Na Fianna team, they were bringing Jason Sherlock on as a sub in the second-half, that is how strong they were,” Tommy explained.

The captain of that great 1999 Sarsfields team will be honoured alongside his teammates at half-time of this Sunday's Senior Championship final. He summed up that great group by saying, “Everytime you think of it and the group of lads that were there, the fun we had and the craic in the dressing room, it is kinda hard to describe. They were a great, a brilliant bunch of lads that enjoyed each other's company and it was an incredibly fun time for all of us; something we will never forget.”