Shamrocks have upward momentum
March 01, 2010Since their demotion from the senior ranks coming up on five years ago, Bailieborough have yearned to get back to the top tier in Cavan club football. Despite taking a step backwards in '08 by suffering relegation from Division Two, the Shamrocks now look to be on the right track again after achieving immediate promotion and making their mark on the IFC by pushing eventual winners Lavey all the way in the semi-finals.
While Oliver Tierney's role sees him deal primarily with underage matters in the club, he knows as well as any what targets Francis Clarke and his management team set out for the Shamrocks' senior side in 2009.
"Our aims for the start of the year would have been to get promotion and get a run in the intermediate championship," said Tierney.
"Both were achieved and we were only beaten by Lavey in the semi-finals of the championship and they turned out to be worthy winners, so it was a relatively successful year from our point of view."
Bailieborough began their life in the third tier with a comfortable home victory against Arva (1-9 to 0-6) which would cast the dye for the rest of their season in regards to league football. Wins over Killygarry (2-4 to 0-2), Kildallan (0-11 to 1-6), Butlersbridge (0-9 to 0-7) and Templeport (3-10 to 0-7) left Francis Clarke's charges sitting pretty at the summit of the table, with an unbeaten record intact coming towards the intermediate championship.
"They were confident going into Division Three," said Tierney.
"We got a good start and, in fairness, that's half the battle when it comes to league football. We went unbeaten throughout the league but we lost the semi-final to Laragh because a bit of an edge had gone off the team. The players were disappointed with that as it gave them a chance of silverware to remember the year by."
Bailieborough's championship group consisted of Drung, Ballymachugh and Drumgoon. After scraping past Drung, the Shamrocks laid a 5-8 to 2-2 assault on Ballymachugh to confirm their place in the last eight of the IFC before losing their last group game to Drumgoon.
Clarke's team picked Killinkere out of the hat for their quarter-final bout, which unravelled as highly-competitive clash in Virginia that had supporters on the edge of their seats right up until the full-time whistle. In the end, it was Bailieborough's scoring power up front, with ace performances from Geoffrey Martin (0-5), Paddy Byrd (0-4) and Damien O'Reilly (1-1), which helped carry them towards a 1-14 to 1-12 victory and into the last four of the IFC against Terry Hyland's Lavey.
Under lights at Breffni Park in late September, both sides played out a low-scoring affair, and despite Bailieborough's unwavering efforts, they would still end up finishing on the wrong side of a 0-10 to 1-4 score-line.
The game had been even in its opening stages, with Paul Sharkey galloping forward from wing back to fire over the opening score. Lavey had responded through marksman Kevin Brady, but when deadly attacker Paddy Byrd buried a cool finish past goalkeeper Conor Martin there was a two-point gap in the town side's favour. Bailieborough struggled to contain their opponents though and by half-time the teams were level on 1-2 to 0-5.
In the second-half, Clarke's men failed to race out if the traps the same way as their counterparts and had only registered their first score of the restart after 13 minutes, through a Geoffrey Martin free, while Lavey had raised three white flags in the meantime. The final quarter saw Bailieborough throw men forward in an attempt to salvage something, but it was insurance points from Mark Brady and Stephen Jordan that made sure Lavey booked their place in the decider alongside Cootehill.
"In that semi-final we weren't out of place against Lavey," stressed Tierney. "They were slightly stronger than us and we only lost by two points, but had we took our chances and won who's to say that we wouldn't have beaten Cootehill in the final like they did, so we're not that far off.
"Overall we have to be happy enough with the year we had," he added. "Getting the winning habit back in Division Three and getting to the semi-final of the championship and on another night we could have got to the final."
With that in mind, Tierney believes that 2010 must be all about the intermediate championship for Bailieborough Shamrocks. Francis Clarke looks set to remain in the hot seat and retain the services of Michael Murtagh, Martin Sharkey, Finbar Clarke and Andy Gorman, who are all local men which were involved with the management team that helped steer the club from the depths of Cavan club football last year.
"We'd like to think that we are now in the top two or three of the intermediate. Our hopes for 2010 will be to consolidate our place in Division Two and have a good crack at the intermediate championship," Tierney explained.
Killann Gaels are county champions
While promotion from Division Three was the number one goal for the club in '09, the minor championship success of Killann Gaels was unquestionably the highlight of the year for Bailieborough Shamrocks.
The Bailieborough/Shercock amalgamation, which was coached by Shane Lynch, Paddy Donnery, Pierce McDermott and Oliver Tierney, has been in existence for the last four years and finally delivered the much-coveted Division One Minor Football Championship crown to its two clubs on October 4th 2009, after victory over Ballyhaise in the final at Breffni Park.
Tierney recalls the team's voyage to the county decider as a nerve-wrecking one and they couldn't have had a harder start, out from the comfort of home advantage.
"We played St Joseph's in our first game in Bailieborough. They would have been the favourites to win the competition in the minds of many. I remember before the draw was made, they were probably the last team we wanted and we ended up getting them," he explained.
"It was a real tight game and they were winning by two points with little time left when we got a penalty. We had taken Niall Kelly off at that stage and he would have been our penalty-taker.
"I saw Shane Kelly (Niall's younger brother) with the ball in his hands and he put it down and just blasted it in. It was a brilliant penalty. Like Cian Ward's penalty against Mayo in the championship, but this was even better," he enthused.
Still an Under 16, Kelly's spot-kick had virtually saved Killann Gaels' bacon and sent them into a semi-final meeting with Cavan Gaels which, again, would be played in Bailieborough
"It was a very close and exciting game. The Gaels had really put it up to us," said Tierney, who was along the sideline at St Anne' Park.
"We were winning by two points towards the end and Joe O'Connor ran through our defence and took a shot which was headed for the top-corner only our goalkeeper Sean Farrelly made a brilliant save and that was the difference for us. We should have been gone, but instead we won it by two points and went on to the final."
Tierney admits that ahead of the final some of the players would have been feeling a bit of pressure as there was a sense of it being a big day.
However, he insists that it didn't take away from their confidence after defeating St Joseph's and Cavan Gaels in the previous two rounds. He also pointed out that a notable feature about the Killann Gaels team was that they had gelled together very well for an amalgamation.
On the day, Killann Gaels emerged 1-9 to 1-6 winners, with their Man of the Match James Fulton notching 1-5 from corner-forward to lead his team towards the title.
It was Fulton's late first-half goal that had the would-be winners leading by 1-4 to 0-4 at the interval. After the restart, Kevin Tierney struck a quick point for Ballyhaise to cut the gap to two, but it was the amalgamated outfit that had the edge up front, as Fulton, Niall Kelly and Stephen Donnery kicked the scores, while the likes of Shane Clarke and team captain Ciaran O'Reilly held firm at the back to upset Ballyhaise and take the title.
Killann Gaels (MFC final v Ballyhaise): Sean Farrelly; Brian Sankey, Shane Clarke, Killian Clarke; Conor Cronin, Ciaran O'Reilly, Conor Tierney; Conor Gilsenan, Niall Comey; Damien McIntyre, Stephen Kearns, David Carolan; James Fulton (1-5, 2f), Niall Kelly (0-3), Stephen Donnery (0-1). Subs: Shane Kelly, Eoin O'Sullivan.
"The game was like a lot of finals and Ballyhaise put up a tough fight. In the second-half we kind of took control a bit and went up by seven points at one stage," said co-manager Tierney.
"James Fulton gave a Man of the Match performance, but it was a real team performance that won it for us in the end. Of the team that started in the county final only five of them are 18, so that's a promising sign for next year."
Killann Gaels went on to represent Cavan in the Ulster club MFC and travelled to Armagh Harps, where they suffered defeat to a stronger side while missing three of their more experienced players on the day.
U21s reach Div 2 final
There were more promising signs for Bailieborough's future in 2009, when the club's Under 21 footballers reached the Division Two championship final only to be edged out in the final by a strong Ballyhaise team. The Shamrocks had impressed in their wins over Killinkere and Drumgoon in the quarter-finals and semi-finals, respectively, but Ballyhaise in the final proved too much to ask in the end.
Bailieborough held a 0-2 to 0-1 after two frees from James Fulton helped cancel-out Kevin Tierney's opener and then steer the town side in front. Tierney and Fulton traded scores thereafter and Damien Reilly saw his effort of a goal fly just wide of Daragh Prior's post. After that Ballyhaise began to get on top, as Kevin Tierney and Ray Cullivan fired over scores which ushered their team into a 0-6 to 0-3 half-time lead.
Bailieborough experienced a disastrous restart when Ballyhaise corner-forward David Duggan drove in a goal. Mickey Graham's team pushed their lead to nine points after that, with Niall Costello, Neil Rooney and Tierney all raising white flags.
Niall Kelly was introduced to try and stem the tide and the young substitute had an almost instant impact when he lashed over a superb point and backed up the effort just moments later when he fired in a penalty to cut the deficit.
However, the game was well and truly wrapped up in the closing stages when Cullivan leaped to make a trademark catch and raced through Bailieborough's rearguard to smash over a cracking point, which capped off his 'Man of the Match' performance from centre-field.
U14s win county Feile
Further down the juvenile ranks, the Under 14s did the club proud in 2009 by capturing the county Feile title.
"The Under 14s are a very good team that were in contention for everything in 09. We won the county Feile by beating Templeport in the final and went on to the national Feile in Kildare," said Tierney.
"They lost to a good Crosserlough team in the county league final and were beaten by Templeport after a replay in extra-time in the championship. Templeport went on to win the competition.
"Bailieborough also did well in the Ulster Feile in Derry by winning five games and only losing on to the eventual winners Glen of Derry."
Ladies football
One of the most notable features of the year for the Bailieborough club was the continued growth of Ladies football in the club. In 2009 there were 65 girls registered in the club for Under 14 and Under 12 level. Both the Under 14 and Under 12 reached their respective finals, but lost them both. Make no mistake though; this is a great achievement for teams that were only set up just over 18 months ago. To date, local Garda, Tony Reilly, has received great support in his co-ordinating of the training and the club would like to see this continued in 2010. Tweet
