Gabriel Bannigan was part of arguably the best team in the history of the Aughnamullen Sarsfields club. Most of the silverware eluded him there, but he's making up for it as manager of St Sylvester's on the ultra-competitive Dublin GAA scene.

Listening to Gabriel Bannigan reflect on his playing days with Aughnamullen Sarsfields, it's not hard to detect the note of regret. It's more than a decade now since he played his last game for the club, but the tinge of disappointment remains strong. "It's my biggest regret in sport that we didn't take a first senior championship for Aughnamullen," he says, speaking to Monaghan's Match recently. "It would have been great to make that breakthrough. My father Packie was a founding member of the club in the 1950s, and captained them to their first ever junior championship in 1957. My two brothers both played. Paudie was a very good player, he played centre back, I played midfield or in the forwards and Owen was a top class forward. Suffice to say that there was nothing but Gaelic football ever talked about in the Bannigan household!"
When it comes to the peaks and troughs of a playing career, it's often difficult to point to the turning-points and catalysts that bring success or otherwise. For Gabriel Bannigan, though, the key game is easily identified: an Owen Ward Cup final against Scotstown in 1993, in which Aughnamullen went down by a single point.
"We needed to win something at senior level, and I feel that had we beaten Scotstown in that League final, it might have been the difference in going on to win a Championship, in terms of generating confidence and belief. Losing that final was a big blow to us. We lost a couple of players after that. David King was a regular at full back for Monaghan at the time, he played midfield with me in '93 but he had emigrated to Australia by '95. My brother Owen also got an injury which ended his career. Aughnamullen is a rural club and when we lost a few players we were always up against it."
Although the silverware eluded him and his teammates, Gabriel is proud to have played a part in one of the most successful eras in Sarsfields' history. "We won a few things, a Hackett Cup and a Senior 'B' Championship, and we were well able to compete with the 'Blayneys and Scotstowns and Clontibrets at the time," he says, "but we never managed to make the breakthrough. The same year as that Owen Ward Cup final, we lost the Championship semi-final to Clontibret. It had taken us four games to beat Magheracloone - it was the longest running Championship tie ever in Monaghan football, with us winning after a third replay. We played Clontibret a week later but by that time we had a couple of lads suspended and two or three lads injured. Unfortunately, we lost two other senior semi-finals. That's the way it went. It could've been different but it didn't go our way."
Fast forward to 2010 and Gabriel Bannigan is still calling on those memories for inspiration. If Aughnamullen in 1993 is his greatest sporting regret, his greatest achievement to date came 17 years on from that Owen Ward Cup final, almost to the day, and St Sylvester's victory over St Jude's in the Dublin Division 1 League final, marking the Malahide club's first ever Division 1 triumph.
Having moved to Malahide to take up a role as Regional Manager with Bank of Ireland, Gabriel first became involved with Malahide as a parental onlooker, supporting his son David at underage level. David - "the only Bannigan with an All-Ireland medal," says his father, in reference to a Community Games U10 triumph with Monaghan Harps in the late 1990s - is one of a host of minors and U21s to have graduated through the ranks of Sylvester's in recent years.
Having returned to Ireland at the end of a three-year stint with the bank's English-based arm, Gabriel accepted an invitation to become part of the Sylvester's coaching team in 2007. Combining managing the U21s with a coaching and selector's role in the Sylvester's seniors for two years, he became Syl's manager at the start of the 2009 season. With the club now looking ahead to 2011 as genuine championship contenders in Dublin, the progress has been phenomenal.
"It's taken a lot of hard work by a lot of people to get here," says Gabriel. "I remember my first year involved in 2007. We were just after coming out of Division 2, and Kilmacud Crokes beat us by 25 points in Parnell Park in the Championship, and we had to win a play-off in December to retain our Division 1 status. I realised straight away was that Division 1 football in Dublin was extremely tough, and it was going to be a challenge staying there never mind progressing.
"But we managed to do that. Through hard work, through bringing our young players through and working with them, and we were also fortunate enough to get one or two players into the club."
Darren Clarke, the Louth forward, is the most high profile of the new additions, and Gabriel is quick to underline the impact of the former St Mary's, Ardee man on the collective. "He has been very important to us, not just in terms of his own performances but his influence on the younger players. He's an exceptional player to work with in every way. His attitude - to every training session, to matches, to his fellow players - is top class. He's completely respected by every player in St Sylvester's, young and old, and I couldn't speak highly enough about what he has contributed to the club."
With the success of the last few years - two St Vincent de Paul Cups, a Senior 'B' Championship and the Division 1 League triumph in November 2010 - has come plenty of other inter-county recognition. Carlow player John Murphy was another inter-county transfer, Malahide born and bred John Coughlan has represented Offaly, the county of his parents, team captain and centre half back Brian Sexton was in the Dublin panel for the League this year and Gary Sweeney scored Dublin's all-important goal in the All-Ireland U21 final win over Donegal. Indeed, such is the promise shown by the products of the Sylvester's underage programme that Sweeney will be joined by teammates Fionn Carney, Gavin McArdle and Shane O'Connor on next year's Dublin U21 panel. All of which points to a bright future for the Malahide club.
"The platform is there now," says Gabriel. "We've a young panel full of talent and we're looking to really push on over the next year or two. We're not afraid of anyone. As preparation for the Championship this year, we went on a bit of a tour of challenge matches. We played Clontibret, the Monaghan champions, Kildare champions St Laurence's, St Brigid's from Roscommon, who are now the Connacht club champions, Louth champions Mattock Rangers and Meath champions Seneschalstown. Playing teams of that quality are excellent work-outs and coming out of those games victorious helps to instil belief.
"The Dublin club championship is extremely hard to win, but our young team is learning all the time and as long as they're willing to do that and keep working hard, they'll only improve.
"I walked off Parnell Park in my first year with St Sylvester's after losing that game to Kilmacud by 25 points. I'd never been on the end of a beating like that in all my time as a player, and I was thinking 'What have I let myself in for?' But I also vowed that we'd put that right, and we've come a long way.
"I said that if Aughnamullen had won that League title in Monaghan 17 years ago that it may have been a catalyst that would see us go on and win a Championship. So I'm attaching great significance to winning the League in Dublin with St Sylvester's. Kilmacud only beat us by three points in the quarter-final of the Championship, so there's only a kick of a ball between us and them at this stage. Hopefully in the next year or two we'll get the little bit of luck to go on and win those tight matches. This team can go on and win a Championship. That's the aim."
Notwithstanding his commitments to Sylvester's, Gabriel travels all over the country to follow the fortunes of Monaghan football. In 2011, he can take an even greater interest, with Monaghan now managed by an old opponent on the GAA fields of the county, Eamonn McEneaney, with his trainer at Sylvester's, Dowdallshill man Colin O'Hare, also part of the management team.
"I've no doubt Eamonn has picked a good man there," he says. "Colin's a top-class trainer, a great guy to work with and the players have huge respect for him. Seamus McEnaney did a fantastic job with Monaghan but was desperately unlucky, so hopefully Eamonn will have a bit more luck. He has a good team there, Stephen McGinnity and Declan Smyth have great enthusiasm and passion for Monaghan football.
"I would make as many games as a I possibly can. If Dublin were playing in Croke Park and Monaghan were in Casement Park, I'd be in Casement. I don't be on my own either - the whole family, David, Cara and Aoibhinn and my wife Emer - are big Monaghan supporters. There's football on both sides of the family - Emer's brother John O'Connor, from Clones, played in goals for Monaghan for several years. We're all rooting for Eamonn and the lads in the hope that they can deliver an Ulster Championship to Monaghan."

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Gabriel Bannigan has worked for Bank of Ireland for 22 of the last 23 years and is currently Sales & Marketing Director of Bank of Ireland's Retail Division. Tweet

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