The Downs retained their Westmeath SFC title on Sunday last. A fine achievement for any team at any time, but, in the one seeing eye of this neutral observer it becomes even more significant when you factor the travails experienced by the mercurially talented Luke Loughlin both in terms of sporting injuries and the difficulties the classy citog has dealt with away from the football field.
Which become even more magnified when you consider the contribution Loughlin made to setting the Lake County on their way to winning their second Leinster SFC title. Before sustaining the catastrophic injury which would keep him out for the rest of the inter county season.
However, it is testament to his own fortitude that Luke managed to overcome a horrendous shoulder injury to be able to help his club over the line once again. Loughlin’s transformation wasn’t the only story of heart warming resurgences though.
One which caught the one seeing eye even more excitedly was news of Rian O’Neill being back in action with Crossmaglen Rangers. Now, as well as making a vital contribution on the pitch, Rian was actually sent off in Cross’ last match but this evening got it quashed.
In other remarkable stories from around the club scene, you had Mayo Messiah Andy Moran playing a vital role in his club Ballaghadreen avoid relegation.
Elsewhere in the country, you had Nemo Rangers and St Finbarr’s setting up another showdown in Cork and Kilmallock and Na Piarsaigh doing likewise in Limerick.
It’s the nature of the beast that in some cases it will be a matter of fiefdoms maintained and in others the big stories will be historic breakthroughs. In one of those brackets you have, for example, Naas romping through Kildare once again – in both codes.
And in the other you have Inagh/Kilnamonagh upsetting plenty of apple carts in Co Clare. None more so than that of county team manager Brian Lohan.
Now, to say Lohan is thick would be akin to pointing out that Jamie Bryson (the little turd) is not much of a GAA fan, but, recent developments on the club scene in the Banner County underlined the that he made a B****x of whatever issue there was with Aidan McCarthy.
The flamboyant left handed scoring machine being the driving force behind the team who amalgamated in 2008 capturing their first county title. Whatever ‘beef’ occurred between Lohan and Davy Fitzgerald years ago was definitely on the head of the former and it’s terrible sad to see two people who mean so much to so many at such loggerheads.
However, it won’t do Lohan or his side’s prospects any good if there is not some of form reparation between the Clare camp and the white helmeted corner forward. Aside from the fact that it’s never a good look to have the best player in any county on the outside looking in – ‘geniuses’ have caused that to be the case in Meath on more than one occasion – at a more fundamental level, surely it drastically reduces the possible productivity of a team.
In Clare, while on one hand you might be inclined to think they are fairly well stocked with players courtesy of the likes of Diarmuid Ryan, Daire Lohan, Sean Rynne, Tony Kelly, Peter Duggan, David Fitzgerald and Mark Rodgers. That’s without giving mention to fresh talent coming through in the shape of players such as Diarmuid Stritch, James and Fred Hegarty, Michael Collins, Tomas O’Connor, Eoghan Gunning, Marco Cleary and Paul Rodgers.
But then, whether at club or county level or indeed regardless of the sport, you need a good throughput of talent always on the go because, regrettably, the turnover of players – particularly with county teams – is the highest now it has ever been. The likes of Lee Chin, TJ Reid, Noel McGrath, Seamus Harnedy and Eoin Murphy are now the exception rather than the rule. Even at that, the latter pair mentioned above this week became the latest to join the autumnal au revoir.
The Banner county are already reeling from Shane O’Donnell calling time on hurling career in its entirety – long before there was any for him to do so -, they are probably mindful of the same possibly happening with John Conlon. Not that there would be any need for him to hang the hurl up either.
However, the point remains that Lohan could do far worse than at least attempt to get McCarthy back on side. Though there are still teams in a lot more challenging situations than Lohan’s lads heading into 2027.
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On the club scene, it will readily admitted that this is the most frustrating and upsetting time of year. If, or in our case usually when, our own are not involved in the business end of county championships. The annual angst of how some entities manage to string titles back to back and build dynastic legacies while, in our own case, it’s a tally of three SFC titles in what is heading into 35 years. Simply not good enough for a club with the demographics and resources at our disposal.
As bad as that is, though, 2027 will mark 113 years since Dunboyne last won the Meath SHC. For context, Gen. Sean Boylan – father of the legendary former Meath manager – captained that team prior to his involvement in the 1916 Rising and the War Of Independence etc with Michael Collins. Incidentally, there are records of Boylan and ‘The Big Fella’ attending a meeting in Brady’s bar in the village at that time.
For clarity’s sake, it needs to be pointed out that for large swathes of time the form of our hurlers has fluctuated wildly over the years. Best evidenced by the fact that titles were annexed at Intermediate in 1982, 1986 and 1989, then another in ’99 and unfortunately we again find ourselves one step shy of the top table.
That said Ladies Football – which, whisper it, integrated in our club well more than a decade ago, did open up the type of horizon pined for like some of the uber successful clubs by contesting six county finals in a row. With heroics and heartache split evenly between them.
However, that still doesn’t ease the pain of being on the outside looking in as the club championships – not only in Meath but around the country – reach their business end. Seeing famed clubs around the country adding to their annals and others breaking the seal and beginning theirs.
Then there are the cases that fall between those two stools. In other words, teams that get to and/or win county finals after having a bit of pause between drinks. Not surprisingly, there have been stories to fit all those brackets over the past few weeks.
We may as well start close to home. Where, as reported in this space earlier this week, Kilmessan ended a 13 year wait for a title in Meath hurling. On Sunday next, Wolfe Tones will attempt to lift the Keegan Cup (Meath SFC) for the first time since 2021. Incidentally, their opponents, Donaghmore/Asbhourne, will be attempting to win the Meath SFC for the first time since 1942. Thirteen years before the Keegan Cup itself was commissioned.
Elsewhere around the country, you have Nemo Rangers and St Finbarr’s preparing to lock horns in Cork football once again, while the latter chase a double down Leeside as well. Ballygunner continue to do what they do in Waterford, Naas doing likewise in Kildare across the codes in Kildare and Castleknock hoping to break new ground in Dublin. That’s only the briefest of snapshots.
Mind you, having outlined all of the above, it’s more than a little ironic that it was actually a team being knocked off a perch they were on so long they must have had corns in their ar*es. That being a reference to the usurpation of the incredible Kilcoo in Co Down.
The following can probably be ascribed to the likes of Emmet Og in Killoe or many other rural places whose teams have gone on runs and tasted glory, but, it’s what those greats teams achieve with what they have compared to a supposedly big, developed places like – but not limited to – Dunboyne. Who, to use Jose Mourinho’s favoured way of describing Arsene Wenger at one point in time, have become unwitting specialists in failure which really makes a body despair.
Albeit as we know now, the flamboyant French man who couldn’t handle a zip did eventually turn his troops into Invincibles, but, for comparative purposes, what really sets the best apart from the rest is that they never stop moving. Changing. Tweaking. In search of the extra inch.
Thus, the flighty Martin Corey having scarpered out of the Mourne Mountains, the eight in a row winners have wasted no time in getting back into the managerial ‘market’. And by God when they did, they went big, very big, recruiting none other than Mickey Harte.
The Ballygawley man must be well into his 70s at this stage but that wouldn’t cost me a thought. Sean Boylan could and should still be involved in certain places, but of course intent and ambition have to be in place before even approaching folks of that calibre.
What really made my gears grind lately was somebody from a serially successful club said to me about (Dunboyne) “Trying to import their way to a Championship” but I would contend the exact opposite is the problem.
There have been – and probably still are – numerous players from other counties living in the area and at no stage did we even approach any of the potential recruits.
Who, at different stages included Dermot McCabe, Rory and Raymie Gallagher, Ciaran McDonald, Cormac Murphy and Anthony Moyles yet none of them ever landed.
Mickey Harte could walk into any job he desired (for my money as an outsider he should still be with Tyrone), but with Kilcoo he knows exactly what he’s getting. Relentlessness, savage work rate, proven winners and, most importantly, proven winners with a hunger to claim back what they see as rightfully theirs. How the other half live.