Dublin Rebels
The Dublin Rebels were founded in the summer of 1995. Phil Woodyard, a seasoned Irish American football player met with Marcus Naylor and Andrew Flynn late one night while he was working on the graveyard shift, to tell the two rookies his football tales. Phil was a great player but had no interest in managing. Working with him, Marcus and Andy decided to put together a team to enter the 1995 Irish Flag Football League.
Under Phil’s coaching, The Rebels (I should mention we were almost called “The Wolverinesâ€) began to train in a small park in Greystones, Co Wicklow. We entered the Flag league for the 1995-96 season, as planned. We had a squad of about 10 players, most of whom were completely new to the sport. We learned quickly under the guidance of “Coach Philâ€, The highlight of the season was a thrilling last day match against the previous years champions, The Dublin Devastators. We drew this match 13-13, a must win match for The Devastators thus costing them their play-off place. We received the “Best Newcomer Team award†that season and began to show our talents.
The following season 1996-97 we had a summer tournament in which we finished 3rd. Always improving, we kept adding new talent to our squad and soon found we did not have enough room on “The Rebels†for everyone. We decided to set up a 2nd flag team. One of our QB’s John Durrad, who could not hold down the starting position offered to oversee the management of this team. John Durrad was given a squad of players and The Rebels management provided their uniform. “The Gladiators†failed to make the impact on the league, which The Rebels had done. Even so, at least everyone was playing. The idea was that both flag teams would keep growing and eventually have a combined full contact squad. During the off season, we assigned Al Kelly as our Head Coach and Phil Woodyard took a more backseat role (By his own request), as team Captain.
The third season 1997-98, we had a great year. Fully coached by Al Kelly our solid defence and high scoring offence took us to the top of the league table for the season. We won our playoff semi-final against the Drimnagh Cyco’s easily, however we a lost closely fought Final to The Pirates by one touch down. In the award ceremony afterwards we collected our runners up medals and Marcus Naylor also picked up the MVP award for the league for the 1997-98 season.
The Following season 1998-99 was the beginning of the full contact team. As planned our two flag teams combined as one and we managed to play one season in the full contact league of Ireland before the demise of the league. It was a transitional period for most of us. But under the careful eye of coach Al Kelly, we did quite well and once again we finished mid table picking up a few scalps along the way. The Rebels did not play in the flag football league 1999-00 due to politics in the game. This decision, made by the Flag league committee, was their downfall. It was a decision which lead to the demise of the flag league. There was no 2000-01 season played. During this time our founder Phil Woodyard got married and emigrated to the USA.
2001 saw the Full contact league reborn, under the management of the Teams the season kicked off in September 2001. There was four teams out of a possible six, ready and willing to play. The Carrickfergus Knights (Northern Ireland), The Dublin Dragons, The Limerick University Vikings and of course The Dublin Rebels. After the confirmation that the league was going ahead the Rebels, Still under the coaching of “Coach Al Kellyâ€, Started a vigorous 3 month pre season and recruitment program from June onwards. We added Michael Kelly to our coaching staff as Line Coach. We also recruited a few players from old rival teams. Surprising enough it worked and after only a couple of weeks, all 30 players on our books were “Real Rebelsâ€. Fighting for the good of the team and hungry for success.
The 2001 season was exceptional for The Rebels – It began with home demolition of the Vikings 42-0 followed by an away victory at The Dragons 12-0. We had a couple of weeks training before our away trip to the Knights. With a monumental goal line stand for the last two minutes we took that game too 16-12. The following week was a replay of game 1. Away to the Vikings, we had a very slow start, going in at half time only 8-0 up. We found our wings again in the second half and took to flight. Final Score 35-0. Game five brought up a home return against the Dragons. Another shut out by The Rebels awesome Defensive gave us Victory 18-0. One game to go! Played 5, won 5! The last game of the season brought the Mighty Knights to Dublin, looking for revenge after our victory up north. They where fired up that day and stormed into a 20-0 lead at half time. The Rebels answered back in the second half with two touch downs and a point after 20-14 was the score with 4 minutes left. We pounded the Knights endzone, but they stood firm just as we had earlier in the season up North. Final score Rebels 14-20 Knights.
Although we lost that match we had finally secured a Shamrock Bowl Final match for the first time in our history (If you are still reading then you obviously know that). The 2001 Shamrock Bowl Final was held in Carrickfergus, home of the Knights. In two season matches, each team had shared the wins, with an aggregate score of 32-30 to the Knights. But on December 16th 2001, there was only one team firing on all cylinders. The Dublin Rebels!!! We started the match with a 95yd kick return from our season MVP, Brian Dennehy. Everything went right for us that day! The Mighty Knights had absolutely no answer. The final score: Dublin Rebels 28-7 Carrickfergus Knights. We had finally won the Shamrock Bowl.
In total contrast the 2002 season saw the Rebels lose a number of their key players. We went through a season of rebuilding, only managing to pick up one win in our last game of the season against the Dragons. We did however, as 2001 Irish Champions have a European tournament in Belgium to look forward to. In June 2002 a small Rebels squad plus three of the Dragons (two past Rebels) travelled to Belgium. We played 2 matches winning both. This was the first time an Irish team had ever won on foreign soil. We went on that weekend to demolish the hosts, The Charleroi cougars, 22-00 in the final. We returned home victorious with our trophy, Marcus Naylor had picked up the tournament MVP award and Fearghal O’Donnchu finished top scorer. A Great finish to a miserable season.
After a year of rebuilding, the Rebels took to the field once again. The 2003 season saw the Rebels squad increase in size to 35 with the addition of 12 rookies. After loosing a very close opener to the Knights 20-14, we then went on a 9 game winning streak which included the successful defence of The Charleroi Trophy in July 2003. This unbeaten run of games also lead to the successful re-capturing of the most coveted prize in Irish football, The Shamrock Bowl with a comprehensive victory over the Knights (24-12).
In 2004 Season we continued our tradition of introducing a number of rookies once again. The season saw the Rebels score 300 points and finish with a season record of 9-1 (inc playoff and final). We won the league title for the 1st time. We retained the Shamrock bowl by defeating our rivals the Knights 24-22 in the final. After trailing to them by 18pts at half time, we produced the mother of all comebacks to deny them victory. We also broke the scoring record for a single game. Scoring 88 points against the Admirals. We were also on a good run of games. 16 wins from the previous 17 games dating back to March 2003
The 2005 Season saw the Belfast Bulls try to be the first IAFL team to win the league with a perfect winning record. This was not to be, as they travelled to the Rebels for their final league game. The Rebels hammered them 26-0 that day to secure 2nd place in the league. The Rebels won the Shamrock bowl again, for the fourth time in the previous five seasons, 3rd time in a row. They defeated the Belfast Bulls 26 – 19 in Shamrock Bowl XIX, held in Belfast. This tied the Rebels with IAFL legends, the Dublin Celts at the top of the All-time leader board. The Celts had a total of four Shamrock Bowls during their existence. Shamrock Bowl XIX also saw veteran running back Brian Dennehy finally hang up his boots. After 15 years in the IAFL, Dennehy announced his retirement. Is he the greatest IAFL player ever? He has my vote.
The 2006 Season will be always be remembered by all Rebels as the most important season ever. The Dublin Rebels, won the IAFL League 8-0, they won their play-off and then went on to win Shamrock Bowl XX. An impressive 44 – 12 victory over UL Vikings in the Final gave the Rebels their 5th Shamrock Bowl (4 in a row). It also guaranteed them the perfect season. No other team has ever managed to win every game of the season. The Dublin Rebels were now officially The Greatest Irish American Football Team ever, with 5 Shamrock Bowl Titles.
2007 didn’t start well for the Rebels. We managed a very sluggish 8-0 win over the Saints in our opening game and then lost even more sluggishly to the Belfast Trojans 12-6, in game 2, thus ending a run of 15 consecutive wins. Game 3 saw the slow start continue as managed a last minute against winner the ever improving Cork Admirals 28-26. This brilliant 4th Quarter offensive drive was however the spark we needed and finally our season came to life. The next 4 games saw us hammer our Dublin Rivals scoring 212 points and conceding only 12. The good run continued with a 6-0 victory over the Belfast Bulls, which saw us finish in first place in the league for the third time in our history. The playoff semi-final against the Cork Admirals was a defensive affair. It was not to be our day as tried once again to produce a 4th quarter comeback, unfortunately that well had run dry and Cork progressed to the Final having beaten the Rebels 8-6.
With a fresh group of young and enthusiastic rookies and the majority of veterans returning, the Rebels took to 2008 pre-season with lots of new additions to the squad, most under 25, the Rebels had a sluggish opening to the 2008 season, losing the 3rd game 6-0 to Cork. The blow dealt by the Admirals victory lit a fire under the Rebels as they ran riot in their next 4 games, scoring an amazing 188 points while conceding exactly 0 points. In the final game, the Rebels went on the road and defeated the champs 36-16 securing first place in the league with a 7-1 record.
The Rebels were now drawn to face the Admirals, in Dublin, in the playoffs in a severe case of déjà vu. After 3 punishing quarters the score was 6-2 in favour of Cork. The Rebels soldiered on and won the game with a dramatic finish with a score from the leagues #1 defence. With this win, the Rebels were back in the Shamrock bowl were they would face the defending champs, the UL Vikings.
Played in CIT Stadium, Cork, the Shamrock bowl was a polar opposite result to the last time the two teams met in the final. Both defences produced strong performances. With the score 14- 12 and everything to play for, the final quarter was one of the most exciting of Shamrock bowl history. Late in the fourth the Rebels drove into Limerick territory and looked to finish the game with a TD. However, with an unfortunate dropped pass in the endzone the Rebels were forced to attempt a field goal which would give them a 1 point lead. The attempt was blocked allowing the Vikings to run out the clock and hold on to their title for a second consecutive year.
