Senior status retained
March 01, 2010Paul Taite has been involved with the club's senior squad for the best part of ten years now and knows that Cuchullains took their eye off the ball somewhat last year during Fintan Cahill's second year in charge.
"In '08 we had a reasonably successful year in the league by only losing to Cavan Gaels, so we wanted to try and build on that. Going into 2009 we were confident that we could give the league another go and then compete well in the championship," explained Taite, who has also been PRO with the club for the past two years.
Cuchullains commenced their league campaign with a tricky assignment at home to 2008 county finalists, Denn. In a hard fought encounter, Cahill's men came through by 0-10 to 0-8 to pick up their first two points of the year, while condemning the Crosskeys outfit to the first of what was to be nine defeats in the ACFL Division One.
It was the start Cuchullains wanted, but, for one reason or another, things started to deteriorate for the Mullagh-based side, as defeats to Gowna, Mullahoran and Castlerahan ensued. The loss to Castlerahan, in particular, is one that sticks in Taite's mind as typifying Cuchullains' season.
"We had the chance to draw with Castlerahan but missed a late chance and ending up losing a game that we could have possibly won," he recalled. "That had been the story with a lot of the games we lost during the league. We were always within a point or two in those games, but just couldn't seem to drive on and get the result.
"For the start of the league we had the same squad that finished off the year in 2008, but as they year went on we started to lose players. John Flanagan, who would have been a starting corner-back for us, went to Canada and then before the championship started we'd have lost a few more starting players who immigrated as well.
"Our form going into the championship wasn't hectic and optimism wasn't too high, to be honest," added Taite.
Cuchullains faced into a tough group in the senior football championship, which featured Gowna, Castlerahan and Ramor United. Nevertheless, Cahill's charges raced out of the traps in their opening game against Gowna and led the Longford-border side at half-time at Kingspan Breffni Park. Taite finds it difficult to put his finger on where exactly the team went wrong after that, but the bottom line was that by the time the full-time whistle was sounded the scoreboard read 0-13 to 0-9 in Gowna's favour.
The defeat meant Cuchullains were under pressure to deliver a result against rivals Ramor in their next outing and with five minutes to go they looked be well on their way until disaster struck.
"We played Ramor in a game that turned out to be disastrous for us. We were up by seven points with five minutes to go and then we had a player sent off after a brawl broke out towards the end of the game. Ramor score 2-1 in last few minutes and we ended up drawing the game," said Taite.
A trouncing at the hands of Castlerahan in their final group game sent Cuchullains into a play-off with Ramor to decide the group's relegation representatives and despite a spirited display from the men in blue, they finished second best and were forced into a relegation dogfight with Ballinagh, where the losers would have just one more game to try and retain their status.
The two sides met in Stradone, where they served up an enthralling game of football which threatened to go to extra-time before Gavin Daly's late goal condemned Ballinagh to last chance saloon.
Inspired by Eugene Keating during the opening half-hour at PJ Duke Park, Cuchullains cancelled-out Anthony Gaynor's goal to level the scores at 0-9 to 1-6 for the interval. Six minutes into the restart they'd fell behind again when Colin Gumley's penalty hit the back of Colm Anderson's net and the signs were very much ominous for 'the Cuckoos' at this stage.
Cuchullains hit back through a sweet score from Christopher Tully, but Ballinagh responded again to signal the alarm bells for the Mullagh men, which would cue their best move of the match when Seamus Clarke and Conor Smith combined to set up Daly, who buried the ball past Darragh McCarthy and into the Ballinagh net. A late free from Keating saw Cuchullains seal a 1-14 to 2-9 victory and ensure themselves a place in the top tier for 2010.
Cuchullains (SFC v Ballinagh): Colm Anderson; John Flanagan, Stephen Lynch, Barry Smyth; Martin Quinn, Patrick Murtagh, Martin Lynch (0-1); Paul Tully, Adrian Taite; Gavin Daly (1-1), Seamus Clarke, Christopher Tully (0-2); Eugene Keating (0-7, 3f), Conor Smith (0-2), Alan O'Callaghan (0-1). Subs: Donnacha Dunne, Diarmuid Fox.
Cahill's team couldn't afford to breath a sigh of relief quite yet. After retaining their championship status, Cuchullains had two league games remaining to try and make sure they'd be playing their league football in Division One for 2010 as well. First up were the champions.
"We played Cavan Gaels up in Mullagh and played well to beat them," said Taite.
"Eugene Keating was sent off early on in the match and that really drove us on. Conor Smith and Conor Daly were very good up front and Killian Lynch played well in the backs. Patrick Murtagh also had a good game, but it was a team performance that won it for us in the end.
"If we hadn't have won that game I think we would have been relegated. It was the best performance we put in all year and it came at the right time, thankfully," he added.
Cuchullains took on a weakened Ballinagh side in their last game of the season and put John Mulvanny's team to the sword for the second time in as many months to bring their point tally to 10 and keep them hovering above Lavey (9) and Denn (8), who would both make the drop down to Division Two.
Juniors reach Division Four final
Despite the seniors poor league form throughout 2009, Cuchullains' second-string caught fire in Division Four this past season, winning nine games and losing two to finish in the top four of the division and earning a place in the competition's semi-finals. After disposing of Mullahoran in the semi-final, the men from Mullagh met a young Belturbet side in the final.
"The junior team had done quite well. We were getting high scores and ended up finishing third in Division Four and reaching the final," said Taite, who played in the decider against the Rory O'Moores.
"In the final we were winning at half-time, but Belturbet got in for a goal and ended up winning it by a couple of points. They were more up for it, to be honest. It seemed to mean more to them and I suppose we were disappointed afterwards, but we were still happy to have reached the final."
New senior management
With Fintan Cahill's decision to step down as senior manager from the club at the end of 2009, Cuchullains have decided to go back to their winning roots, as well as keep the new management local, with the appointment of Eoin Farrelly. Farrelly was in charge of the club's senior team from 2003 to 2005, when Cuchullains ended a 12-year wait to regain the intermediate football championship title for the third time in their 40-year history. The Mullagh outfit also captured the ACFL Division Two crown during Farrelly's tenure, ensuring that complete senior status was achieved.
Farrelly's backroom team will be made up entirely of club natives with former Cavan goalkeeper Jim Reilly coming in as team trainer and Noel Donohoe, Brian Daly and Fergal Kelly all appointed as team selectors.
Underage
On the underage front in the club, 2009 proved to be a transition year for Cuchullains. Despite small numbers, the minor and Under 16 teams held their own in the third tier, while there is plenty of promise from the lower juvenile sections, according to Taite.
"The minors competed well in Division Three and won half of their games, but didn't go any further. The Under 16s were more or less the same story, because there are small numbers there," he explained.
"The big numbers are at Under 14 level and below due to the rise in population around Mullagh. If you go up to the pitch there on a Saturday morning there are around 100 kids there training, it's crazy."
In recent years, Cuchullains have brought some fantastic talents through the ranks which have supplied Virginia College's past All-Ireland winning team and currently supply Tommy Carr's Cavan senior squad. Now, it is hoped that a blend of youth and experience can led the club towards much sought glory on the senior stage.
"It's hoped that the combination of youth and experience in this club will bring us on," said Taite.
"Players like Eugene Keating, Colm Smith and Conor Daly have come up through the ranks and you also have veterans in the club like Martin Quinn and Thomas Reilly, so we hope we can blend these players together and have success in the future."
40th anniversary
In 2009, the Cuchullains GAA club celebrated their 40th anniversary on the August bank holiday weekend in both Cross and Mullagh. To mark the occasion, the club held an Over 40s game between neighbour clubs Ramor and Cuchullains, which is now hoped to made an annual event. The club opened a new Sports Complex in Mullagh which cost just under one million euro and there are also plans in place to install an astro training pitch in Cross. This year also saw the club set-up their Scor again after 15 years, as well as an underage ladies team which is being headed by Mark McKenna. Tweet
