Month / January 2019

by thesaffrongael

Division 2 football teams prepare for the off

Division two teams are preparing for the start of the 2019 leagues and the suggestion is that such may well be earlier than in the past season.

The CCC are deliberating with clubs on possible change to the structures for the incoming term and a decision will be announced in the near future.

O’Donovan Rossa, despite underlining strength in depth in 2017 when they collected both minor and under-21 titles endured the drop last term and the Shaw’s road men are back in division two in the season ahead.

They will be burdened by the favourites tag for honours in their lowered status and Sean Fleming has taken the managerial role to lead the way with Domhnal O’Neill and Gareth Devine lending support.

There is no doubt that they will not get all their own way in the year ahead but most pundits will make strong suggestion that the Rossa men are capable of a quick return to the top flight.

St Joseph’s Glenavy endured the bounce factor in 2018 as after they made return to the top division after a lengthy period away the Chapel Hill men failed to gain a foothold and finished bottom to return to the second grade.

Colm Toal returns to the hot seat at Chapel Hill with former Armagh native Peter McKeever as his second in command with an aim to steer the St Joseph’s men back to the positive.

Glenavy may well have learned from their experience of last year and if such is evident they may well mount a strong challenge to return to the top table.

St James Aldergrove looked on the way back to the top division last term when they held advantage on top of the pile as the season neared conclusion but the Crumlin men failed to sustain their challenge and a couple of poor results saw them toss opportunity away.

Paddy Nugent returns to the top job at the Crumlin venue and the former Johnnies man will be looking for sustainability this time.

Aldergrove do have a strong panel available and if they learn from the mistakes from the 2018 season then they are more than capable of mounting a strong challenge for honours.

  • Paddy Nugent (Right) back in charge of St. James Aldergrove

Tir na Nog had a good 2018 season and came mighty close to promotion with a last gasp defeat to St Brigid’s costing them the opportunity.

Little separated the top four in the second grade last term and in a last game shoot out ground advantage aided the South Belfast side as they took the ever so important points at stake to gain promotion.

The Whitehill men retain the services of Damien ‘Scotchy’ Hagen who takes the reins again with Oran McNeilly installed as second in command and they will look to make amends for the last ditch reversal of last term.

The Randalstown men claimed the under-21 B title in 2017 and have a strong youth based panel and they are more than well equipped to make a bold bid again.

Cuchullian’s Dunloy are a strong dual club and although their focus remains firmly fixed on the small ball game they secured another minor football title last term, and impressed on the way to an under-21 final in which they were narrowly defeated by an excellent St Brigid’s, and have talent in abundance.

Anthony McQuillan and Philip Muldoon have again been installed in charge of the football side.

Dunloy are well equipped to make their mark in football as the exploits of minor and under-21 teams strongly suggest, but such may well come as secondary for most of the hugely talented panel and the divided trail ahead may prove a problem.

All Saint’s Ballymena started slowly in the extreme last term and a poor return from their opening games saw them trailing the front runners in the division, and well off the pace by the half way juncture.

They did seize hold of the baton in the second half of the season, but a strong finish only ensured a respectable finishing berth which banished the threat of possible relegation which had lingered for a time.

Sean O’Brien takes hold of the tiller for the season ahead and he will be seeking a much better start to the 2019 campaign in contrast to the previous year.

All Saint’s should be more than capable of making a mark in this division but consistency may well be the key if they are to make a challenge for honours in 2019.

Patrick Sarsfield’s did well enough last term to sustain presence in the second grade and the Stewartstown road side will be looking to kick on and make a challenge this term.

The former ‘Bear Pit’ residents have installed John McMenamin to lead the way in 2019 with Ronan Carberry as second in command.

The Paddies have a long and proud tradition in Antrim and they will be looking for further progress again in the season ahead.

Michael Davitt’s finished mid-table in the second grade but with a go ahead outlook and excellent facilities in place the Falls road club are well equipped to make further progress.

Sean og O’Neill has assumed the lead position in a selection committee which includes, Michael Brady, Stephen Brady, Chris Rafferty, Liam McGivern and Gerard Burns.

Davitt’s may not be favourites for honours in the division but they will certainly not be without hope.

St Mary’s Rasharkin gained a secure mid table place last term and the Dreen men will be hoping to hold firm and make further progress this term.

Former players Cathal McMullan and Oran O’ Kane have assumed the managerial roles this term and they will be hoping for a good start to proceedings.

The St Mary’s men have lost a little in standing over the recent past but character is never in question and they should not be underestimated.

St. Ergnat’s Moneyglass have been cited as possible promotion candidate for a number of seasons now and on their day are more than capable of beating anyone in the division. A bad run of injuries halted their progress for a time last year but they are likely to be in the shake again this term. Niall Jackman is back at the helm and he will be assisted by High Carey and Paul Campbell in 2019.

Con Magees Glenravel have ascended the rankings and will return to the second grade again clutching a couple of pieces of silverware with the 2018 Junior championship and the division three league title on the trophy shelf.

The Glensmen have installed Ian McKeown, Donagh Higgings and Jordan McNeill who are joined this year by former Ballinderry player Declan McGeehan who replaces Nick Condon, a Clare man who taught in Garron Tower. Nick has moved to Kildare to teach there.

The main aim will be in the direction of consolidation and securing a place in their new abode in the short term and with a talented youth based panel available Glenravel may well be on the upward path.

St Patrick’s Lisburn did finish just behind Glenravel in both league and championship last term but their obvious disappointment gained some solace in the acquisition of promotion and a place in the second division for the season ahead.

Former Antrim and St Paul’s stalwart Niall Ward, who was forced to sit out most of last season with a shoulder injury, is installed as manager this time with Cormac McKenna alongside.

St Patrick’s have progressed well in recent years now and they will be striving for further progress.

by thesaffrongael

Leonard Cup final moved to the Dub

Ulster Colleges Hurling – Leonard Cup final

St Patrick’s Maghera v St Mary’s CBGS Belfast

Today’s Leonard Cup final between St Pat’s Maghera and St Mary’s Belfast has been moved to the Dub because Quinn Park in Ballymena is unplayable. Neither of today’s finalists were overly impressive in winning their semi-finals against north Antrim opposition before the Christmas break, particularly in the first half of each game.

Indeed St Mary’s CBGS were 0-7 to 0-1 down at the interval, but recovered to win by 2-9 to 1-8 against Cross and Passion Ballycastle. It took a goal from Dubhlatach Wilson a minute after the break to get the Glen Road side up and running and the St Gall’s player converted five unanswered frees before the 50th minute to edge them ahead 1-6 to 0-7.

There was drama near the end with Ballycastle taking the lead and Niall Fallon’s late goal rescuing St Mary’s.

That game was as far back as the last week of November and exams and a couple of days of unfavourable weather meant that Maghera, the competition favourites after their runaway victory in the Gallagher Cup last May, didn’t play St Killian’s until a couple of days before Christmas.

And they found the Antrim coast side a hard enough nut to crack, needing a rather fortuitous goal from Thomas McKeagney to get ahead at the break and then seven frees from Peter McCullagh to get them over the line in a low-scoring encounter.

The condition of pitches at this time make it difficult for skilful teams to develop their expansive game, and these two teams are skilful enough as the 4-16 to 4-6 score-line indicates at the end of that Gallagher final in the summer term, with 1-2 coming from Maghera in the last two minutes.

With little change in their line-out from back then, Maghera have remained unbeaten through the Leonard Cup including a meeting with St Mary’s in mid November. Along the way their top performer have been Thomas O’Neill, Raymond Dillon, Callum O’Kane, James Friel, Jody McDermott, Shea McKenna and free-taker Peter McCullagh at midfield.

Malachy McCluskey, Patrick Moyes and Stefan Hughes should be the main players for St Mary’s in defence with Conor Boyle’s engine at midfield a great help to bothe defence and the attack where Niall McGarry, Fionn Mervyn agus Eoin McBriarty are the key scorers.

Maghera have taken all the titles so far in this age-group. It will take a huge effort for St Mary’s to change the trend.

St Patrick’s : P Reid, PJ McVeigh, T O’Neill, P Brown, C O’Kane, R Dillon, S McLaughlin, P McCullagh, J Friel, T McKeagney, J McDermott, C Murtagh, C Murray, S McKenna, E Hasson.

Subs : C McCloskey, P óg Turner, R Doherty, R McElhinney, N Duggan, D Pickering, L McVey, E Duffin, E Scullion, J Dunne, D McGurk, E Cassidy, A McLaughlin

St Mary’s CBGS: R Camlin, P Moyes, B McCauley, M McCluskey, S Hughes, F Mervyn, P Short, C Boyle, A Churchill, N McGarry, N Fallon (1-1), E McBriarity, D Rogan (0-1), C Duffy, D Wilson

by thesaffrongael

Fitzsimons delighted as Naomh Éanna book final spot

By Brendan McTaggart

Seconds after the final whistle at Páirc Tailteann, the pitch invasion came.  Men, women and children of all ages made their way onto the Navan pitch to be with their heroes who had just made yet more history.  Naomh Éanna were now All-Ireland finalists and they aren’t finished yet.

Somewhere among the swarm of well-wishers, stood the proudest man in Ireland.  Frank Fitzsimons is getting used to days like these and the former Antrim manager told us he wanted the guys to believe in themselves ahead of the match with An Spidéal: “The last thing we wanted was to come down here, don’t perform and get beat.  That’s all we asked and they did it.

“It’s absolutely fantastic for the club and the travelling support.  Travelling down to see these boys you know.  It’s super for the club.”

Since taking on the role last year, Fitzsimons has guided Naomh Éanna through success the likes of which the club has never seen before.  With the dark history the club has had to endure, the Naomh Éanna manager said it makes days like Sunday even more special: “I probably have a better understanding of that than most of the young lads.  I played in those days when things were tough.  Listen, the first night I left from training was one of the very few nights I left Naomh Éanna without a bruise on me.  They were always a tough team and a smashing club but these young lads are brilliant.

“It’s (this year) been brilliant but when you’re winning everything’s good.  When you see boys going out and expressing themselves like they did for the most of the game, a lot of that comes from the coaching we’ve done all year and it’s very good to see that on the day.”

Naomh Éanna produced a controlled performance on Sunday.  On a day where it would have been easy to get carried away with the occasion and lost in the hysteria, the Glengormley side played with the same no fear attitude they have shown all year.  Fitzsimons told us: “When you have boys like Peter Healy, Kristian Healy, Odhran Eastwood and James McAuley.  Calm heads, fantastic.  Eoin Nagle was brilliant up front, I don’t think he lost a ball all day.  I think it’s going to take a good team to beat us.

“I’m so proud of them boys out there today.

“You never think like that (comfortable) along the line.  You have to keep on the game all the time.”

Joe Maskey’s outrageous goal towards the end of the first half gave Naomh Éanna a deserving nine point lead, such was their dominance during the first half.  Fitzsimons admitted they were aware of Maghnus Breathnach joining the An Spidéal attack, having watched the Galway sides previous games.  They had a plan in place for when the ‘keeper left his lines but told us: “Ah Jesus.  We worked on it but we didn’t work on Joe to score a goal from over 55 yards.  It was a great strike.”

The Hightown Road side now turn their attentions to Croke Park on February 9 and a date with Kerry champions Kilcummin.  Fitzsimons said that he wants his side to enjoy the build up to the final in just under three weeks time: “They’ll get a couple of days and everything will be brought back down to earth again.  It’s a massive, massive prize in front of them now.  An All-Ireland Final but I think the build up has to be enjoyed as well.  You can’t just lock them indoors, they need to enjoy it and they have been so far.  We’ll be alright.”

by thesaffrongael

Scott: “We couldn’t fault anyone. Everyone did their job.”

By Brendan McTaggart

Among the mayhem of the final whistle on Páirc Tailteann stood one of the Naomh Éanna heroes with his family.  Ruairi Scott.  Naomh Éanna’s Mr Dependable.  On Sunday he weighed in with his sides second goal, a smart finish to yet another blistering move from the Glengormley side but his overall contribution was immense. 

The 22 year old put in the type of performance that we may have become accustomed to this year and others, but he’s become an invaluable member of Frank Fitzsimons side.  A pivot at the heart of the attack for Naomh Éanna and a calm head when the occasion requires.  On Sunday, he realised a dream: “I was speaking with my family there and they were saying the next stops Croke Park.  As a young boy, you dream of but being from Antrim you may not be able to achieve and to be able to do so with your own clubmen.  It’s special.”

The thought of playing in Croke Park will keep the Glengormley men’s adrenaline pumping for the next few weeks but the Naomh Éanna forward said its been a long but worthwhile season so far: “This is our 14th month training.  We started back in November and it’s been a long pull but to be in an All-Ireland final, it makes it all worth it.  I just want to play it tomorrow.  I’m itching to get going again.  I can’t wait to play in it.”

It was a controlled and composed performance yet at times, devastating.  Again, typical of Naomh Éanna’s championship run.  Scott admitted he always felt they had control throughout the match: “I did always feel that.  They had a wee patch at the start of the second half which any team does but the trait of our team is we come back.  They had a few scores and we just know what to do in those situations.  We started to run the ball a bit more and use our pace.  It seemed to kill them.

“We went in at half time six points up but I think we were kind of annoyed.  I wouldn’t say that’s our best performance at all, it wouldn’t be our best performance this season but it’s all about winning.

“We knew we were a better team and we said that if a few of us had a bad game, they were going to need 15 men on top of us for them to win and on the day, we couldn’t fault anyone.  Everyone did their job.”

The three Naomh Éanna majors came within seven minutes of each other and while Scott’s major came in the middle, even he admitted it would be forgotten about with Maskey’s major the talking point afterwards: “I was looking the ball off him.  He got the ball and I seen him look but what a finish.  Unbelievable.  I want him to do it again at training on Tuesday.  It sums up his year, spectacular.

“He’s known as ‘Big Sleep’ but he has a brain on the pitch.”

It was another mightily impressive team performance and while there are players who will grab the headlines, Scott said those headlines wouldn’t be possible without the work ethic of the Naomh Éanna squad: “I don’t know if we’ve had the same starting 15 all year.  That’s a testament to everyone within the squad.  There’s obviously individual lads who get the limelight but if we didn’t perform as a team then they just couldn’t do it.  It is a team effort.

“Growing up, we’ve always been a team.  We’ve had those four or five really good players who get to the county team but honest to God, 15 players could be county players, we honestly believe that.”

The Naomh Éanna dream and fairytale run continues and in three week’s time they have the chance to write yet more history for both themselves and Antrim.    Croke Park and Kerry side Kilcummin lay in wait and Scott told us they aren’t finished yet: “We’re in an All-Ireland final now but you don’t want to be remembered as a loser.  We’re all a very ambitious bunch but we know Kilcummin are a very good side.  They will be favourites but to be honest, I’m confident in our boys.”

by thesaffrongael

Division One Hurling a massive positive at the end of St Galls All-Ireland journey

By a Kevin Herron 

St Galls Hurling captain Joe McDaniel insists that the big positive to take in the aftermath of Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final defeat by Oranmore is that they have Division One Hurling to look forward to in the season ahead. 

McDaniel recounts a heavy opening day league defeat and the hands of Armoy and believes the players would have bitten somebody’s hand off, if they had suggested winning Ulster and getting to an All-Ireland semi-final at Parnell Park was possible. 

The St Galls captain rued his sides failure to land a second-half goal with the game in the balance on Sunday and felt that any momentum was killed by the stop start nature of the game. 

Joe McDaniel leads out the St Gall’s team at Parnell Park. Pic by John McIlwaine

“The positives are we’ve division one Hurling to look forward to this year” McDaniel insists. 

“If you had have asked us in the beginning of the year after we were beaten by Armoy in our first league game by about thirty points – if you’d have spoke to us after and told us we would have won Ulster and had a chance of an All-Ireland semi-final at Parnell Park we would have thought you’d be pulling our leg, but also we’d have bitten your hand off for it”. 

“We never really got going – we said to the boys before the game if we were two or three points within them at half-time then we’d be happy and we’d make a fight for it in the last fifteen. We came out and they got the goal through a mistake – maybe that’s what we needed to get ourselves going, a goal at that stage. We never really got going to be honest.”

St Galls will also rue the failure to make use of a numerical advantage afforded to them for almost two thirds of the game – following a red-card issued to Oranmore corner-back Alan Bannon. 

McDaniel was of the opinion that Oranmore coped well with the dismissal and praised the Galway sides physicality as they prevented St Galls building from defence. 

“To be honest, when I said I would have been happy to come in two or three down at half-time – I was actually disappointed we hit seven wides in the first-half” reflected McDaniel. 

“We should have been at least two or three up and it would have gave us a real platform to go on in the second-half and Oranmore might have panicked. If you had have came into the game late after half-time and asked who had the extra man? You wouldn’t have been able to tell”. 

“They coped with it very well, they were well drilled. We struggled to find the extra-man and they were a big physical team – when we got the ball in defence they tied us up well and made it very difficult for us to get the ball into our forwards. We usually like to play the ball out of defence – we didn’t get the option to do that today”. 

Another statistic that St Galls will reflect upon is the fact that only 1-04 of Oranmore’s 1-13 came from play. 

Niall Burke top scored for the Galway men with 0-11 and 0-10 coming from the placed ball. McDaniel felt that his side gave away some soft fouls over the course of the sixty minutes which helped Oranmore, but admitted that his sides four point total up until their injury-time goals would not have been enough. 

“If you told me today that they’d only score 1-04 from play – I would say we’d win that game” admitted McDaniel. 

Joe McDaniel and his joint captain Ciaran McGourty with the Oranmore-Maree joint captains Niall Burke and Geróid McInerney and match referee Patrick Murphy

“I would say our lads are disciplined in the tackle – one big thing we preach is don’t be tackling with the stick, no slapping, tackle with the hands – that’s a skill we probably learn from football. Again being overly critical – I think we gave away some soft fouls, even still; you can’t be giving away the amount of frees we did and expect to win a game. Nor can you score four points and expect to win a game either”.