It is 16 years since Enniskillen Gaels won the last of their 12 Fermanagh Senior Football Championship titles.
That constitutes a famine for a club that were one of the very best club sides in Ulster two decades ago.
Between 1998 and 2003, the Gaels won six county titles on the bounce and pushed a Peter Canavan-inspired Errigal Ciaran team all the way in the 2002 Ulster Club SFC final in Clones.
Read more: Holders Derrygonnelly denied by Enniskillen Gaels in epic Fermanagh semi-final
They added another Championship title in 2006, but Roslea and then Derrygonnelly became the top dogs in Fermanagh as Enniskillen slipped down the pecking order.
Last season’s Championship final appearance hinted at an overdue revival of fortunes for the club, but they were well beaten by the Harps, 2-8 to 0-5.
That loss partly explained why last Saturday’s narrow 1-15 to 2-11 win over the 2021 champions meant so much to manager Simon Bradley and his team.
They bid for title number 13 on Sunday, October 23 at their Brewster Park home when they take on Erne Gaels, Belleek in the 2022 Fermanagh SFC final.
Bradley, who was a key member of Enniskillen team in the 90s with his brother Colm, hopes that last weekend’s gusty win over Derrygonnelly is another vital stepping stone in the progression of his team.
“It will stand to us this year and it will stand to us going forward,” said Bradley.
“That is a very young team. If you take Richy (O’Callaghan) out of it, the rest of them are nowhere near the 30 mark.
“We’re trying to build something as a club. Obviously, they are the focal point, but we are doing a lot of work at U17, U15, right down to U8.
“The club is definitely coming back to better times.”
Bradley admits there has been much soul-searching done at the club as they’ve come to terms with the leaner times.
They dipped into the Intermediate grade over the last decade and were champions in 2013 and as recently as 2020.
The bulk of the current squad were part of the successful minor team of 2017 that went on to win the St Paul’s Minor tournament on New Year’s Day in 2018.
There’s still work to be done, but Bradley is hopeful the club is on the right track.
“Enniskillen is like any town - we've a lot of soccer, we've a lot of other things that boys like to do,” said Bradley.
“For the club members it's big because we had a long, dry spell there. It's massive for the club and it's easy then to get people involved and get kids involved when the top team is going well.
“The top, top clubs don't (take their eye off the ball) but we definitely did. The first thing we did was admitted that, we said ‘right, we made a mistake'. That's the first thing you have to do when you're trying to fix something.
“This time we're not gonna do that. People within the club recognised it and it needed it. We got a group of players coming through that are very keen, very hungry.
“We put in a lot of work that's not seen. A lot of work over the winter time, a lot of dedication, a lot of sacrifice.”
Last Saturday’s semi-final in Tempo helped banish the demons from last year’s lacklasture showing in the county final.
Despite conceding two goals early on in each half in a similar manner, the Gaels regrouped and went about their business with a calm efficiency and Josh Horan’s palmed goal on 40 minutes brought them back level.
With O’Callaghan and Brandon Horan shading the midfield battle with Ryan Jones and Stephen McMcGullion, the Gaels finished the stronger in the closing stages with Eoin Beacom also impressing as Bradley praised the response of his side to the setbacks.
“To be honest, I was sure what way we would go after the second goal,” added the Enniskillen boss.
“That’s the learning part for this team. They now have that in the bank for evermore.
“The second goal probably came at the best time possible for us. Again, Cian (Newman) nearly got it. We were lucky that we weren’t out of it.
“We had confidence in our forward line that we could take them on and create chances, get a few frees and, hopefully, come out on the right side of it.”
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