Cup win caps successful year for DCU

DCU’s win in the Sigerson Cup is just the latest in a string of successes for GAA in the university this season. Wins against UCD, CIT and NUI Maynooth saw the early favourites for the trophy reach the final against UCC.

For only the second time in DCU history, the university brought home the most coveted third level GAA trophy. Earlier this season, the DCU hurlers won the university’s first ever senior hurling league, which means they will compete in the Fitzgibbon Cup next year.

Having the hurlers competing at an equivalent level to the footballers can only be good for DCU GAA. When DCU last won the Sigerson Cup in 2005, the feeling was that the university would go on to become the major power in intervarsity football.

While this didn’t materialise in the intervening years, this year’s victory hopefully signals a return to the promise offered by the 2005 win. A key factor in the Sigerson Cup was the calibre of players like Brian Cullen, Paddy Andrews and Brian Sheridan.

The coaching of Niall Moyna can also not be underestimated in the search for the ingredients of Sigerson Cup success. The ability to take a squad of players, mostly from different counties and clubs, and make them work as a team is something that is not often found in a coach at this level.
As a pre-national league warm-up tournament, the O’Byrne Cup is often criticised.

Many detractors say that the inclusion of third-level teams is unfair as they are midway through their season while the county sides are only beginning their seasons.

DCU showed this year that the O’Byrne Cup can act as a warm-up for university teams too. In winning in the O’Byrne Cup final against Louth, DCU layed down a marker for all the other university teams.

The extended O’Byrne Cup run also allowed Niall Moyna to try out different players, something which his Sigerson Cup rivals did not have the chance to do.
For a university like DCU, two Sigerson Cup wins in history is not enough.

The buoyancy in the university’s Fresher teams bodes well for future victories. Players like GAA Young Player of the Year Michael Murphy of Donegal are likely to be at the heart of the future DCU senior lineups in the Sigerson Cup.

The elite sport persons scheme in DCU is beginning to bear fruit for the DCU GAA clubs. The chance to cement DCU’s position as among the premier GAA university is there for the taking, if someone has the ambition to take it.