Malahide ‘Digging Deep For Each Other’ With #EnergiaAIL Status On The Line

For Malahide captain Marc Kelly, a rollercoaster of an Energia All-Ireland League season has been defined by resilience, by growth, and now by one final shot at survival as they prepare to face Boyne in Saturday’s promotion/relegation play-off final at Estuary Road (kick-off 2.30pm).

It is, in many ways, the culmination of what has been dubbed ‘the great escape’. But for Kelly and his team-mates, there is no sense of a fairytale ending just yet. Not until the final whistle blows this weekend.

Because while the journey to this point has been remarkable, the reality is simple, one more 80 minutes stands between Malahide and their status as an All-Ireland League club.

“It’s huge, and look, if we don’t win this Saturday, what we pulled off the last couple of weeks won’t matter at all. We put so much effort in the last couple of weeks. We really are gunning for this game,” Kelly told IrishRugby.ie.

That awareness cuts through any temptation to dwell too long on what has already been achieved. And yet, to understand the significance of this moment, you have to go back. Back to where Malahide were just a matter of weeks ago.

Going into round 17 of the Division 2C campaign, they were 10 points adrift of a spot in the play-off. Belfast Harlequins were the team they had to catch to avoid the automatic relegation, and the two sides were set to meet in what was effectively a last chance saloon in Belfast.

At half-time, Malahide trailed 17-0. For many teams, that would have been the end. For this group, it became the beginning.

“It was phenomenal,” Kelly recalled. “We were 17-0 down going into the second half, and I just remember even at half-time, we were just saying, ‘We can win this game’.

“There was a real belief, I suppose the last couple of weeks there’s been a real belief in the squad that’s come through.”

It was not blind optimism. It was a belief that had been building beneath the surface, forged through months of narrow defeats and lessons learned the hard way.

That belief had not always translated into results. During the regular season, Malahide had found themselves on the wrong side of fine margins, late scores conceded, opportunities missed, games slipping away by the smallest of details.

“If you ask any of the teams, apart from one team we played against, which was Bective in their place, which would have been a home game for us. That was the only game that we weren’t competitive in.

“Even that first half (away to Belfast Harlequins), we were getting in the right positions but just at key points in time, a knock-on here or there or a turnover, we weren’t playing in the right places.

“And then they got tries – one was a breakaway score, another one was a maul – and then we got a yellow card. We were going in at half-time and were like, ‘Look, we’re a man down. But there’s 40 minutes to rescue our season effectively.”

What followed was nothing short of extraordinary. The tries came, the momentum shifted, and suddenly a game that had seemed beyond reach was there to be won. Moments of improvisation and brilliance added to the drama.

“It just started to click in the second half in terms of the scores. Like even some of the training ground stuff that we do, some of the moves, that started to come off. A cross-field kick for another try. Our full-back was going in for a try, James McKeown.

“And he actually knocked it down and it went behind him, and it was something you’d see, I don’t know, a scorpion kind of kick up into his hands. That was just an incredible score for us to actually get the bonus point.”

It was chaotic, instinctive rugby, and it delivered. By the end Malahide had turned a 17-0 deficit into a 36-22 victory, denying Harlequins even a losing bonus point and breathing life back into their survival hopes.

“We managed to keep them at bay and we actually managed to go up and score another try, and at the end of the game, I think they were a bit shell-shocked. We were a bit shell-shocked as well.

“It was just a crazy turn of events. But then, you know, after the game when you’re thinking, ‘Right, if we can just carry that belief into the last game of the season, you never know what’s going to happen’.”

But crucially, it was more than just a result. It was a turning point. That final game, in round 18 at home to a top-four chasing Monkstown. would determine whether the escape was possible. Once again, Malahide delivered.

Kelly continued: “It was a really tight game, a really tight affair. When you’re at home, you’re always confident you can get a good result. And Monkstown, they absolutely battered us in the first game of the season.

“Kind of taught us a lot of lessons, but I think just with the way we’ve come on as a squad, especially towards the end of the season, I think we kind of surprised them as well in terms of what we actually did in that game.

“It was another really tight one, especially two Dublin teams going for it. They’re really going for it as well. But I think just with the result from the week previously, that just gave us that bit of a push to help us get over the line.”

The result, a 31-25 bonus point win for the north Dubliners, was enough to keep the dream alive with a second-from-bottom finish in the standings. But the drama was not over yet.

“One of the lads started celebrating and then we looked around and said, ‘How did you hear the score of the other game?’. And then all of a sudden our sideline just ran over and just everyone was just bouncing with energy and jumping up and down. It was nuts. It was just such a relief.”

Belfast Harlequins had lost elsewhere to Dolphin without picking up a point, meaning Malahide had done just enough to avoid the automatic drop, in the most dramatic of circumstances.

“It was just crazy that we actually even got to that point. The fact that we got twelve points from the last three games, it was just something else from where we were at Christmas time where we only had eight points from nine games. It just shows how far we came.”

 

But as quickly as the celebrations began and continued into the night, they were soon put to one side because the job, as Kelly keeps reiterating, is not done yet.

Standing in their way now are Boyne, who have spent the season doing the opposite to Malahide, building momentum from the outset, winning consistently, and earning a crack at promotion back to the All-Ireland League as Leinster League Division 1A champions.

“After the game again we were on a high. But then at the same time again, we’re like it’s either going to be Enniskillen or Boyne. Job’s not done just yet. Whatever team we play is going to be really, really tough.

“We’re going to play either one or two teams who have been winning consistently over the course of the season. So like, that’s something you have to really bear in mind.

“I know they’re coming up from another division, but they’re going to be putting everything on the line too as well.

“We had errors in the previous game against Monkstown, it was all about correcting those and making sure we’re strong, ready to go again for this weekend, which is going to be a massive game.”

Boyne represent a different kind of challenge, a team full of confidence, chasing promotion, with everything to gain and nothing to lose. Malahide’s preparation has reflected that reality. There is no illusion about what awaits.

“It’s been intense,” acknowledges Kelly. “We do a lot of contact work because even our coach Conall (Boomer) said, you don’t want to be going down and playing against a team like Boyne and not having done the contact work because this is going to be a very contact-heavy game.

“We’ve been preparing pretty tough. I think this week’s sessions, Tuesday and Thursday, will be more just on us and more on our detail, on our set-piece and our phase play.

“But the lead-up to this has been pretty tough and to keep our bodies tip-top ready to go because it’s going to be an all-out war.”

At the centre of Malahide’s resurgence is Boomer, whose influence has been both immediate and profound. Initially the forwards coach, his experience as a player helped transition him into the head coach role, since Andy Kenny departed.

“Conall came in as a forwards coach for us and effectively after the Bective game in February, he was given full control as head coach. Just his energy, his enthusiasm, and particularly his detail.

“Everyone has been really impressed. There’s a real buy-in around him and he’s definitely a coach for the future. He’s got great experience.

“He’s won the AIL with Terenure. He knows what it takes. He was over in Chicago the last two years playing with the Chicago Wolfhounds and he’s been a great addition.

“He is always saying to us, there’s no one chasing us, just that mentality of just go out there and just go for it. You can probably see the results we’re getting now, there is a bit of belief that’s starting to come through. People are really starting to express themselves, which is really key.”

That mentality has liberated the squad, allowing players to express themselves and play with freedom. It has also accelerated the development of younger players, who have stepped up in recent weeks. That blend of youth and experience could prove decisive this weekend.

“We’ve seen a lot of young lads come through, which has been great. This year we had a couple of lads who retired, a couple of lads leave, but I suppose in the second half of the season, even the last three games, a lot of young lads have really stepped up and taken it on.

“No matter what happens even this weekend, I think with the way Malahide has finished, certainly for the future, there’s some great young players coming through, which is key.”

But for now, the focus is entirely on the present. The stakes on Saturday afternoon extend beyond just one season. With league restructuring on the horizon, victory would secure Malahide’s place to move into Division 2B next season.

For Malahide, for Kelly, for everyone involved, it comes down to this – one game, one performance, one opportunity to complete their escape and avoid a drop down to junior rugby.

After everything they have been through this season, and the ending they have written, you would be a brave person to write them off now.

“Winner takes all, in fairness. It’s a chance to stay up in the new Division 2B regional structure, which will be exciting to see how that comes together as well. You want to be involved in that.

“The AIL consistently is one of the great amateur leagues within Europe in terms of rugby, and I think if you do go down (to junior level), the talk from other clubs that have gone down, it’s harder really to get up than it is to stay up.

“There’s so many teams fighting to get back up, and you really don’t want to be in that position. You want to be playing against some of the top players and top clubs within the country in that AIL.

“So, it’s massive for the club that we do stay up, and look, we’ve known this, like the great escape is what we’ve been calling it. The metaphor has been dig, dig, dig. We dig for each other.

“No matter what happens on Saturday, to the very end, we’re going to keep digging because that has been a consistent theme for us, especially in the last three or four months,” he added.

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