This one will have been sweet for Thomas Davis.
The Dublin club football championships were changed at the start of the year and the Tallaght club were raging about it.
First of all, the Dublin senior championship was altered from a 32 team straight knock-out competition to a 16 team competition. The remaining 16 teams, based on having worse form than those who would play in senior 1, were demoted to senior 2 and there was nothing they could do about it.
Thomas Davis were disgusted at losing the senior status they'd fought hard for, claiming that as a result of the new proposals, they were an intermediate club in
"all bar name."
But that wasn't the worst of it.
The intermediate and junior championships were also set to change. Second teams were going to be denied access to Junior and intermediate championships proper. Instead, club's second teams were forced to compete in a separate all county intermediate and all county junior championship.
So that meant a club like Thomas Davis didn't have a team in any of the mainstream Dublin football championships this year. You could hardly blame them for kicking up a fuss at the changed.
They appealed and they even proposed a new set-up for the Dublin senior football championship that would include the 32 teams who'd been there, but these were rejected and so they had to play in the Dublin senior two championship this year.
And with
Parnells just dropping down from senior one to senior two this year, without even fighting to stay up after they'd been plunged into a relegation battle - that must have rubbed salt in the Davis wounds even more this year.
They feel they belong as a senior club and that's what they'll be next year.
They went out and proved their point in the senior two championship this year, making it to the final against St Mary's Saggart on Saturday.
They coasted to the final and they showed themselves to be head and shoulders above their final opponents, hammering the Saggart outfit with 13 points to spare.
https://twitter.com/DubMatchTracker/status/1056246715488108544
They'll celebrate that one. They'll enjoy next year.
