American Author Zig Ziglar has a famous quote that goes, “You were born to win, but to be a winner; you must plan to win, prepare to win and expect to win”
On Monday November 17th words similar to those above were echoed to 28 St. Colmcille’s footballers as they sat in silence and listened to their coaches, Mr. Healy, Mr. Kelly and Mr. Doyle, give them the final few words of instruction before they would take to the field and attempt to retain their County Under 13 Roinn A Football title against Gaelscoil Bhríde Dúrlas Éile on a bright afternoon in The Ragg G.A.A Grounds. The work had been done, the plans had been put into place and all that was left to do now was hopefully finish the job. In theory, yes, a straightforward task it may seem but in reality the men from Templemore knew that anything less than 100% effort against an excellent Gaelscoil team would result in heartbreak.
This wasn’t the first meeting between these two sides in the 2014 championship with St. Colmcille’s coming out on top when they locked horns in Templemore back in October. But, as is often the case, to dwell on previous results could prove to be the rock a team perishes on and St. Colmcille’s knew that Gaelscoil would have improved and would be out for revenge. On route to the final St Colmcille’s accounted for Two Mile Borris, Scoil Ailbhe and St. Peter and Paul’s in the County Semi Final while Gaelscoil had defeated Two Mile Borris, Scoil Ailbhe and Carrick on Suir C.B.S.
The game was delayed for twenty minutes to allow for extra time to be played in the game preceding the A final which allowed the players to get an extra few touches in and a few extra words of encouragement to each other before the throw in.
Gaelscoil won the toss and chose to play into the dressing room end in the first half. Referee Willie Clohessy threw the ball in and this eagerly awaited contest was underway. With both teams being egged on all the time by very vocal, excited supporters. The game moved from end to end in the opening minutes without a score being registered. St. Colmcille’s had the first couple of shots at goal but the radar was slightly off early on and had two wides before centre forward James Corcoran had the chance to settle the nerves and slotted over a straightforward free to give St. Colmcille’s the lead. Gaelscoil, keen to get back on terms, had arguably their best period of the game in the next ten minutes with James Armstrong and Darragh Mulcahy winning their personal battles and St. Colmcille’s were fortunate to only concede a single point scored by the Gaelscoil full forward in this time. The pivotal moment of the first half came on 12 minutes when a long ball played in to the St. Colmcille’s inside forward line was fielded brilliantly by Ciarán McCormack whose goal bound effort was initially saved only to drop to the grateful Kevin Sheedy who was only too happy to oblige and rebound the ball to the net. St. Colmcille’s never looked back from this confidence boosting score and followed it up with 3 points, one from Ciarán McCormack and two from James Kennedy. St. Colmcille’s were unlucky not to have another goal or two in this period with the crossbar denying them on one occasion and a super save from the Gaelscoil goalkeeper keeping the St. Colmcille’s tally at 1-4 when the half time whistle blew.
Both teams took a well deserved break at half time, the orange slices, water bottles and inhalers were taken on board as both sets of coaches issued valuable advice to their charges for the second half. There were many signs of a physical encounter as St. Colmcille’s First Aid Officer Sandra Nevin treated everything from a sore ankle to a bloody nose.
The players retook their positions for the second half with fresh hope that the next 20 minutes was going to be theirs and the coveted trophy would be coming back to their school for the third time in four years. St. Colmcille’s continued from where they left off and put clear daylight between the sides when Ciarán “Donaghy” McCormack scored St. Colmcille’s second goal in the opening minutes of the second half. This was followed up with a point from John Campion before Man of The Match Ciarán McCormack put the game to bed with his second and St. Colmcille’s third goal. Everything was going the way of the Templemore boys now as they were dominating every position on the field especially at midfield where Conor Cadell and John Campion were giving an exhibition of link up play. Brian Quinn and Killian Fennell kept working tirelessly and gave vital assists for a brace of James Corcoran points. Both schools introduced fresh legs now and St. Colmcille’s proved that the academy is ever healthy with two fourth class boys Mikey Delaney and Tom Duggan coming into the game and getting on the score sheet.
Huge credit must go to Gaelscoil who never dropped their heads and kept going right to the final whistle with Dara Stakelum and Toby Lambe leading by example. They would have had more scores on the board if not for fantastic defending from Luke Ormond, Stephen Cahill, Eoin Quinn and Jack Nevin. St. Colmcille’s goalkeeper Shane Sweeney showed how focussed this team were by pulling off a wonderful save in the final moments of the game to deny Gaelscoil any slight consolation and keep a clean sheet.
There were scenes of jubilation as the final whistle sounded and St. Colmcille’s were back to back Under 13 Football Champions. Never a more fitting gesture was seen as joint captains and twin brothers Patrick and Niall Moloney lifted the trophy on behalf of the boys in green. Both had very kind words to say about their own school and their opposition.
Gaelscoil, even though this wasn’t to be their day, will lose nothing in defeat and can be extremely proud of themselves to reach the County Final in their debut year in the top division. It is clear to everyone watching the progress being made in Gaelscoil and there is no doubt that they will be back better and stronger next year with a renewed effort and nobody would be surprised if they were to become County Champions in 2015. However today was to be St. Colmcille’s day, it was noted that never has there been a more united, skilful and competitive group of players within the school walls as this present bunch and one can only imagine the heights some of these players can reach if they remain focussed . There is no doubt this focus will now turn towards the one trophy that has eluded this group, that is the Under 13 Roinn A Hurling title. Can these boys complete an unprecedented double? We will watch this space!