Reaching the All-Ireland club SFC final was something Dingle had been plotting since 2018, according to captain Paul Geaney.

The former county star, who scored 0-8 off the bench in last Saturday’s dramatic semi-final win over Ballyboden St Enda’s after being unable to start due to a calf injury, revealed afterwards how playing in Croke Park had been Dingle’s ambition since they came up short against Dr Crokes in the Kerry SFC final eight years ago.

“There were maybe a few fellas on the panel that time who were kind of laughing about it. They’re not with us now, but it was that far away and it was that far of a journey,” he told reporters at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

“It just shows in a small club like us or any of the smaller clubs that go to Croke Park, it’s not something that you can just decide you’re going to do and go and do it the next year or the year after.

“It’s a long journey, so it’s very rewarding that we’ve finally got there.

“The job isn’t obviously anywhere near done. We want to win the All-Ireland. But the first goal was to get to Croke Park and we’re going to have a special day out with the club. It’s all about winning now really.”

Commenting on his equalising two-pointer which forced extra-time, Geaney explained: “I actually had a chance just before that from there and I put Mark (O’Connor) through and Mark went for goal and I thought that was it. If we got that point, we were level.

“I said if I get another chance here, I'm taking the shot. It was a bit ‘pass the parcel’ over there. It went from Dylan (Geaney) to me to someone else to Conor (Geaney) and they threw it back to me and there was a pile of bodies and I said, ‘Look, I'm just having this one because I'll kill myself later if I don't take this shot and we don't even get a shot here.’ I'm the man to take the shot.” 

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