‘It Brings The Town Closer Together’ – Stewart On Dromore’s Energia Junior Cup Journey

For Aaron Stewart, the Energia All-Ireland Men’s Junior Cup final on Saturday at Ashbourne RFC (kick-off 2.30pm – live on irishrugby+) is not just another chapter in a long Dromore career. It is the one he once feared he would never get to write.

There are over 200 appearances behind him now, closer to 250 if the numbers are counted properly from the old team sheets scribbled on pieces of paper. Yet this weekend will mark his first All-Ireland Junior Cup final on the field. after 14 seasons with the County Down club.

In 2020, when Dromore last reached this stage, taking on Kilfeackle & District, Stewart was watching from the sidelines. His neck had been operated on during pre-season, his season over and possibly his chance to play for his boyhood club in an All-Ireland decider taken from him in a moment.

“Excited for the final, because I know that the last final we played in 2020 that was the year I was out,” Stewart told IrishRugby.ie, speaking during the build-up to this week’s title showdown with Seapoint.

“I had to get surgery on my neck. So to watch from the sidelines, it was hard. Especially us losing. I was out that whole season.

“In the summer I was going into pre-season, then I got surgery in pre-season in August, so I got a disc taken out of my neck. It was compressed in the spinal cord, so I had to take the whole year out.

“So, it was good to watch the guys win every game and get into the final, but it hurt watching from the sidelines. I was down at the game for them, I was doing more helping out with the guys than I was down at the final with them.

“I thought we had missed that one when I had done the surgery, because after Covid a lot moved on. A lot of guys, we had a new coach, boys left. I thought we were never going to get that chance again.

“So it’s good to have the opportunity to be there again. Even for myself to be there for the first time, but I never thought we would get that chance again. It would be good to get back there and win the trophy from not even playing that year.”

Dromore’s return has been fuelled as much by disappointment as ambition. Last season’s setbacks still sting, particularly the Energia All-Ireland League promotion semi-final defeat to Thomond which added to their Energia Junior Cup semi-final exit at the hands of eventual champions Bective Rangers.

But adversity has hardened this group rather than fractured it. The response this year, coming off the back of their exploits in Ulster last season, has been emphatic, built on resilience and belief.

Building momentum through the All-Ireland Junior Cup’s rounds before Christmas, their victories over Bandon (26-5), Ulster rivals Enniskillen (23-0), and Creggs (32-21) did not come easily, but they came with meaning.

“Beating Enniskillen was a big boost for us. They came to us at the start of the season, we beat them last year, they beat us in the (Ulster Junior Cup) final, but they really took us to the sword at home at the start of the season.

“To come back and beat them, and the way we did it was a real boost confidence-wise for the team just going forward.

“It was just a relief when the whistle sounded in Creggs (in the semi-final). We were just all focused on ourselves going down there, stick to the way we were playing, stick together.

“It was a big trip, about three-and-a-half hours down in the car, and then we were staying over. So, it was hard going through the relief and the emotion after.

“And I can say Creggs, when we went down there, it was a great club, great people. They had the youth teams out before, creating a bit of an atmosphere, so it was a great day.”

To understand what this final means to Dromore, Stewart’s memory stretches back far beyond 2020, back to days when merely fielding a team in this competition for the first time felt like an achievement.

“2020 was big, real big for the club. There was buzz around the whole town” he says.

“And even this year too, you have people from all corners of Ulster asking me about it, and they’re coming down on the bus to watch the game, so it’s a big buzz about it. I remember, I’d been there from about 2010, 2011, I started playing senior rugby. I think the first time we got into the All-Ireland Junior Cup was 2015. And we played Enniscorthy, and we didn’t even have enough players to go down.

So we conceded the game before we even went. 13 boys going down there, and then two of the Enniscorthy boys playing with us. So to come from there, within five years, to get to the final, just showed how far we’d actually dug in and moved on as a club.”

Growth has been organic, built on loyalty and youth retention rather than quick fixes. Even last year’s disappointment has played its part. Stewart himself embodies that loyalty. He has worn Dromore colours through thin seasons and strong ones, never tempted to drift elsewhere. The club has grown. So has his bond with it. A bond that goes beyond rugby. One that is returned in kind.

“When I first started, it was just keeping hold of the young players. But after we’d reached the final, a lot of guys just stuck together, and all the youth players are staying around. I think that’s something positive from even losing that semi-final last year, it was a young team. There was a first taste of it, so if we just stick at it, build on that, and we’ve got this final, it can help push us on.

I think I have over 200 something caps now, up to near 250, but that’s two years missing. When I first started the team sheets were just written a bit of paper. I’ve always stuck around, I moved to Dromore at a young age, but I was always a football guy. And then I moved to the club, and it’s just everything they’ve given me.”

“Even from being in the club, around the community, especially being in my own personal life, even for work and everything, it’s just always been supportive of me. So I was never going to leave, I always wanted to give back what the club gives to me. That’s why I would never try and move on somewhere else, it’s home to me.”

On the field, Stewart’s role is as much an emotional anchor as it is a technical contributor. Experience matters in finals. Stewart has plenty of experience, even if he has nerves himself playing in his first final of this competition. Perspective is earned, many of them have been here before and with that the preparation and the nerves feel familiar, a calmness in the repetition, long trips are routine.

“Just putting your arm around the young fellas” he says.

“Mistakes happen, it’s rugby, it’s a game of who makes the most mistakes, usually loses. If you’ve been playing that long, it’s water off a duck’s back. So it’s just trying to support the young fellas throughout the game.

A lot of them are from last season, they’ve got that experience of the finals we were in last year. So I feel we’re in a better position this year than we were last year. From last year too, even going down to Thomond away, we were at Killfeacle away the year before that.

So we have had the big trips, we were planning for it and it was the right routine where we can get set for it. So I think we’re more relaxed about it than we would have been before, it’s nothing new.”

Ashbourne will be busy this weekend, painted with Dromore colours. For Aaron Stewart, this final is about more than redemption or silverware. It is about time, loyalty, resilience and the long road back from moments that nearly ended it all.

From watching helplessly in 2020 to leading again now, from conceding games in 2015 to contesting finals a decade later, Dromore’s story is etched into his own.

On Saturday, with the town travelling to get behind them and old demons waiting to be banished, Stewart finally gets his chance, not from the sidelines, but right where he belongs in the thick of the action.

“I have a load of old friends I used to play rugby with even throughout the league that are coming down from other clubs to watch us. A lot of guys coming down from Banbridge and stuff who are close to the club.

Ashbourne, we used to play them every year in pre-season, so it’s a good venue that we’re used to and we know it. The whole town is buzzing about it. Even when I’m just going to pick up the kids from school later, everyone asks me about it every morning.

In work, everyone’s asking about how they’re getting down, can they get to the bus, if I can sort them out. So it’s a real buzz, it’s good to see. So it brings the town closer together, even the football club, the hockey club are singing our praises, so it’s great.”

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