As soon as Dublin have been crushed, Pat Collins knew he had a narrative.
It doesn’t matter what else occurred as he chronicled the adventures of Westmeath within the 2004 championship, he had the story of their win over Dublin on tape.
After all of the hours of footage, he now had a convulsive drama round which he may construct.
But it surely turned out that that well-known June day in Croke Park was solely the start.
And by the tip, Collins had ‘Marooned’, the acclaimed documentary about Westmeath’s season for all occasions, and one of many best-told Irish sports activities tales in any medium.
One Dublin have been crushed, Pat Collins knew he had a narrative to inform about Westmeath’s season
He simply occurred to be round to chronicle the summer time during which they received their solely Leinster senior soccer championship.
On the centre of the story, the group, and at occasions what felt just like the universe itself, was Páidí Ó Sé, on a painful rebound from Kerry after his time there was ended following defeat to Tyrone in an notorious All-Eire semi-final in 2003.
Ó Sé was, as Collins remembers him now, ‘form of an epic character’, and he’s the dominant determine in ‘Marooned’. It couldn’t be another manner – there hasn’t been a determine like him in Irish sport.
The star footballer who grew up inside splashing distance of the Atlantic, eight-time All-Eire winner, buddy of Taoisigh, well-known sufficient to be identified by his first identify, the person who pulled Kerry out of its 11-year await Sam Maguire, then rejected by his personal as soccer took a violent tactical jolt that threatened to go away him flat-footed for the primary time in his life.
Then got here Westmeath, and probably the most unbelievable unions in soccer historical past produced one in every of its most fantastic tales.
Páidí O Sé managing Westmeath was probably the most unlikely unions in Irish sport on the time
A LEAP OF FAITH
There to document all of it occurred to be a documentary maker from Drimoleague in west Cork.
‘In the event that they’d been crushed by Dublin within the second spherical, I don’t know what sort of documentary it could have been then,’ Collins says now.
‘It might have been a really completely different documentary, and it could have been pretty downbeat.
‘However generally you simply need to place confidence in it, that one thing good goes to occur and also you simply take an opportunity on it, actually.
‘It was a shaky enterprise, but it surely simply ended up being a type of magic occasions when every little thing went proper, actually, and it’s very uncommon that occurs.’
Westmeath go to Croke Park at this time, showing in simply their sixth Leinster senior closing.
And even a Dublin group struggling for its bearings within the fog between the tip of 1 age and the uncertainty of the following one, are fancied to win the match.
Pat Collins reckons Marooned would have been very completely different had Dublin crushed Westmeath
Westmeath will not be one of many sport’s heavyweights, which partly explains the magnitude of what they did 22 years in the past.
Dublin have been struggling then, too. Westmeath surprised them in a Leinster quarter-final, successful by two factors after taking the lead with the clock virtually completed.
That day was the start of the tip for Dublin supervisor Tommy Lyons, because the Hill turned poisonous and the abuse was captured in a well-known photograph of a father leaning over the mouth of the tunnel to roar at Lyons, whereas holding the hand of a small, recoiling little one.
However for Westmeath, essentially the most outstanding summer time of their historical past – to date – was solely unfolding, like a butterfly stretching its wings, the complete magnificence solely rising in time.
A TEAM OF SUBSTANCE
There was actual substance to that group, fortified because it was by an All-Eire-winning minor group from 1995 and an Below 21 successful facet from 1999.
Gamers like Gary Connaughton, John Keane, Rory O’Connell, Alan Mangan, Dennis Glennon and Dessie Dolan have been of the very best high quality.
Ó Sé would have identified the calibre of participant accessible to him, but it surely was nonetheless beautiful information when his arrival in Westmeath was introduced.
Collins understood from the beginning that his relationship with the supervisor was important to the enterprise.
He remembers a dialog with Ó Sé whereas they have been travelling in a automotive. Páidí was telling tales in regards to the 2000 All-Eire win he oversaw with Kerry and solely realised after some time that the cameras have been rolling.
Ó Sé would have identified the calibre of gamers accessible to hium comparable to Gary Connaughton
That spooked him, and days later, Collins needed to get in his automotive and drive to Ventry to reassure Ó Sé that he needn’t concern traps.
‘You’re very aware making a documentary like that, that you just’re not revealing something you don’t need revealed,’ says Collins.
‘Journalists need to reveal sure details as a result of it’s a part of their job, whereas in case you’re a documentary director, that relationship is essential and also you’re standing with them versus attempting to get something out of them that they don’t wish to give.’
Collins needed to stress that time to his topic.
‘I needed to reassure him that there could be a number of issues he wouldn’t need within the documentary, however it could be a real reflection of his expertise in Westmeath.’
A ‘LAUGHING STOCK’
Collins would spend a lot of that summer time dwelling within the Greville Arms Lodge in Mullingar, attending to know Ó Sé and among the gamers, and the broader constellation of individuals related to an inter-county squad.
However ‘Marooned’ endures as a superb story due to the voices Collins consists of from exterior the squad.
Foremost character vitality is a phrase that might have been made for Páidí Ó Sé, however the marvel of Collins’ movie is that he made room for others.
The primary championship match Westmeath performed that summer time was towards Offaly.
The primary championship match Westmeath performed in that superb summer time was towards Offaly
They hadn’t crushed them for 55 years, and Collins interviewed a 92-year-old Westmeath supporter referred to as Joe Fox earlier than that match.
He talked of being in firm through the years. ‘I’d be ashamed to say that I used to be from Westmeath. We have been form of a laughing inventory,’ he mentioned.
However the religion endured, and Fox made a comment in passing that goes near naming the essence of supporting your county. ‘I’m a nasty loser,’ he mentioned of following Westmeath.
This from a person who had spent most of his lengthy life watching his group lose.
Expectation can by no means be fully snuffed out. It survives not due to hopeless optimism, however as a result of assist to your county goes past following a group. It’s a matter of custom, of identification, of affection.
And that deep, subtle relationship was introduced out by Collins.
It’s no coincidence that Páidí Ó Sé wasn’t the one icon of twentieth-century Eire that he met that summer time.
He made the acquaintance of John McGahern, too, and the 12 months after ‘Marooned’ his terrific examine of the novelist got here out, referred to as ‘A Non-public World’.
‘Myself and John McGahern spent as a lot time speaking about soccer as we did about literature,’ he remembers.
‘Assembly John McGahern and Páidí Ó Sé that 12 months, it was like two sides of my pursuits, tradition and the humanities, and in addition the GAA heartland factor.
‘They’re two essential elements of my life.’
Collins acquired to know John McGahern across the similar time he labored with Westmeath
THE GRAIN OF RICE SPEECH
They have been additionally, of their other ways, merchandise and chroniclers of an Eire that Collins believes was uncared for for a few years.
‘As a lot because the GAA may be very current in Irish society and media now, I nonetheless felt once I was rising up that the GAA was seen as being a bit like rural Eire itself – boggers performed Gaelic soccer.’
The wealthy, layered world it actually was is touched upon repeatedly by Collins in ‘Marooned’. Westmeath acquired their day of days, beating Wexford in a Leinster semi-final after overcoming Dublin, earlier than defeating reigning champions Laois after a replay within the Leinster closing.
The documentary opens with maroon blurs flooding the Croke Park pitch after the ultimate whistle that day, however one in every of its most memorable scenes comes between the draw and the replay.
Collins spent a lot of that summer time asking Ó Sé’s permission to movie one in every of his speeches to the gamers, however Páidí repeatedly mentioned no.
Then, at a coaching session between the 2 Laois matches, he approached Collins and mentioned he may document his deal with to the gamers.
What adopted was the well-known ‘grain of rice’ speech.
‘A grain of rice goes to tip the size, simply do not forget that lads, a grain of rice will tip the size,’ he instructed the gamers, gathered in a circle round him.
But it surely was his transient deal with to Mangan that has gone down in folklore. Collins laughs and says his sons inform him elements of the speech now pop up on TikTok.
Collins spent a lot of that summer time asking Ó Sé’s permission to movie one in every of his speeches
They absolutely embrace his admonishment of Mangan for getting knocked out of the best way by a Laois participant within the drawn match.
‘You have been f***ed over the road twice, f***ed over the road such as you’d catch a loaf of bread and f*** you over the road with a shoulder,’ Ó Sé roared, earlier than he declared, ‘We don’t wish to see no Westmeath man f***ed about.’
Collins doesn’t consider Ó Sé had ready what he would say in that speech. ‘He spoke within the circulation of it,’ he says.
‘It’s a type of issues once you’re making a movie, it’s like a mosaic and also you’re attempting to place every little thing collectively, there was such aid when Páidí mentioned, “Look, you may movie this speech”.
‘And as quickly as we filmed it, we knew it was sturdy and that it could be good for the documentary.
‘There have been speeches he gave to the group that we weren’t allowed at, that have been up one other degree of depth once more,’ he laughs.
Alan Mangan, left, drew Páidí’s ire for getting knocked out of the best way by a Laois participant
PÁIDÍS LEGACY
Westmeath’s summer time ended with defeat to Derry in an All-Eire quarter-final.
Collins’ plan was to skip that match, given the enormity of the Leinster achievement, and if Westmeath had overcome Derry, then he would have resumed filming for an All-Eire semi-final – during which Kerry would have been Westmeath’s opposition.
However Ó Sé insisted Collins and his crew attend the Greville Arms and movie the gamers at breakfast on the morning of the match, as that they had completed for each different match that summer time.
Ó Sé was involved that the gamers can be upset if the cameras weren’t round. Given his personal well-documented superstitions, it’s seemingly he was chatting with his personal want, too.
He confronted off towards Mick O’Dwyer within the Leinster closing win over Laois, however it could have been fascinating to see how he handled dealing with his personal individuals in an All-Eire semi-final.
Ó Sé’s deep damage at how his time with Kerry ended is captured at the beginning of ‘Marooned’, however there’s a later sequence the place he talks about what successful with Westmeath would possibly imply to him.
‘It wouldn’t examine with any of the wins that I had with my very own county, each as a participant and as a supervisor. I’m nonetheless a Kerryman, and I’ll all the time be a Kerryman,’ he says.
‘I’m a believer within the inexperienced and gold and nothing will ever change me about that.’
But the miracle of Westmeath’s summer time in 2004, and of ‘Marooned’, is that Ó Sé may convey, in addition to his nice expertise and managerial nous, an elemental ardour to the position that made believers of a proficient group of gamers, after which of a complete county.
Ó Sé wouldn by no means examine any o different wins these he had together with his personal county, Kerry
RTÉ gave Collins three weeks to edit the documentary earlier than it went out on air; he would ordinarily give six months to that job.
However when ‘Marooned’ was broadcast, it was to nice acclaim.
And Collins’ profession has flourished. Whereas the bones of it have been in documentaries, he additionally made a well-received film of McGahern’s final novel, ‘That They Could Face the Rising Solar’.
His fondness for Westmeath and the story he so unforgettably captured stays apparent.
‘The midlands was a spot I didn’t know that effectively till that summer time, and I acquired to know an entire completely different facet of Eire.
‘It’s very completely different to the coast, there’s a distinct ambiance there and a distinct rhythm of life.
‘I liked it.’
And he’ll watch at this time’s Leinster closing, simply as he watched final week’s Munster version and his Cork group succumbing but once more to Kerry.
Collins will watch Mark McHugh’s 2026 model of Westmeath tackle Dublin at Croke Park
‘That custom does depend for one thing, and I believe it counted for one thing final Sunday,’ he says.
‘It’s psychological, and that’s why Páidí may change the psychological dynamic that summer time. If he says he doesn’t like dropping, or that he doesn’t do dropping, that instils a perception in gamers.’
The preternatural power that was Páidí Ó Sé spent another season at Westmeath, however the wonders he labored won’t ever be forgotten.
Pat Collins was there to seize it, but in addition to painting a tradition that was there a long time earlier than this power of nature swept up from the south, and which has endured after him, too.
‘They’re massive underdogs, however you’d by no means know,’ he says waiting for at this time.
Westmeath are again in a Leinster closing, their custom fattened by one outstanding summer time, the excessive level in a century of Sundays.
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