When life-long St Agnes clubman Conor Caldwell sent me this piece about Saturday’s Junior final between St Comgall’s and his beloved Aggies I was so impressed by his knowledge of both clubs I got back to him to get some background info. I ask him how he became so knowledgable about the club and he came back with the answer….
“The scars of many years on the field playing for the Aggies! “
Conor played for the Aggies senior team for 20 years but has had to retire to the reserve ranks in the last two or three seasons. He was involved in most of these matches that are mentioned in the main article. He also worked for the GAA in Queen’s for many years too so always kept an eye out for players from the division up there which helps the memory!
“Yes, quite incredible we’ve never won an all county championship. The last Junior Final appearance before 2007 was 1991 when my dad was the captain. We’ve won the South Antrim JFC a few times (when that was probably harder to win than today’s JFC ironically!“)
Aggies seeking their first Junior title
When Naomh Una and St Comgall’s take the field on Saturday afternoon, the Aggies will be seeking to register a first ever All-County championship win, while Antrim will see a second junior crown in four seasons as firm evidence that they belong in the Intermediate ranks.
The two clubs have both been mainstays of Antrim junior football in recent years. The roots of their current rivalry can be traced back to one of the last JFC games at Casement Park in 2011, when the Aggies eventually overcame a rapidly improving Antrim side to reach the semi-final of the competition.
Aggies Ronan Carroll in possession during the 2014 semi-final with St Comgall’s at Corrigan Park
That game would prove to be the last occasion on which the Aggies got one over on Antrim in championship football, as both teams experienced a significant turn-over of players. Antrim strengthened, bringing through the likes of Oisín Crilly and Myles Devine, while the Aggies rebuilt from the ground up, seeing club stalwarts such as Paul Jordan and Kevin Lynch retire.
In the preceding years, the clubs had rarely played in league football, with Antrim regularly residing in the old Division 6, with the Aggies plying their trade between Divisions 3 and 4. On the occasions when the clubs did meet, heavy victories for the city men were not uncommon. However, with second teams now barred from the All County Leagues, the two sides found themselves in regular competition with one another in Division 3 of the new structure. Teams like St Comgall’s and Lisburn quickly reaped the rewards of higher-quality games against established junior clubs, and soon became a force at the level.
Two memorable League encounters in 2012 reinforced how quickly the gap was closing, as Antrim tripped up the Aggies following a missed penalty and a sending off for the men in black and white. In the return leg in at Woodlands, the home side gave up a sizeable second-half lead and were saved by the finger tips of Ryan Reilly diving across the goal to push a last-gasp 14 yard free onto the bar.
The next big game between the two will be remembered as a controversial JFC semi-final in 2014 at Corrigan Park, which the Dunsilly men won by a single point. In a hard-fought battle, which saw Declan Crummey score a memorable side-line kick for the Aggies, a well-worked Antrim goal in the second half saw them reach the decider. It was a sliding doors moment for both teams, with a generational group of Aggies players losing their last shot at JFC glory, while a hard-working Antrim team had their first big day out to look forward to. St Comgall’s would ultimately lose the final to St Malachy’s on the bizarre score line of 3-2 to 0-9.
Aggies Conor Compston in possession during the 2014 semi-final against St Comgall’s at Corrigan Park.
It’s fair to say that the fall-out from that semi-final cemented the rivalry between the clubs and league matches were always tetchy and physical. However, when they met again two years later in a JFC quarter-final in Cargin, Antrim ran out easy winners. An ailing and disjointed Aggies’ side was unable to bridge the gap in physical conditioning that had grown between the two in this period. The teams began to see each other less frequently after this as Antrim began to find themselves more regularly playing their league football in Division 2.
In the 2020s, the development of Patrick O’Connor into one of the best all around players in the junior division, as well as the arrival of Tom Patchett into the St Comgall’s senior team, saw them take their game to a different level. A near miss against a well-fancied Ardoyne team in the first ever live-streamed JFC final in 2020 was perhaps the final piece of motivation needed. All the more agonising for Antrim that day was that they held Ardoyne scoreless for nearly the entire second half but just could not get the last few scores they needed.
By the following year, the seeds of an Aggies’ revival were firmly sewn under the guidance of Tiffy Quinn and both sides set their eyes on a final berth against competition favourites, Rasharkin. The Aggies were now led by Conall Turley Cormac Flannery and Ronan Carroll, all of whom had watched on from the Casement stands back in 2011. On a mucky day in Ahoghill, Antrim struck for two first-half goals and despite a valiant Aggies effort, they were unable to close the gap in the second half. Antrim went on to upset Rasharkin on penalties in the final and bring their long wait for the trophy to an end.
Antrim’s forays up the divisions have been seemingly met with many of the same challenges as other clubs in the past. Facing off against sides looking to head into Division 1 is an entirely different proposition to playing teams who have only been recently formed as is often the case in Junior football. The restructuring of the leagues and championship in 2024 has once again brought Antrim and the Aggies together. A routine win in the early rounds of the league this year in Dunsilly for Antrim belied the state of the two clubs at the time, but the Aggies’ rise under Martin Shortt saw that gap close significantly in the return fixture at Woodlands, with Antrim securing the league title on a 3-9 to 1-9 score line.
Naomh Una will be seeking to deliver a seismic upset against an Antrim side which has yet to be defeated in 2024 and to bring the cup back to Andersonstown for the first time. Five of the Naomh Una panel featured in their last final appearance in 2010, and even more remarkably, four of those players also contested the 2007 final.
St Comgall’s will have the benefit of their recent success fresh in the minds, as well as the experience of Intermediate football in the years since, but as 2014 and 2021 proved, finals are for winning and anything can happen. Whatever the result, Antrim junior football is all the stronger for this rivalry and both teams would represent the county well in Ulster
