The west Belfast men were "beat out the park" in their Championship opener against 2025 champions Dunloy. On Sunday, they'll take on St Brigid's at Corrigan Park bidding to lift the Padraig McNamee Cup for the first time since 1991

Northern Switchgear Antrim SFC final: O’Donovan Rossa v St Brigid’s (Sunday, 3pm, Corrigan Park)

Life will come full circle for Sean Fleming on Sunday when his Rossa team take on St Brigid’s in an all-Belfast Antrim SFC final at Corrigan Park.

The west Belfast outfit last lifted the Padraig McNamee Cup back in 1991, their second title in three seasons, back when Fleming was a player.

On Sunday, he’ll patrol the sideline and watch as a Rossa side featuring his sons Colm and Eoin try to deny St Brigid’s in their first-ever senior final appearance.

“I’ve fond memories of 1991 – I played in ’91, played in ’89, but as you get older the memories fade,” said Fleming.

“There weren't too many videos about for us to look back at them.

"It's a memory, and a great memory for the club, but as I said to the lads before they walked out in the semi-final against Cargin, they’ve heard all the stories about ’89, ’91, All-Ireland finals… I mean, the club has won 30 championships between football and hurling.

“But I said ‘it's time to make your own memories’ - to become the memories people talk about in the future.”

Fleming is selling himself remarkably short when he claims his memories are fading.

At Antrim GAA’s Centre of Excellence at Dunsilly on Monday evening, he recalled, in detail, a lifetime spent dedicating himself to his beloved Rossa.

“Myself and Dominic McEnhill have sons on this team,” he continued.

“Dominic senior was ’keeper in 91. My son, Colm, is the only one on our panel who was born in 1991 - he was born in November ’90.

“But there is that strong link with families throughout the club. That's why most people join Rossa, like many city teams; from a club connection, from a family.”

His family aren’t just steeped in GAA, but they’re also heavily involved in the Irish Judo Association with Eoin competing at two Commonwealth Games while he was also appointed as the Irish National Performance Coach in 2025.

His status as a funded athlete meant he wasn’t allowed to play Gaelic football for Rossa until this season.

Colm almost didn’t play senior football at all after being told he would 'never play sport again’ by a surgeon after breaking his neck when he was U16.

“Colm was in fifth year in Rathmore (Grammar School, Belfast) and we were training for the U16 championship final against Cargin,” said Fleming.

“I was the coach, and we were using those stupid rugby tackle bags… I was holding it. It was damp and, just as he reached me, he slipped and his head went straight into the tackle bag.

“I knew there was something wrong, the ambulance came and took him down to hospital, and they told him he had broken his neck.

“He has a scar down the back of his neck, he's got a bolt and a plate between six and seven in his vertebrae.

“That was in September, he got back in August the next year, we won the Minor championship that year. The year after, when he was still at Rathmore, he played for the county – so there you are, he broke his neck he’s still there.

“One surgeon came in and said, ‘you'll never play sport again’, but the other one, Mr Eames, an excellent surgeon, said ‘I’ll get you fixed’.

“He played his first county game when he was at Rathmore, against Cavan, then he was on the 2009 panel that got to the Ulster final against Tyrone. That’s how far back it was.”

Fleming reckons he has held the position of Rossa senior football manager “five or six times” having also coached every age grade during the last three decades.

Often, he’d step in when others threw the head up, frustrated at a lack of progress from the Shaws Road men.

Fleming can relate.

He makes no bones about where his side found themselves back in August.

Their Group One opener pitted them against defending champions Dunloy.

Playing in Pearse Park, Rossa were, in Fleming’s words “beat out the park” as the holders eased to a 2-22 to 0-8 victory.

Fast forward 10 weeks and Rossa are preparing for a county final.

“You don't win a race at the beginning, you win the race when you run through the rope at the end,” stated the Rossa boss.

“We were up first in the championship, we played Dunloy up in Dunloy the very first night, and we were beat out the park. Dunloy were excellent that night, we weren't.

“If you said to anybody after that game we’d be here now, they’d have laughed. There was no hiding from that.

“We didn't talk about it in the changing room afterwards because it was too raw, but we went away and analysed the performance of us – I mean the management - and we asked the players to have a look at themselves.

“We came back, we were honest with each other, and we said, ‘okay, we need to be better’. “We had two games, and we had to approach it that every game was a knockout game – no more back doors, Lose, and you’re out.

“We overcame both Glenravel and Tír na nÓg and played well and we could see we were improving.

“After that, there were three games left. Game one was Portglenone, we were big underdogs, and we used that and the players used that. They stuck with them, and the players have that in them.

“There's a Championship pedigree in that Rossa team, a lot of those lads played in the county hurling final a couple of years ago [2021] and didn't do themselves justice against Dunloy. That hurt, and it still hurts them.

“A lot of those lads have got minor A championship medals in football and hurling, U21 hurling too. You've got Mick Byrne Gerard Walsh, Dominic McEnhill, Stephen Beatty, Colin Fleming, all senior inter-county experience, all senior footballers; people who are experienced.

“There was an old saying, ‘winning ugly is good - because you win’. We just wanted to teach our boys how to win, because they were always in games, but they didn't know how to win.

That’s one thing we wanted to build into them this year.”

After an absence of nine years, two Belfast teams have made the Antrim SFC final. Fleming will be hoping to take the title to the Shaws Road on Sunday and, given their fierce rivalry with St John’s, it would be extra sweet to lift the cup at Corrigan Park.

He added: “Dunloy gave us inspiration by doing what they did, being a dual club. St John's winning the championship last year, and fair play to them, and they're a strong, honest, dual club. If Dunloy and St John's can do it, why can’t we?

“I must say, it will be lovely to see blue and yellow all around Corrigan Park on Sunday!”