U14s steal the show
November 27, 2011The future looks bright for St. Colmcille's after a hugely successful 12 months for the Seasiders' under 14s who claimed Feile, Division 1 league and Reserve league honours.
And as well as representing Meath at the All-Ireland Feile Peile na nOg finals in Cork, the St. Colmcille's youngsters also came within a whisker of winning the under 14 Division 1 championship with a one-point defeat to Summerhill - who they had accounted for in the Division 1 league final - denying them a clean sweep of titles in the grade.
In addition, the club contested the under 16 Division 2 league final, and while they were beaten by Simonstown Gaels, they too could feel proud of their achievements. The performances of the underage teams helped to soften the blow of another underachieving intermediate championship campaign in which St. Colmcille's failed to win any of their group matches.
"If it wasn't for the underage, we'd have had very little to shout about," 'Cille's chairman Oliver Kavanagh admits.
"At the start of the year, we had our sights set on winning the intermediate championship, so to end up in a relegation dogfight was very disappointing. We were hoping to build on our great win over Walterstown in the under 21 'A' final towards the tail end of last year, but it didn't happen for some reason.
"It's frustrating to think that we haven't won an intermediate championship since 1988 and that we've been struck at this level since we came back down from senior in the mid-1990s. We've seen a lot of teams go up and down in that time, but all that we can do is keep trying and hope that our luck will change soon."
A junior championship medallist with St. Colmcille's in 1983 and chairman for the past six years, 'Jackser' takes tremendous encouragement from the Piltown club's progress in the underage ranks and the success of the primary schools coaching programme, which was launched five years ago.
"We're doing really well at underage level which is great to see because we had neglected it for a while," he explains.
"We have a very intensive schools programme which caters for hundreds of children across the five primary schools in our catchment area. We take 200 school kids to Piltown every Wednesday morning for coaching and we have massive numbers again down in the pitch every Sunday morning. We're already reaping the rewards - you don't have to look any further than our under 14s for proof of that."
After overcoming Navan O'Mahony's in last year's under 13 Feile final, St. Colmcille's set their sights on sweeping the boards at under 14 level this year - something they very nearly achieved.
The evening of Wednesday, April 27 will live long in the memories of St. Colmcille's supporters who saw both of their under 14 teams capture league crowns in Ashbourne. First into action was the Seasiders' Reserves who defeated Dunboyne on a 1-12 to 2-6 scoreline to end a seven-year wait for league success. A goal late in the first half gave Dunboyne a 1-5 to 0-6 lead at the interval, but with the wind to their backs after the restart, the 'Cille's boys gradually got on top with Jack Bohan finding the net, and they closed out the game with late points from Shane Towey and team captain Vincent O'Donoghue.
St. Colmcille's completed the second leg of a famous double when they got the better of Summerhill by 2-11 to 3-4 in the Division 1 final that followed. Both teams reached the decider on the back of unbeaten campaigns and neither was prepared to give their opponents an inch. Summerhill got off to a flying start when Kyle Benson fired past Jordan Browne for the opening goal. Davey O'Byrne responded with three frees for the Piltown outfit before Georgie Poyton blasted to the net to give them the lead.
Benson hit back with his second goal to bring Summerhill back onto level terms, but the 'Cille's didn't let this setback affect them and some well-taken scores from Stuart McDonald, Poyton and James Conlon gave them a 1-8 to 2-2 lead at the break.
St. Colmcille's extended their advantage on the restart through points from Poyton and O'Byrne before Jack Farrell converted a penalty for Summerhill to leave them just two points adrift with 12 minutes to go. But a late goal from Danny Tyrrell sealed the deal for the east Meath outfit.
A remarkable quadruple of titles was now in the offing for the talented St. Colmcille's youngsters. Victories over Dunboyne (5-11 to 5-3 - they previously drew 3-6 apiece) and Simonstown Gaels (2-10 to 2-8) in the quarter-final and semi-final respectively set the scene for a Division 1 championship final rematch with Summerhill just two weeks after the sides had faced off in the league decider.
Appearing in their third championship final in-a-row, St. Colmcille's lined out without their influential midfielder Nathan Noonan-Garland, who was suffering from a groin injury, and his absence was sorely felt as Summerhill stormed into a 0-9 to 0-4 interval lead after playing with the wind.
When the south Meath boys stretched their lead to 0-11 to 0-5 on the restart, the signs looked ominous for St. Colmcille's, but they refused to throw in the towel and a goal from Davey O'Byrne left just the minimum in it, 0-11 to 1-7, with 10 minutes remaining. However, Summerhill immediately replied with a goal from Cathal O'Brien to restore their four-point advantage.
Once again, the 'Cille's didn't lie down and points from O'Byrne, Poyton, Stuart McDonnell and Cathal Doyle had the margin down to the minimum again as the game ticked into stoppage-time. But time eventually ran out on them as Summerhill avenged their league final defeat by the narrowest of margins, 1-12 to 1-11.
St. Colmcille's also appeared in the under 16 Division 2 league final against Simonstown Gaels at Pairc Tailteann. Unfortunately, things didn't go their way with a dominant first half display paving their way for Simontown's 4-14 to 3-11 success. Favoured by the wind in that opening period, the Navan side bagged three goals - two coming from their captain Nathan O'Brien - to lead by 3-8 to 0-6 at half-time. And despite goals in reply from Daniel Murray, Fergal Walsh and Alan Morris in the second half, St. Colmcille's couldn't make up the deficit.
The club's intermediates will be glad to see the back of 2011 after a disappointing championship effort. Drawn in Group A, they lost three of their four games and drew the other with St. Ultan's.
Under the management of former Louth footballer Niall Flynn, who is a PE teacher in Gormanston College, and his selectors Joe Stafford and Enda Grogan, the 'Cille's were confident of making a winning start against a Moynalvey team who had they had beaten comfortably in the corresponding fixture last year. But eventual champions Moynalvey turned the tables with a 1-10 to 1-8 victory that was sealed courtesy of Ray Ryan's late penalty.
In their second outing, St. Colmcille's could only manage a 0-16 to 3-7 draw with St. Ultan's, having hammered them by 2-13 to 0-7 in a Division 2 league tie a month earlier. This was an incredible game which saw Ultan's lead by seven points at one stage, only for Niall Flynn's charges to score 11 unanswered points in the second half. However, they couldn't hold onto their lead as Ultan's bagged 1-1 in the closing seven minutes to earn a share of the spoils.
Thereafter, the Seasiders suffered further defeats to Castletown (0-9 to 1-12) and Clann na nGael (0-12 to 3-8) to finish second from bottom of Group A on scoring difference.
"The rot set in after the Moynalvey game," the St. Colmcille's chairman ruefully reflects.
"After beating them by 10 or 12 points last year, it was an awful setback to lose to them this year. We finished with just 12 men and you can't expect to win games when that's the case.
"After tearing St. Ultan's apart for much of the second half, we took our foot off the gas near the end and paid the price for that. We got what we deserved against Castletown in our third game and conceded a late goal to lose to Clann na nGael after being five points up early on.
"We were level with them when we were awarded a free to win it with time almost up, but instead of leaving it for 'Biggy' (Graham Reilly) we took it quickly, the move broke down and Clann na nGael broke down the field to score the winning goal."
While Oliver isn't making excuses for St. Colmcille's underachieving ways, he feels the championship format hasn't done them any favours.
"We always seem to be the team that finishes with a bye. This was our fifth year in-a-row to have a bye going into the last round of games. It's a big disadvantage because the other teams know exactly where they stand and what they've got to do going into their last game."
St. Colmcille's under 14 Reserve league winning squad was: Declan Ryan, Eoin Sweeney, Daragh Magee, Jack Phelan, Vincent O'Donoghue (0-01), Jeff Kavanagh, Joe Gilna (0-01), Shane Towey (0-01), Éanna Walsh (0-02), James McElearney (0-02), Dean Morgan (0-01), Cameron Christidoules (0-03); Jack Bohan (1-01), Robbie Browne, Michael McCartan, Garoid McCartan, Oisin Moloney, Leo Gray, Sean Leahy, Daniel Christidoules, Calem Martin and Rian Gilna. Tweet
