News that Mick O'Dwyer had died at the age of 88 was met with great sadness by GAA fans around the country on Thursday morning.
Naturally, most of the focus has been on his time as a player and manager with Kerry, winning a combined 12 All-Ireland titles - four as a player and another eight as manager from 1974 to 1989.
However, when his time with the Kingdom ended, Micko looked further afield and began a second act as a managerial missionary, primarily in the wilderness of the Leinster Senior Football Championship.
He first took up the helm of Kildare, delivering two provincial titles and an All-Ireland final appearance over two terms that spanned from 1991 to 1994 and again from 1997 to 2002.
Their title in 1998 ended a 42-year wait since a Kildare player had last lifted the trophy now known as the Delaney Cup.
Having ended his time with Kildare in 2002, he decamped across the border to Laois to take up the helm there.
Not regarded as one of the GAA heavyweights, the midlanders had not enjoyed provincial success since 1946.
There had been moments of glory in between, including a National Football League title in 1986, but in general, the most that Laois fans could hope for was to pick up a few wins across the year – and maybe take the scalp of a neighbour (Kildare or Offaly, depending on what part of the county you hail from).
There was one significant bright spark, however - the county’s minor team had won back-to-back All-Ireland titles in 1996 and 1997, before going on to lose the final in 1998.
By 2003 many of those players had progressed to the senior side, to join a cohort of older players.
With Micko in command, there was a remarkable upswing in fortunes.
The last Laois game of the 2002 championship was a humbling 11-point defeat at home to Meath, but with newfound belief Micko’s charges ended up topping Division 1B of the National Football League with five wins from seven games - including a win over Meath in the opening round.
Laois then defeated Armagh, the reigning All-Ireland champions, in the semi-final to set up a final meeting with Tyrone.
Unfortunately for Laois fans that final ended in a heavy defeat, but they may have drawn some solace from a statement O’Dwyer made after the semi-final success: "Our aim was to build a team for the championship".
Given the lengthy gap since Laois had gathered championship silverware, many might have scoffed at that statement if someone else had said it.
But here was Mick O’Dwyer, serial winner, talking about building towards the championship. It was no wonder belief was high.
A first-round meeting with Wexford went to script, with Laois winning comfortably, but things nearly came unstuck in the quarter-final against Offaly.
The game ebbed, then flowed, then ebbed some more. Offaly led by five at the break, but Laois got back level.
Then Offaly went a goal ahead with time almost up. Suddenly, a quickfire 1-01 put Laois - by this stage down to 14 men - back ahead.
Not content to leave it there, the GAA gods had one final twist, with Offaly levelling matters from a '45.
Laois won the replay in Tullamore by a goal, to set up a semi-final meeting with Dublin.
While the phrase ‘semi-final meeting with Dublin’ strikes fear into the hearts of all supporters of Leinster’s lesser lights now, that wasn’t the case in 2003 (or most of the early 00s) and Laois emerged victorious by two points.
Looking back now, a Dublin defeat in a Leinster semi-final might seem the most remarkable aspect of this whole tale.
In the final, Micko’s Laois faced the now Micko-less Kildare. It couldn’t really have been any other way.
Excitement around the county reached fever pitch leading up to the final - and not just in the areas near the Kildare border. (To be honest, even without the Micko element it’s fair to say the area around Athy and Stradbally would have been like a tinder box in the weeks leading up to the decider.)
The game itself, which the GAA helpfully posted to their YouTube account in its entirely during one of the Covid lockdown periods when there was no on-field action to talk about, was frantic, with three red cards (two for Kildare, one for Laois) and three goals (two for Laois, one for Kildare).
Laois led by six points after 20 minutes, but the deficit was reduced to two by the break.
Two magic moments in the second half, goals from Brian ‘Beano’ McDonald and Ross Munnelly, put Laois in control.
Kildare rallied, and drew level, but then three late points gave Laois victory - and Micko the missionary had delivered another county to the promised land.
As a Laois man looking back on that era, there are a few defining moments, and none sticks in the mind more than the pitch invasion that followed the final whistle.
You often hear the clichés about 'grown men crying' after sporting events, but there were grown men crying that day.
Hordes of Laois people had descended on Croke Park that day in 2003, swept up in the excitement and belief instilled by Micko.
The memories of those fans travelling by the busload to Dublin 3 on what always seem to be sunny days, of the pitch invasion and the 'UnLaoised by Micko' banner, and of the man himself patrolling the sidelines with a rolled-up programme in his hand will live on for a long time.
Those memories are somewhat bittersweet, as there’s also the ‘what if’ factor. Laois followed that Leinster title win with a two-point All-Ireland quarter-final defeat to Armagh, who in turn went on to lose the All-Ireland final to Tyrone.
In 2004 and 2005 there were narrow Leinster final defeats, first to Westmeath after a replay then to Dublin by a point (There are people around Laois who will happily still argue the case that the '45 awarded to Dublin at the end of the 2005 final should never have been given).
In 2006, they lost to Mayo in the All-Ireland quarter-finals after a replay.
Mayo went on to upset the Dubs, twice, in the semi-final to reach a decider against Kerry, first by warming up in front of Hill 16, then a second time by beating Dublin to reach the final.
Nonetheless in Laois, just as he had previously done in Kildare and would subsequently do in Wicklow, Micko gave a group of GAA fans who had been starved of success for most of the organisation’s history the opportunity to experience actual glory.
In Kildare, he ended a 42-year wait for a provincial title, while in Laois it extended to 57 years. A combined total of 99 years of hurt. No wonder there were tears.
Neither county has won a Leinster title since his time in charge but no matter what, we’ll always have the Micko years.
