League and U21 glory bode well for O'Mahony's
November 27, 2011The junior footballers enjoyed a tremendous run to the championship final, highlighted by knockout victories over two of the big guns in the grade, Kilmainham and Dunsany, but Ballivor proved too good in the final as they made amends for the previous year's loss to Ballinabrackey.
When O'Mahonys put previous disappointments behind them by claiming the SFC title in style in 2008, most observers expected them to achieve what previous teams from the club had done - win a number of Keegan Cups in succession - but it didn't work out that way.
After their failure to reach the knockout stages last year, they advanced comfortably this time by winning four of their five matches, but Summerhill were waiting in the long grass and stunned them with a scintillating start to their quarter-final meeting as they look a giant step towards the title.
Davy Nelson was back in the role of senior coach this year and O'Mahonys carried the usual tag of favourites into the championship. They had to plan without the injured David Bray and with so many players involved with the county panel there was always the possibility of that particular list lengthening.
They were drawn in group B along with intermediate champions Nobber, Donaghmore/Ashbourne, Rathkenny, Dunshaughlin and Seneschalstown and opened up with a comfortable victory over the Nobber men at Castletown where Kevin Reilly was deployed at full-forward.
Reilly contributed a goal in each half and a real star of the game was Darragh Smyth who scored four points from play. On a less positive note, O'Mahonys had Barry Regan sent off seven minutes into the second half and looked decidedly uneasy for most of that period.
Reilly's first goal came after 20 minutes and boosted them to a 1-7 to 0-4 interval lead. The advantage stood at 1-9 to 0-6 with eight minutes remaining, but Nobber battled back and a Brian Farrell goal helped them cut the deficit to two points. The danger signs were obvious, but Reilly's second goal killed off the contest as it finished 2-10 to 1-7.
Mark Ward missed the second round game against Donaghmore/Ashbourne at Walterstown with an Achilles injury, but O'Mahonys won again, this time by 2-8 to 0-9. The Dublin-border side led by 0-4 to 0-3 at the interval, but second half goals from Reilly and Paddy Smyth did the trick for the Navan men.
Ahead of Smyth's clinching goal O'Mahonys had to rely on goalkeeper Mark Brennan to save a David Morgan effort, before Damien Moran blocked Niall Farrell's shot from the rebound.
A third successive win followed when Rathkenny were overcome by 0-14 to 0-7 at Seneschalstown where the losers had James Macken harshly dismissed after 22 minutes. O'Mahonys led by 0-5 to 0-0 at the time and by 0-6 to 0-1 at the break, before they shaded the second half. Alan Forde, later to be a shining light in their Under-21 FC triumph, starred with five points from play.
O'Mahonys were well on their way to the knockout stages, but suffered a defeat in the fourth round at Pairc Tailteann where Seneschalstown won by 0-10 to 1-5. All appeared to be going to plan when a Reilly goal boosted the Brews Hill team to a 1-3 to 0-1 interval lead, but they lost Stephen Bray with a hamstring injury late in the first half.
Inspired by the brilliant Brian Sheridan, Seneschalstown took over in the second half when O'Mahonys tallied 10 wides and managed just two points from Jake Regan frees. The Yellow Furze team led by 0-10 to 1-3 with five minutes remaining, but Regan's points gave O'Mahonys hope which might have turned to joy if the same player had goaled with a late chance which went wide.
Both sides were through to the knockout phase by the time O'Mahonys and Dunshaughlin met in the last round at Dunsany and it was Nelson's team which cruised to a 3-14 to 0-8 victory which enabled them to top the group. A goal late in the first half from Forde earned a 1-6 to 0-7 interval advantage and the second half was a procession.
Darragh Smyth goaled early in the period and Gary O'Brien also found the net as O'Mahonys played superbly, winning in a manner which suggested they were worthy warm favourites to lift the Keegan Cup. But when the pressure was on for the first time they faltered in the quarter-final against Summerhill at Pairc Tailteann.
A dreadful start left O'Mahonys playing catch-up and while they did much to repair the damage, they were adrift by 0-12 to 2-10 at the end. The returning Stephen Kennedy goaled twice in the opening five minutes as Summerhill opened up a 2-1 to 0-0 lead and the hot favourites were suddenly the outsiders.
O'Mahonys conceded only three more points in the first half and had cut the deficit to 0-6 to 2-4 at the break thanks to scores from the impressive Jake Regan (four frees) and Paddy Smyth (two) and the gap was down to the minimum within four minutes of the restart after Smyth, Mark Ward and Regan had registered.
The Navan men were favourites again, but Paul Rispin pushed Summerhill two clear, before Ward's second brilliant point left the minimum in it again. Brian Ennis and Regan traded frees, before O'Mahonys introduced Stephen Bray at a time when they looked capable of winning.
Ward was proving a big influence, but it was Summerhill who demonstrated growing maturity and confidence when they reeled off points from Conor Gillespie, Kennedy, David Larkin and Adrian Kenny in a six minute spell to lead by 2-10 to 0-11. O'Mahonys needed a goal, but the nearest they came was when Cormac McGuinness' effort was superbly saved by Tony McDonnell.
Regan, who top-scored with eight points (seven frees), managed their only other score on a hugely disappointing day.
League title provides real cheer
O'Mahonys were worthy winners of the A League Division 1 title as they finished the job with a final victory over St Patrick's at Ashbourne after they had topped the group on 21 points thanks to 10 wins, a draw and just one defeat.
They had already beaten the Stamullen men by 1-10 to 2-4 back in March at Brews Hill and repeated the feat in the decider which they won by 2-9 to 1-7. Stephen Bray made a notable contribution with seven points and also played a part in both goals early in the second half.
Kevin Reilly returned to full-back after spending most of the year at full-forward and with Niall McKeigue operation at centre-back the winners' defence had a solid appearance down the middle.
The O'Mahonys' attack included four players who had started the under-21 final a week earlier, but scores proved scarce in the first half, at the end of which the teams were level on 0-4 each. Bray had notched three of the O'Mahonys' points from play, while the Stamullen men were left to rue seven wides in that period.
Bray pointed again 30 seconds after the restart and when Alan Forde followed up with a goal O'Mahonys were on top. McKeigue added a second goal and with a 2-5 to 0-4 advantage after 34 minutes only one outcome looked likely. Darragh Smyth had two goal chances in the third quarter, but Pat's 'keeper Eabhain Connolly saved the first and the second went wide.
Niall Mooney pulled a goal back at the other end, but O'Mahonys were in control and were five points clear at the end. Captain Barry Regan accepted the Tommy Mooney Cup as O'Mahonys bridged a 16-year gap back to their last Division 1 success, while coach Davy Nelson had praise for all concerned.
"It's very much a team effort here," he said. "Alan Reilly, Bernie Murray and Breen O'Grady have a wealth of experience between them. They have been a great assistance towards the preparation of this team.
"There is a lot of experience, but at the end of the day the players do the playing. We can't make any tackles for them or kick any points. They have won every match we played since we were beaten by Summerhill. We can't do any more about this year. Hopefully, we can go on next year and attack the championship."
Nelson must have been thrilled with Stephen Bray's contribution to the victory.
"We didn't have him against Summerhill because he was injured," he added. "He was only able to play a small part in that game on one leg. Niall McKeigue and Stephen Mac Gabhann weren't able to play that day. You saw their imprint here."
O'Mahonys missed out on the big prize, but Nelson was very happy to win the league.
"It's 16 years since O'Mahonys won this trophy, so it's a good consolation," he said. "When you can't win the Keegan Cup this is a great competition to win. We put a lot into it all year. We said winning is a habit. Just because things went wrong for us against Summerhill, that shouldn't change eight months work. So we said let's go on and win this competition. The lads really bought into it and brought home the cup."
The O'Mahonys team in the final was: M Brennan; S Mac Gabhann, K Reilly, I Matthews; S Crosby, N McKeigue (1-0), G O'Brien; B Regan (0-1), C McGuinness; D Moran, A Forde (1-0), D Smyth; J Regan (0-1), S Bray (0-7), D Maguire. Subs - A Rogers for Moran, S Gillespie for J Regan, S O'Toole for Maguire.
Talent in abundance as U21's triumph
The O'Mahonys' under-21s, coached by Donal Finnegan, did the hard work when getting the better of reigning champions Donaghmore/Ashbourne after extra-time in the semi-final and when it came to the decider they proved far too good for Gaeil Colmcille, winning by 2-19 to 0-7 at Pairc Tailteann.
Alan Forde was a true star of the game as he embellished a magnificent performance with four points. He opened the scoring after just 18 seconds and when Mikey Kelly set up Darragh Smyth for a goal O'Mahonys were well on their way to the title with a 1-1 to 0-0 lead inside the first two minutes.
By half-time the advantage stood at 1-8 to 0-3 after Forde had added two more points, Cathal Smyth slotted over a brace of frees, Jake Regan notched two and Kelly also split the uprights.
Forde continued to drive O'Mahonys on in the second half as they dominated with some brilliant football. They added 1-11 in that period, with Shane Gillespie scoring their second goal in the closing stages.
O'Mahonys had impressive performers all over the field and all six starting forwards scored, headed by Darragh Smyth on 1-3, Gillespie with 1-1 and Forde and Cathal Smyth with four points each. Gillespie had the added satisfaction of captaining the victorious team.
Coach Donal Finnegan was, understandably, very satisfied, as were selectors Stephen Bray, Niall McKeigue, Barney Reilly, Gerry Lynn and Sean Jordan.
"I'm delighted for the lads," Finnegan said. "This victory has been three years in the making. We set out to make a good start, to get a good foundation in place; we achieved that.
"The score line might be a bit unfair on Kells. They are not a bad team. They defeated Skryne and Dunboyne to get to the final. It was the type of game where everything went right for us. The lads gave a good performance."
It was a victory which suggests that O'Mahonys have a lot to look forward to.
"The future looks bright for O'Mahonys based on this display," Finnegan added. "The players have a great attitude. They worked hard for one another. The players have loads of skill and, hopefully, this will carry into the senior team next year.
"It was great to have Stephen Bray and Niall McKeigue as selectors. They were a great help and brought a different dimension to the task of moulding a team. A lot of the players will be eligible for the grade again next year. It's a very young team. They played last year and were disappointed. We made up for it this evening. That's the way football goes."
The O'Mahonys team in the final was: J Walsh; C Lynn, C Finnegan, K Reddy; J Reilly (0-1), C Walsh, D Louth; P McGrath (0-1), D Maguire; D Smyth (1-3), A Forde (0-4), M Kelly (0-1); S Gillespie (1-1), J Regan (0-3), C Smyth (0-4). Subs - G Power for Lynn, E Murtagh for Louth, J Power (0-1) for C Smyth, L Murrell for Maguire.
Memorable junior journey ends n disappointment
Getting their second string to the JFC final represented a big achievement for O'Mahonys, but disappointment lay in waiting when Colm Kane's team was well beaten by a very talented Ballivor side at Pairc Tailteann. 1-8 to 2-14.
O'Mahonys improved as the competition progressed and emerged from group A as runners-up behind Moylagh, the only team to defeat them during the qualification phase. They opened up with a draw (1-8 each) against Bective, then lost to Moylagh by 1-8 to 1-9, but put three successive victories together against Drumconrath (1-11 to 1-6), Kilmainhamwood (0-14 to 1-8) and Skryne (2-16 to 0-6) to scrape through on score difference ahead of Bective.
Two of the more fancied teams for outright honours were negotiated in the knockout stages - Kilmainham by 2-8 to 1-7 in a quarter-final at Athboy and Dunsany by 1-12 to 1-6 in a semi-final at Walterstown - and that set up a final meeting with Ballivor, the club which dashed their hopes of an instant return to the senior ranks back in 2002 when defeating them in the IFC decider.
These clubs also met in the SFC final in 1973 when O'Mahonys came out on top, but this time it was Ballivor who were celebrating at the final whistle after a thoroughly deserved success.
The early exchanges were close and points from Cathal Smyth and David Murtagh helped O'Mahonys to be level. Joe McLaughlin goaled on 10 minutes to give Ballivor a lead they never surrendered and they held a 1-4 to 0-2 advantage at the end of the opening quarter.
When Adam Gannon netted Ballivor were eight points clear after 21 minutes, but O'Mahonys cut the deficit to five with points from Smyth (two) and Murtagh. A McLaughlin point left Ballivor ahead by 2-5 to 0-5 at the interval and their advantage was back at eight with 20 minutes remaining after substitute Calvin Ryan had pointed twice.
But O'Mahonys didn't lie down and Murtagh goaled superbly from a penalty, Shane Crosby kicked a mighty point from distance and Murtagh slotted over a free to leave only three in it early in the last quarter. However, that proved to be their final score and Ballivor reeled off six unanswered points to win comfortably.
The final finished in even greater disappointment for Cormac Reilly when he was sent off six minutes from the end after receiving a second yellow card.
The O'Mahonys team in the final was: M Sherlock; K Walsh, C Reilly, C Lynn; J O'Reilly, R Lynn, E Murtagh; S Crosby (0-1), C McGuinness; D Louth, D Murtagh (1-3), C Smyth (0-4); J Brennan, H Finnegan, S Keating. Subs - G O'Dowd for E Murtagh, P Quinn for McGuinness, K Reddy for Finnegan, A Duffy for Brennan.
O'Mahony's on a quest
Navan O'Mahony's hurlers can take great pride in reaching this year's senior hurling final, but chairman Donal Fitzsimons stressed that the players are keen to make a return to the showpiece decider in 2012 and make amends for the defeat.
The town team failed in their bid to win the Jubilee Cup for the first time since 1986 as Kildalkey won their third consecutive title. A few months later and the manner of the defeat still hurts the club as a dreadful start to the match left O'Mahony's with a mountain to climb and despite a brave effort it was just beyond them.
"Having had a bit of time to sit back and look at it, we just didn't perform on the day and I think that hurts the players more than anything. If you gave it your all and lost, you could then say at least we did that but it wasn't the case on the day," admitted Donal.
"I think there was a lot of nerves in the side as it was unknown territory for all the players, even the ones that had played in football finals."
A dreadful start to the game, didn't help O'Mahony's in anyway, shape or form as their more experienced opponents came out of the traps flying.
"We conceded a goal in the first minute and then they scored two quick points. All this happened before we even got the ball up to our forwards. It was the worst possible start for us. They scored a second goal soon after and it was really an uphill struggle from there."
Despite the poor start, Donal was proud of the way the players responded as they battled bravely from there to the final whistle.
"The lads to their credit kept battling for the rest of the match and score we kept with them for the remainder of the game, but we had too much to claw back. They start that Kildalkey was probably the one that we wanted."
At the start of the year, not many would have tipped O'Mahony's to reach the knockout stages of the championship, let alone compete in the final as they had narrowly avoided relegation in 2010 by defeating Rathmolyon in a play-off.
Donal revealed that a decision was made in the lead up to the game that would change the course of direction that hurling in the club had being heading.
"The players knew that there had to be changes made and they put in a huge effort for the relegation play off last year and that was carried on into this year's campaign. Everyone put in a huge effort and the benefits of that showed throughout the year."
For the third consecutive year, former Meath hurler John Gorry managed the side and he was joined on the sidelines by another ex-county star Martin Ennis, who along with Donal (himself an ex-county man) made up a very experienced management team.
"John has done great work in the last few years and he really gets through to the players. Martin also brought a great deal of experience and his knowledge of the game is unquestionable. It was a level playing field for him and the players as if he had something to say, he would say it, no matter who the player was."
From early on in the year, O'Mahony's knew they had a lot of work to do, but the hurling chairman stressed that the players were fully behind them from the word go.
"In fairness I think the draw for the championship probably whetted a lot of lads appetites as they knew we had a very good chance of qualifying from the group and we all know that anything can happen after that."
O'Mahony's kicked off their campaign with an expected win over Gaeil Colmcille, but in the second round clash against Trim, Gorry and his management team were left pleasantly surprised.
"We played most of the match against Trim with 14 men and in recent years our lads would have dropped the heads and we would have been beaten. However, on this occasion, they dug deep and recorded a one-point win, which was great to see. Games between Trim and ourselves are usually very close and the manner of the victory really gave us the belief that we could do well in the campaign."
Wins over Dunboyne, Na Fianna and Drumree followed to ensure that Navan O'Mahony's finished the group top and thus qualified them straight through to the semi final.
"I think it was important to finish top of the group and get straight into the semi final as the quarterfinals can always be tricky and anything can happen in them."
As O'Mahony's hurlers were striding their way through the championship, their footballers were not having as good a time and to the surprise of many in the county, they were eliminated at the group stages.
However, this left the door open for the club's dual players to concentrate solely on hurling for the remainder of the year and Donal feels that this certainly helped their cause.
"For the first time ever, the hurlers and footballers trained together at the start of the year and it worked really well for both teams. There was a bond developed between both sets of players and it really helped.
"When the footballers were beaten, it meant the dual players were free to play more hurling, which they needed to be doing if we were going to have any chance of reaching the final."
In the semi final, O'Mahony's entered the contest as underdogs against a very strong Kiltale side, but the character shown in earlier rounds was once again about to come to the fore.
"We looked dead and buried in the dying minutes of the semi final as Kiltale were well on top, but once again and great credit to the players, they stuck to the task. The defence really closed ranks on the Kiltale forwards and they started to get the right ball into the forwards who done the damage. We also brought on four subs that day and they all played their part in digging out the win."
The seniors run coincided with O'Mahony's juniors doing well also and this benefited both teams as the year went on. "At times we had up on 35 players at training, which was great to see as that had never happened before in my time. There was great competition for places and everyone was giving it their all."
O'Mahony's claimed the junior title at the expense of Boardsmill and they will now ply their trade in the intermediate championship next year, which Donal feels will benefit the players.
"Most of the lads that were on the junior team this year came from the under-21 and minor teams. They will be playing intermediate next year which is a good step up and this will help them prepare for the senior."
The club has placed a great emphasis on their underage structure and work is being done to develop the skills of the youngsters in the club as they build for the future. Nonetheless the goal for 2012 will be to make amends for this year's final appearance and lay some ghosts to rest.
"We would be hoping that John and Martin would stay on for another year anyway that would be a big boost for us. Speaking to a lot of the players since the final and they really feel aggrieved that they didn't play to their full potential, but there is no reason that with the same commitment, we can't get back to the final next year and hopefully we will be even better prepared."
As for the chairman's position, Donal has completed two years at the helm and although he was not forthcoming on what the future holds, it looks as if this man will be there for a while yet.
"In fairness it has been a great time to be chairman of the hurling club, and I have to say that I have had great support from my family and in particular my wife Aoife. Without that support it would be impossible to do this. We will see what happens at the AGM," he concluded. Tweet
