Saint Mary's Are Last Man Standing

Seán McCague might not be the most memorable of G.A.A. President’s in the Association’s history in the minds of many. The Monaghan man became the Associations 33^rd President in 2000 and it was in his time that the controversial Rule 21 was removed. Rule 21 banned members of the British Security Forces from participating in Gaelic Games events, despite strong expected opposition from Counties Antrim, Armagh, Derry, Fermanagh and Tyrone, five of the six counties in Northern Ireland.

The Scotstown native may well be remembered by some as the man who convinced then Taoiseach to pledge half the money needed to complete the development of Croke Park and making it the fine Stadium that we know it to be today.

But in the three years that Sean McCague was President of the G.A.A. something else happened, something that many of us have long forgotten.

Those in and around my age and those who are older may well remember growing up that Saint Patrick’s Day was important date in the G.A.A. Calendar. It was on this day that the two best Provincial Hurling and Football Sides clashed for the Railway Cups, after coming through from two semi finals played about a month earlier. Many of the best players right around the country were selected to play on these provincial sides, and it was many players from what may well be called unfashionable counties in hurling and football got to play on the same team as some of the more famous names in the game down the year. These were important competitions and when some of the more famous players were asked to list the honours which they had won in the game, they would include how many Railway Cup Medals they had in their collection.

However in the mid 1980’s a call was made to move these competitions from their traditional date to a date later in the year. As a result the competition became less prestigious so much so that these days if you asked even the keenest of G.A.A. fans who the current champions are or when and where the finals were played, they could hardly tell you.  

After taking the Railway Cups away from their Saint Patrick’s Day date, G.A.A. Chiefs decided to slot the All-Ireland Club Football and Hurling Senior Club Finals into that date and to play them at G.A.A. Headquarters, meaning that Club players who might not normally get to play at the Jones’ Road venue now had a chance. The competitions which began in 1971 when Waterford man Pat Fanning was President of the Association became an important occasion for many G.A.A. fans who opted to watch the games either in Croke Park themselves or Live on TV rather than to go and watch Saint Patrick’s Day Parades in Towns or Villages close to where they live.

The profile of the competitions grew with each passing year, but it was only the best senior teams were getting to test themselves against the best sides in other counties, that was until during the Presidency of Sean McCague it was proposed that the Intermediate and Junior Clubs should also be given the right to test themselves against sides from other counties just like the senior sides, and since 2003 the two best junior and intermediate clubs in both hurling and football from the previous year are getting their day at Croke Park and be in with a chance of winning an All-Ireland Title for their club, some of whom might never get the chance to represent their county in the senior grade for a number of reason’s with a lack of population in their area being one preventing them from winning a county and provincial title at senior level.

This coming Sunday two sides Russell Rovers from East Cork and Saint Mary’s from West Waterford clash in the Munster Junior Club Hurling Final at the G.A.A. Complex at Mallow, a game arguably the biggest that either of these two sides have ever played in.

The Cork side will go into this game as the favourites. Some of the bookies have then so red hot favourites that some in the Saint Mary’s Camp might be asking themselves if it is worth their while making the journey to the outskirts of the North Cork town for the game. But of course we all know that Bookies often get it wrong, and sometimes they get it very wrong.

The Cork side will have seen their Neighbours Fr. O’Neill’s win the Munster Intermediate Final recently, beating Ballysaggart in the final at Dungarvan’s Fraher Field, and will go into this game believing that ‘Anything you can do, I can do better’.

But the same could well be said of Saint Mary’s. In 2014 the Touraneena side’s neighbours Modeligo appeared in the Munster Junior Club Final at Mallow against another East Cork side Castlemartyr who were again hot favourites to win that day, but it was the West Waterford side that made the journey home as Provincial Champions. If the Russell Rovers side go into this weekend’s game believing that they can do what Fr. O’Neill’s have already done, then Saint Mary’s who have the majority of their players played underage hurling and football with Modeligo down the year’s under the name of Naomh Brid, the Saint Mary’s players will be believing that they can do exactly what Modeligo did a few short years back.

The East Cork men will go into this weekend’s game in fine form. In the last two years they have lost just one championship games, last year’s County Junior Hurling final where they lost out to Cloughduv who went on to win the Munster Club title before losing out to All-Ireland Champions Dunnamaggin in the All-Ireland Semi Final.

The Cork side are in fine form in fact over the past number of years. They reached and won the last three East Cork (Imokilly) Junior Club Championship’s. they have reached the last two Cork Junior Hurling Finals and in 2017 they reached the semi final of the competition.

But then again, the same could well be said of Saint Mary’s. The Touraneena men reached the County Finals in 2015 and 2016 losing out to Fenor and Ballyduff Lower on both occasions. In the two years that followed they came up against Ardmore and Ballinameela in the West Waterford Championship, two sides that were relegated from the Intermediate Grade the previous Autumn and who bounced back up at the first time of asking. The two went on just like Saint Mary’s this weekend to reach the Munster Final, with Ardmore winning the competition and going on to win the All-Ireland Final in the spring of 2018.

The East Cork side on Sunday will be playing their tenth Championship game of the year, all but two of which, their opening Divisional game and their Divisional County Final were knockout games.

Their road to Sunday’s Munster Final began with a win over neighbours Killeagh in the first round of the Imokilly Championship which game won them a place into the quarter finals of the competition where they proved too strong for Lisgoold. In the semi finals they had to work hard to beat Saint Ita’s and in the Divisional Final they had three points to spare over Carraig Na bhFear.

With two sides from each division into the knockout stages of the county championship, the East Cork side were paired with Éire Óg a game that they won with some ease, and in the quarter finals again put up a big score in beating Kilbree. Things were someone tighter in the semi final against Newmarket and in the County Final again proved too strong for Carraig Na bhFear for the second time in a few short weeks, this time running out winners with 11 points to spare.

The East Cork sides only game in the Munster Championship was another one sided affair as they ran out winners with 13 points to spare over Kerry Intermediate Champions Kilgarvan. The East Cork side did not have to play a semi final, getting a walkover when Clare did not have a team in place to fulfil the fixture two weeks ago.

 In their last two games the Cork side have put up very big scores and in Josh Beausang and Bud Hartnett (a winner of the Cork Senior Championship with Midleton in 2013) they have forwards that know where the posts are. But they also have players in the like of Luke Duggan-Murray, Daniel Moynihan and Jack McGrath in the half forward line outside of them who will chip in with smaller but still significant scores over the course of the hour as will Kieran Walsh in the middle of the field. The Cork side’s half back line of John Paul Ivers, James Kennefick and Chris Ruddy look to be very strong while Ross Walsh in goal is also an excellent player, all of whom will have benefited from the coaching received by Frank Flannery in recent times and more recently from Noel Furlong.

The Touraneena men’s passage is just as impressive. In a league style West Waterford Championship they lost their first game by 11 points to a very strong Abbeyside second string side, but since then they beat Colligan, Tourin and Kilrossanty and got a walk over from Geraldines in the group stages of the competition.

Finishing second in the group behind Abbeyside who won all five of their fixtures, Saint Mary’s entered the knockout stages of the competition at the semi final stages and were pitted with neighbours Colligan who had beaten Geraldines in the quarter finals. This proved to be a game filled with goals, which Saint Mary’s won by six points.

In the Western Final they went into it as the underdog against an Abbeyside side who needed two attempts to get past Kilrossanty and they got revenge for their earlier defeat winning with six points to spare.

Saint Mary’s were now into a first County Final in 30 years where the opposition proved to be the same as in 1989 – Ballydurn at the same venue – Walsh Park and the winning margin for Saint Mary’s against a side that most were fancying to win, having lost the final two years ago and last year’s East Waterford Final – two points.

Saint Mary’s had now achieved what they set out to do at the start of the year, getting out of the Junior Grade and anything else that happened would be a bonus.

Pitted against Castletown-Ballyagran from Limerick in the quarter finals at Fraher Field goals from Jason Sheehan and the Kearns brothers proved to be the difference between the sides, and last time out against another fancied side Saint Mary’s proved too strong for Tipperary Champions Carrick Davins in Clonmel which set up this weekend’s game.

In attack this year the Touraneena men are lead by brothers Eoin and Mike Kearns. Eoin is the sides top scorer this year while younger brother Mike is proving to be a handful playing on the edge of the square and when he had good ball played into him he can cause lots of trouble with his physic as he lays the ball off for those around him or if he heads towards goal sides are often forced to foul him.

Jason Sheehan and Jack Power are regulars in attack as well for Saint Mary’s in recent games while the likes of Stephen and JJ Coffey, Jack Skehan, John O’Shea and Cian Geary have all come in and done a job.

In the middle of the field Kevin Sheehan and Sean Fitzpatrick are solid all year, with Kevin Sheehan chipping in with crucial scores late on in games which have given the side an injection of energy to get over the final few minutes when maybe the pressure might come on them.

If Russell Rovers have a strong half back line, so to have the Touraneena men. Aidan Kearney has played senior hurling for Waterford, Brendan McGourty has done likewise from Down while Dermot Tobin is very much a whole hearted players. In the full back line Denis Coffey who again has played for Waterford is flanked by two young players in Ronan Gleeson and Cillian Tobin who have come on immensely with the coaching they have received from Dan Shanahan, while John Patrick Fitzpatrick while he may be the veteran of the side at 45 years produced a man of the match performance against Carrick Davins in the semi final producing a number of breath taking saves.

In the history of this competition both Cork and Waterford have the best records in the competition. 12 different Cork Clubs Courcey Rovers, Ballinhassig, Ballygarvan, Fr O’Neill’s, Kilworth, Meelin, Dripsey, Charleville, Kildorrery, Dungourney, Mayfield, Cloughduv have all won it, while Waterford have a representative in the final in each year since 2013 with Ballysaggart, Modeligo and Ardmore all from West Waterford winning the competition.

So who will win on Sunday? The Cork Club will go into the game as the raging hot favourites. Some bookies have them at 1/3 with the West Waterford side at 11/4. Bookies while we never see them going from A to B on a bicycle are not always right. Sometimes they take a hit. Will they this time out?

Last time out Saint Mary’s played some of the best hurling that any Touraneena side has ever played, clearly benefitting from the coaching of Dan Shanahan, regarded by many as one of the best coaches in the game right now. At times you can see the style of play which Dan achieved so much in the first decade of the present Millennium. You have the side playing some good hurling out the field and when a ball is played into the forwards you have a big powerful full forward (like Dan) causing all sorts of problems for the opposing backs.

Some might say that I am bias here, and I might be, but I always like to be fair in what I put in print. I believe that while the Cork Side will go into Sunday’s game as favourites, Saint Mary’s stand an excellent chance of winning on Sunday. Will they? I hope so.