Historic Leinster hurling success for Na Fianna
November 27, 2011In a year when their SHC and IFC interests were ended at the quarter-final stage, Na Fianna's capture of the Leinster Hurling Division 3 title in early June was a major highlight.
A 2-17 to 1-12 replay victory over an ill-disciplined Shanahoe side at Lakepoint Park in Mullingar crowned a memorable seven-match campaign for the Enfield/Baconstown club. The historic success was masterminded by former Meath hurling star Mikey Cole and his selectors Tony Healy and Cha Loughlin, who later guided Na Fianna to their first ever county SHC quarter-final appearance.
"I won a Leinster JHC (and an All-Ireland JHC) with Meath in 2004 and this one was every bit as sweet," enthuses Na Fianna captain and county hurler David Kirby.
"Leinster titles are very hard to come by in both hurling and football, so it's great when you win one. We treated every game like a championship match and we got our just reward in the end. The Leinster League is a great competition in that you are playing against teams from other counties that you don't know anything about. You just go out and hurl.
"It was also great from the point of view that we were getting competitive games before the championship. We got seven games and each one of them was as good as three challenge matches. Mikey Cole told us to take every game seriously and it stood us in good stead for our own championship," he adds.
Kirby, who missed some of the Leinster League campaign because of his involvement with the Meath hurlers, believes Na Fianna learned a lot from their defeat to Kilkenny side Clara in last year's Division 4 final in Portlaoise.
"We were very disappointed to lose that final, but we took the lessons on board and were delighted to make amends in a higher grade this year. A combination of things cost us dearly last year. We missed a lot of chances, we had a man sent off, I carried a calf injury into the final and shouldn't have played in hindsight, while we probably showed Clara too much respect because they were from Kilkenny.
"But we didn't make the same mistakes this year, thank God, and I think it was fantastic for a Meath club to win a Leinster title. As I said, we don't win too many of them, especially in hurling."
Na Fianna played five games en route to the final. They defeated St. Patrick's of Ferns (Wexford) and Turin (Westmeath), and drew with Eire Og of Greystones (Wicklow), before accounting for Avondale (Wicklow) and Killurin (Offaly) in the quarter-final and semi-final respectively. After drawing with Shanahoe in a highly-competitive final played in difficult conditions in O'Connor Park, Tullamore, the south Meath club recovered from a slow start to emerge as clear-cut winners of a tempestuous replay at the home of St. Loman's in Mullingar.
The Laois men were quickest of out the starting blocks and looked to be on course for a comfortable victory when they led by 1-8 to 0-3 after 20 minutes. If that wasn't bad enough, Na Fianna lost their centre back Sean Griffin to a serious collarbone injury, but with Dan Gleeson dropping back into defence, they proceeded to outscore their opponents by 0-6 to 0-1 in the remainder of the half - the scores coming from Barry Slevin, Shane Burke and David Kirby - to trail by just three points, 0-9 to 1-9, at the interval.
Four more unanswered points on the restart from Slevin, Kirby and Gleeson had Na Fianna ahead for the first time. The Enfield/Baconstown side were playing all the hurling at this stage and took command of the game when Eoin Reilly goaled in the 40th minute. Such was Na Fianna's dominance that Shanahoe had to wait 19 minutes for their first score of the second half to arrive.
Following the dismissal of Shane Cuddy on a second yellow card, Shanahoe lost their discipline completely, but credit to Na Fianna for not retaliating, and they put the seal on a famous victory when substitute Paul Hanley added their second goal in the closing stages.
That success gave Na Fianna a huge lift as they switched their attention back to the local SHC. Having scraped over Drumree by 1-14 to 1-13 in their opening Group A assignment, which was played before the drawn and replayed Leinster finals, the 2008 intermediate champions made it two wins from two when they posted a double-scores victory, 0-20 to 0-10, over Gaeil Colmcille.
Mikey Cole's charges suffered their first setback when they were edged out by 14-man Trim on a 0-15 to 0-16 scoreline, and their hopes of reaching the knockout stages were dealt a further blow when table-toppers Navan O'Mahony's beat them 1-10 to 1-8 in Trim. But an outstanding performance by county player Barry Slevin, who helped himself to 0-9 (0-7 from frees), inspired Na Fianna to 1-15 to 0-15 victory over Dunboyne and a place in the quarter-finals for the first time.
The signs looked ominous for Na Fianna when they trailed by 0-4 to 0-8 after 20 minutes, but they recovered to go into the break only a point in arrears, 0-7 to 0-8. Dunboyne opened up a three-point lead early in the second half, and it wasn't until the 47th minute that Na Fianna got their noses in front for the first time.
Another brace of Slevin points followed before Sean Griffin pounced for the match-winning goal four minutes from the end.
A great season for the Na Fianna hurlers came to an abrupt end when they crashed to a 1-11 to 2-19 defeat to an impressive Kiltale side at Pairc Tailteann. The wearers of black and amber started brightly with Barry Slevin, Diarmuid Bailey, David Kirby and Sean Griffin all on the mark. But a 17th minute goal ensured Kiltale of a 1-7 to 0-6 interval lead.
Na Fianna needed a good start to the second half, but it never materialised as Kiltale tagged on a quick 1-6 without reply to end the game as a contest. Griffin pulled back a goal for the Kildare-border men and the long-serving Paul Hanley added a point, but Kiltale still eased into the semi-finals.
"While we were disappointed not to have given a better account of ourselves against Kiltale, it was a good year overall. We didn't play well in our first championship match against Drumree, but even going back to when my father (Anthony) was playing for Baconstown, Drumree were always a hard team to beat," says 25-year-old Kirby, who is hoping a spell in Australia (he was due to leave on October 26) will allow a number of niggling injuries he has to heal up.
"We eventually made it through to the quarter-finals and that was another step in the right direction. However, the defeat to Kiltale showed that we still have a fair bit to go to be Jubilee Cup contenders."
The Na Fianna footballers were regarded as one of the favourites for intermediate championship honours and everything appeared to be going according to plan until they suffered a 0-12 to 2-9 defeat to Dunderry at the quarter-final stage.
Under the management of Summerhill man John Lyons and his selectors Ger Slevin and Fergal Foran, Na Fianna topped Group C following four straight wins over Ballinlough (2-10 to 1-10), Cortown (2-14 to 1-6), Longwood (0-14 to 1-9) and Ballinabrackey (1-6 to 0-8). The victory over Longwood in Trim secured their place in the knockout stages, although there were some worrying signs for the Enfield/Baconstown side in that game when they allowed their local rivals back into it after leading by 0-13 to 0-3 entering the final quarter.
The defeat to Dunderry was a difficult pill for Na Fianna to swallow, especially as they had been unbeaten up until then. They led by 0-8 to 1-3 at the break, but were outscored by 1-6 to 0-4 in the second period as Dunderry advanced to their third semi-final in as many years. Harrison Silke almost snatched an equalising goal in the latter stages, but his effort came back off the post and Dunderry survived.
"We were unfortunate that Jamie Queeney had to go off with an injury and that was obviously a big blow to us. We were also without Dean Barrett and Eoin Murray who both spent the summer in the US, and they were big losses as well. Dean was brilliant against Ballinlough in our first game and we could have done with him against Dunderry," rues the Na Fianna hurling skipper, who made a substitute appearance in the IFC quarter-final.
The Na Fianna team that captured the Leinster Hurling League Division 3 title was: Mark Coffey; Paul Coffey, Brendan Flynn, Mark Burke; Christy Cosgrove, Seanie Griffin, Niall Reilly; Davy Lyons, Shane Burke (0-1); Barry Slevin (0-9), David Kirby (0-7), Jordan Nolan; Diarmuid Bailey, Dan Gleeson (0-1), Eoin Reilly; (1-0). Subs used: Shane Greaney, Donal Curran, Billy Cullen and Paul Hanley (1-0).
Na Fianna lined out as follows in their IFC quarter-final defeat to Dunderry: D McCormack; D Lyons, C Cosgrave, D Gleeson; J Baldwin, T Cosgrave, D Bailey; O Lewis, B Queeney; D Henrick, M Foley, C Downey; D Queeney, J Queeney, H Silke. Subs used: S Griffin, A Mahon, D McDonagh and D Kirby.
Na Fianna claim minor title
Na Fianna created their own bit of history when they won their first major final at Pairc Tailteann when the club's minor football team captured the Jacksie Kiernan sponsored Division 5 title against Bective/Cannistown on a scoreline of 2-10 to 1-10.
Na Fianna opened the scoring after 30 seconds when team captain Richie Massey pointed. Further points from Michael Farley, Michael Hughes (2) Lee Hyland and Massey had the South Meath team leading 0-6 to 0-1 after 15 minutes. An Anthony Neary converted penalty was quickly cancelled by three Bective points before Joshua Devine got Na Fianna's second goal just before half time. Na Fianna went in at half time on a comfortable margin of 2-6 to 0-4.
The first 15 minutes of the second half were a disaster for Na Fianna when Bective, through a combination of dominance at centre field and sloppy fouling by the Na Fianna defence allowed the Navan parish side score 1-4. Na Fianna's half time lead of eight points was now down to one. However the Na Fianna lads regained their composure around the middle of the field and tenacious defending by Aaron Farrell and Darren Ryan coupled with improved performances from Richie Massey and Jamie McCormack saw Na Fianna tag on a further four points to Bective's two leaving a goal between the sides as they entered the final minutes.
Strong defending allowed the South Meath lads to hold on for an historic victory. Captain Richie Massey accepted the cup from Minor Board secretary Peter O'Halloran on behalf to the winning team.
Na Fianna - Sean Coyle; Dylan McDonagh; David Coffey; Darren Ryan; Aaron Farrell (0-1); Anthony Neary (1-0); Jamie McCormack (0-1); Philip Geraghty; Michael Farley (0-1); Richie Massey (0-3); Lee Hyland (0-1); Michael Hughes (0-3); Joshua Devine (1-0). Subs: Stephen Forde for Lee Hyland; Sean Ryan for Michael Hughes; Evan Mulally, Evan Henrick, Andrew Glynn.
All smiles for Na Fianna U12's at Pairc Tailteann
Na Fianna and Ratoath played out a thrilling U12 Division 4 championship final in Pairc Tailteann on the last Saturday in May.
This final based on the new go games formula with two 11 aside teams playing side by side on the pitch had everything from brilliant scores to excellent defending from both teams.
Na Fianna started the stronger and went in at half time leading on a scoreline of 2-7 to 1-4.
after the break a strong Ratoath team upped the tempo and produced some excellent scores to take the lead.
However Na Fianna rallied with some excellent scores and great goalkeeping to pull clear at the final whistle on a scoreline of 6-10 to 4-13.
Na Fianna scorers - Luke McNally 2-0, Daniel Devine 1-2, Shane Walsh 1-1, Cian O'Hare 1-1, Jack McNally 0-4, Kean Flynn 1-0, Sean Martin 0-1, Cian O'Hare 0-1. Tweet
