Emmet Riordantalks to the St Benildus player who grasped his shot at glory
CRAIG DIAS went out of his way to get the colour right on St Patrick’s Day; not green that is, but the purple and yellow of Kilmacud Crokes as he cheered on his club all the way to their All-Ireland Club final victory over Crossmaglen Rangers at Croke Park.
Two days later he got his own shot at glory and took it in the green of St Benildus College as they claimed their first Dublin Schools Senior Football A title in a thrilling extra-time win over St Declan’s CBS.
With elder brother Karl a member of the Crokes panel, it made for a pretty successful few days for the Dias family and indeed for the Stillorgan area of Dublin, which encompasses both club and school.
“I just live down the road from Crokes in Goatstown. It was the best buzz, all around my estate there were flags up, everyone was talking about it,” said Craig, who has already turned out for the club at senior level.
Dias admits that Crokes’ victory provided the spur for him and his team-mates when they went out to try and banish the disappointment of losing the previous two Senior A finals.
“I was talking to Crokes manager Paddy Carr after the All-Ireland final and he was saying that could be you in a few years. We sort of used his words to motivate us in our final.”
It seemed to work a treat as St Benildus built up a seven-point lead over their Cabra rivals heading into the last quarter of the game. But just when it seemed they would close out the victory, St Declan’s stormed back to take the game into extra-time.
“We were six points up with about 10 minutes left and we sort of took the foot off the pedal,” admits Dias, who had taken over the captaincy from fellow Crokes clubman Brian Hanamy after the midfielder had gone off injured.
Despite giving up such a healthy lead, Dias knew the cause wasn’t a lost one as the team gathered themselves for extra-time.
“We were calm in the huddle and I thought we had it. We had been training all through the year, coming in before school on Monday to do fitness work, so I thought we had the edge going into extra-time.”
Driving the team on from the half-forward line, Dias was to play a pivotal role, setting up a point before knocking one over himself. Still St Declan’s hung in and with the scores tied it took a last-minute free from Fearghal Duffy to clinch the title for St Benildus as they triumphed 1-13 to 0-15.
After losses to Coláiste Eoin and Portmarnock CS in the previous two campaigns, the victory ensured that Dias and a number of other sixth years wouldn’t end their schools careers without the title that had proved so elusive.
There was also an element of payback involved for some of the team, who had also lost an Under-16 decider against St Declan’s two years ago.
Dias, whose father, Leon, played international football for Angola, is putting extra-time into his Leaving Cert studies after the excitement of recent weeks and hopes to go on to study commerce at UCD.
He hasn’t ruled out a possible career in Australian Rules and he has attracted the interest of the Adelaide Crows, a team his brother Karl had a trial for last summer.
“I’m not sure at the moment really, it’s something I would consider. Being a professional sportsman would appeal to me and I like the physical aspect to the game.”
