David Reilly From a great GAA Family and an automatic choice on the Louth team David Reilly, at centre half on the Louth team to play Laois at Croke Park on Sunday, has good reason to look back on 1991 with satisfaction. The year, after all, saw him win his first senior championship medal in addition to re-establishing himself on the county team. There was, however, a dark side to the year. In sustaining a back injury near the end of a gruelling campaign, the stylish but tough Stabannon Parnells clubman wasn't quite sure if his career had any further to run, writes JOE CARROLL of the Dundalk Democrat. Foolishly, perhaps, he continued to play at club level while undergoing treatment. As he was to learn later, all the good he was getting from the treatment was being undone by playing, oftentimes on 'winter going'. The uncertainty concerning his future in football continued well into this year. And there was no let up in the pain either. He missed all of Louth's National League campaign, and when you consider how far down the table the Reds finished in division three 'B", his absence and that of other regulars was sorely felt. That Reilly is today poised to take in his ninth championship campaign, full of enthusiasm and, mercifully, free of injury that pained him for so long can be attributed to an exercise that is shunned by most footballers, and, indeed, frowned upon many coaches - swimming. And who should be the one to recommend it? None other than Dr. Pat O'Neill, who, when he's not repairing damaged bodies is helping Paddy Cullen and Jim Brogan guide the team that is now a hot order to take the Leinster. (Wouldn't it be something else, as they say, if Louth were to stymie the Dubs' hopes with David Reilly playing a leading role? There's a chance of the two clashing at Navan on July 12). Dr. Pat's remedy was for Reilly to quit the game and as a means of repairing the damaged muscles to take to the water. The advice came shortly before the Louth defender headed to America with his Stabannon Parnells colleagues on a trip, celebrating their surprise win in last year's championship. One of his first dips was in the Atlantic, off the coast of Florida; now he's attending a local leisure centre twice weekly. As he is now showing the kind of form that won him man of the match award in last year's county final, he has no reason to regret his visit to Pat O' Neill. David Reilly belongs to one of mid Louth's most noted football dynasties. His first cousins, John Osborne and Pat Butterly, line out with him at Croke Park on Sunday, while another first cousin, Jim McDonnell, was at one time one of the county's most lethal forwards. Jim, a son of the man who came to play at full forward on the Louth All-Ireland winning team of 1957, won a county championship medal with Geraldines in 1982 and for many seasons was Louth's leading scorer. Another first cousin of David Reilly's is Steve Reilly, who, along with John Osborne and Pat and Mark Butterly, figured on the team which gave Dundalk CBS a first ever win in the Leinster Senior Colleges Championship in the mid eighties. All of the boys' mothers belonged to the Culligan family, which, while it included some boys wasn't noted for it's sporting prowess. There are several in Louth who content that David Reilly's brother Ken, should at least be included in the county panel. Ken's a tall and well built midfielder whose greatest asset is his fielding. He played with the county before and when a time when Louth got it hard to piece a few victories together he had a stormer in a national league defeat to then All-Ireland champions, Meath, at Pairc Tailteann. That was over two years ago. Since then, Ken has, like David and another brother, Niall, won a county championship medal, but as yet hasn't won a county team recall. Unlike his cousins David Reilly headed south on the completion of his primary school education at Tullydonnell. He linked with the CBS in Drogheda, and while there figured on the school team. Aged 28, he is employed with Greencore, operating as a grain buyer at it's Knockbridge, Co. Louth base. He first came to notice as a member of the Louth Minor Championship winning Sean Treacy's team, in 1982. He then graduated to Naomh Finbarra intermediate side, and with them won league and shield medal. Reilly was among his own, as it were, playing with friends and relations in the Finbarra colours. When word got about that he had his two brothers were moving to Stabannon Parnells at the beginning of the 1989 season, there were, to put it mildly some raised eyebrows. But, as David explained at the time, there was no falling out with Finbarra, nor was he or his brothers medal hunting, something that's invariably said whenever someone moves to a stronger club, or, as was the case here, a club with sounder prospects. It was, he said, a question of practicality. The Reilly family had bought land in Stabannon and the plans were to live in the area. The obvious thing to do was join the local club. The link up produced spectacular and instant success in their first year in the colours worn in the past by the great Louth full back Tom Conlon, and another All-Ireland footballer, Mickey Reynolds, the Reilly Boys collected on the treble. Stabannon first of all won the Shield (a subsidiary league competition), then the championship, and finally the league. It was treble that had never been before been achieved. It breathed life back into part of the Kilsaran Parish that had been as good as dead following the ending of the Conlon brothers era, back in the mid 'fifties. The championship win qualified Stabannon for a place in senior football; they were only two years there when they collected the biggest prize in Louth has to offer. Stabannon's form in the first half of the season of last season was good rather than spectacular. As the fourteen teams faced the starter for the championship, they were among the outsiders. Clan na nGael and Cooley Kickhams were the front runners, while there was also money for Ardee St. Mary's. When Clan na nGael beat Cooley in a pulsating semi final, consensus was that whoever won the other semi final would be nothing more than bit players when it came to the final. Stabannon beat Roche Emmets - and for all colour they brought to Dundalk's St. Bridgid's Park on final day, the Reilly's team were, in the opinion of many, doing nothing more than fulfiling a fixture. It seemed like that when Clans raced into a good lead - just before the interval, Ken Reilly rose high to fist the ball to the net. That score gave Stabannon hope when all seemed lost; it also wounded Clans beyond repair. Most of the second half flowed Stabannon's way, but wasn't until David Reilly pointed a side line kick near the end that the mid Louth side knew the title was theirs. The performance he turned in at midfield in the company of his brother, Ken, earned David the Man of the Match Award. David Reilly has important part to play at Croke Park on Sunday. It's almost certain he'll have as his direct opponent the young man who did so much to unhinge Meath a few weeks ago, Hugh Emerson. The task shouldn't be beyond the Louthman. He'll have the advantage on the score of experience having first played in the knock out - against Meath - in 1984, marking none other than Colm O' Rourke, and figured in every campaign since. While several of his colleagues did nothing to enhance their reputations in the second of Louth's matches with Laois last Summer, Reilly came away with his unscathed He's not by any means a soft touch, but it's rare, if even he'll step out of line. Taken from Hogan Stand magazine 12th June 1992 Tweet

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