Shannon Gaels on the up
December 31, 2010stalwart Ollie Nolan says they will have to turn their focus towards in 2011.
Overall on the senior front, 2010 will have be considered as another marked improvement for Eugene Walsh's Shannon Gaels, who had been knocking on the door for promotion in recent years before finally kicking it down this past season.
Since taking over the reins as manager in '08, Bellmullet native Walsh has brought some steel to the Gaels, according to veteran centre-back Ollie Nolan, and it has saw them become a real force to be reckoned with in the junior ranks as teams either side of the county have recently discovered.
"This was Eugene's second year over us and he had Hugh McCormack and Anthony Murray with him," explained Nolan.
"The training was very good. We were doing a weights programme at the start of the year and it was just good to get everyone together so early on. They (the management) had the lads believing from the start that we could get promoted and it showed because there were big crowds at training all year.
"Promotion to Division Two was what Eugene wanted for the team at the start of the year because we had been there or thereabouts over the last few years," he added.
Walsh, who was apart of the Shannon Gaels side in 1989 which last captured the Sean Leddy Cup, was adamant that 2010 would be the year which the club could make the leap to the intermediate ranks which they had been threatening to do for some time.
Minus the services of ace pair Jason McLoughlin and Nevin O'Donnell for their opening games in Division Three due to Cavan minor commitments, the Blacklion men would have to be primed and ready when the time came to ensure that their promotion goal stayed on track.
The first game was a tricky one to say the least. A long haul to Kingscourt would be daunting opener for most teams at any level, but when the Gaels met the Stars both sides served up a cracker for those in attendance at O'Raghallaigh Park, where the visitors came away with a valuable 3-7 to 1-10 victory thanks to a last minute penalty which saw them scoop two points for the long trip west back home.
Wins against Maghera (3-12 to 1-4), Corlough (3-7 to 1-11) and Laragh United (1-11 to 0-13) followed before the concession of three goals saw the Gaels suffer their first defeat of the year in May at the hands of Ballymachugh (3-7 to 0-9).
"We had a great run in the league," said Nolan. "We were lucky this year because we had a full squad to pick from and didn't have too many injuries like with other years. We won our first four or five games before we lost to Ballymachugh and got into a good run against after that to get promoted."
The next day out Walsh's men firmly revived their promotion charge when they struck for five goals against west Cavan rivals Ballyconnell First Ulsters to record at 5-10 to 2-8 win at Pháirc Gaeil na Siónainne. Arva (3-6 to 1-4), Templeport (2-12 to 0-8) and would-be junior champions Swanlinbar (2-12 to 0-12) were all put to the sword as the Gaels found their goal-scoring touch and two more majors against high-flying Cornafean saw the black and ambers take another pair of points on a 2-8 to 0-10 to all but seal their place in the second tier for 2011.
Victory over Mountnugent (2-13 to 1-9) and Killygarry (2-14 to 0-6) sealed the deal at the end of June, before the campaign ended on somewhat of a downer when three Muterconnacht goals consigned the Gaels to their second defeat of the season by a narrow 3-9 to 1-10.
Nonetheless, the players were still quietly confident heading into their junior championship campaign.
Nolan concurred: "I suppose you could say we were in 'the group of death', but were optimistic after the run we had in the league. The top four teams in Division Three had to play each other and we even knew from the start of the year that it was going to be a tough group."
In their first outing, the Gaels were made succumb to a two-point defeat at the hands of their west Cavan rivals Swanlinbar at St Patrick's Park in Corlough, where Mark Cunningham and Robbie Prior combined for a 0-11 tally for the Blues, while marksman Eamon O'Reilly was unlucky to be on the losing side after contributing 0-8 from full-forward. It meant that the next two games became all the more crucial for the Blacklion side if they were to emerge from the group.
The next day out it was an epic battle between two of the competition's genuine contenders when Shannon Gaels went head-to-head with Munterconnacht in Milltown and came away with a 2-15 to 3-10 victory to savour. For the majority of the game things were on a knife-edge as the westerners took in a slender 0-7 to 1-3 lead at the break.
In the second-half, it was goals galore as both sides fired in two apiece, with Jonathan Corrigan bagging a brace and O'Reilly again putting forth another fine scoring display through a 0-9 tally to help Shannon Gaels to a vital win.
Shannon Gaels (JFC v Munterconnacht): S McGovern; J McLoughlin, P Fitzpatrick, McGovern; O Nolan, S McGrath, D O'Hara; E McHugh (0-2), E McCaffrey; J Corrigan (2-3), M Griffin; R McCaffrey, E O'Reilly (0-9), PP O'Hara. Subs: N O'Donnell (0-1), A O'Hara.
"We managed to beat Munterconnacht and they reckon it was one of the best matches played all year. It lifted us after losing to Swad and we had to win against Cornafean to make sure we'd get through to the quarter-finals and beat them well," said Nolan.
Easing past Cornafean confirmed Shannon Gaels' place into the last eight and despite a below par performance they still grafted out their third successive win to overcome Templeport's challenge to be just 60 minutes away from a first junior championship final appearance in three years.
However, another battle with Munterconnacht stood in their way and in the end it would prove too high a hurdle to breach when the two sides collided once more at Kingpan Breffni Park, where the Munchies were 1-17 to 1-11 victors to move into the final with Swanlinbar.
"Munterconnacht are a good team and we certainly weren't afraid of them after beating them in the group stages, but we just didn't perform in Breffni that day. I don't know what happened to us really, we just let ourselves down," said Nolan on the defeat.
There was one positive to come out of such a disappointing defeat for Shannon Gaels though, according to Nolan:
"As far as we know, Eugene is staying on which is great news and hopefully now we can hold our own in Division Two next year, because that's where Shannon Gaels needs to be. Promotion was what we wanted and the start of the year and it's great for the younger fellas to play in Division Two to give them a bit of experience as well."
Juniors impress
Shannon Gaels' Reserves also enjoyed an eventful year which saw them earn nine wins in the ACFL Reserve Division Three before embarking on an intriguing Junior D Championship campaign.
In the semi-finals the Blacklion men continued their strong form to overcome Bailieborough's challenge by 1-8 to 0-5 to book their place into the competition's decider against Arva. Played in mid-October at St Aidan's Park, Bawnboy, the west Cavan side emerged 0-10 to 0-6 winners on the night, but no champions would be crowned until the first weekend of November, after the Shannon Gaels club informed the county board that they had fielded an Under 16 player, who was ineligible under the rule which states that a juvenile player may only take part in competitions two age groups above their own. After the Shannon Gaels club had notified the board of the mistake, Arva sportingly agreed to replay the fixture on November 6 at the same venue.
Arva would go on to win the replay by 1-5 to 0-6. Tweet
