Prior to this year Blackhill GFC managed to win 13 juvenile football titles since 1995. The club's U13 Shield triumph in '08 made it fourteen. Sometimes in Gaelic football, the only thing that is predictable is its unpredictability. Even forecasting finals, especially at underage level, can be a real lottery. However there was something about Blackhill's U13 troupe in '08 that roared out the word 'champions' from the off and so it proved as they blitzed their way to victory in the Shield. The club's starlets won the Under 12 Shield competition in 2007 and so were the bookies' favourites to repeat that achievement at under thirteen level this year. That the bookies figured correctly came as little surprise to those in the know i.e. people with their ear to the ground, like Blackhill team-manager Seamus McEneaney. "We had a panel of 14 in 2007 and a large majority of those were back on board in '08 so we reckoned that we had a fair bit of material to work with," Seamus explained. "We knew too that there was a good bit of quality there as well and that they were even capable of going better than last year because a few of them had been on holidays." As things panned out Blackhill had more than enough of the right stuff in their lockers and they duly secured the Cabra Castle Cup with all the panache of a much more mature outfit. They reached the final by beating Killeevan in the semi-final on Blackhill's home turf with the winners' defence particularly outstanding in chiselling out the victory. In what was a cracking decider, they beat a determined Toome side by 3-10 to 2-8, reflecting the form they had shown earlier in going through the campaign in unbeaten fashion. The winners did most of their best work in a very impressive first half performance during which time they enjoyed, and largely reaped the benefit of, wind advantage. The champions-elect really started off as they meant to go on with four points in the first five minutes seeing them hit the ground running. Toome were rocked by Blackhill's roaring start with a brace of points from Micheal Geehan and one from Andrew Burns putting the mid-county side firmly into the driver's seat. To their credit Toome refused to panic and after circling the wagons, they broke through for a point after a fine, flowing move in the seventh minute. Blackhill replied with a goal and a point from a free in the 9th and 11th minute by Michael Geehan as they roared out an ultra-defiant message to their opponents. Toome were off target with a couple a wides thwarting their efforts but they had better luck in the 15th minute when a piece of opportunism saw them fire home a fine goal. Blackhill responded with gusto though and Micheal Geehan scored a point from play and then one from a fee after eighteen and twenty minutes respectively. The leaders continued to forge ahead and in the 22nd minute Darren McCully notched a goal to extend his side's lead. Toome remained under pressure and Micheal Geehan scored another point in the 24th minute for Blackhill as the short whistle beckoned. The chasing team dug in though and Toome managed to score the last point of the half from a free which reduced Blackhill's lead to nine points, 2 -8 to 1 -2 at the interval. Toome started the second half with the strong breeze advantage and plundered a goal in the first minute courtesy of a close-range strike following some good approach work. Blackhill remained up against the ropes and another Toome point in the second minute and another point from in the fifth minute served to raise the ante. However Blackhill were cut some slack thereafter after Toome recorded several bad wides in quick succession. Then in the tenth minute, the exchanges took a significant turn when Darren Mc Cully scored a goal for Blackhill which was quickly followed by a point from Michael Geehan. The play continuued to ebb and flow and the chasing team plundered a point from play to keep things very much on the boil. Micheal Geehan replied with a point from Blackhill in the 15th minutes as the pace of the game remained unrelentently high. Toome then put on a the pressure and were rewarded with a point from play in the seventeenth minute as Blackhill were forced to roll up their sleeves once more. One minutes later Toome ate into Blackhill's lead again, this time with a converted free in the 18th minute and suddenly it looked as if a grandstand finish was in the offing. Blackhill attempted to kill the game off but Micheal Geehan had a shot that flew narrowly wide of the post. With five minutes left to play, Blackhill poured forward with intent but the Toome goalkeeper pulled off a brace of good saves from Tony Forde and Micheal Geehan. The nip and tuck nature of the game continued right to the death and in the 26th minute Toome notched a point from a free for Toome. However much to the relief and, ultimately the delight, of all belonging to Blackhill, it was a score that had the word consolation stamped all over it. For the record, the following was the Blackhill crew who saw action in the county U13 decider against Toome; Declan Burns, James Daly, Niall Donnelly, Gary Loughran, Thomas Courtney, Micheal Geehan, Tony Forde, Darren Mc Cully, Paul Mc Gurgan, Mark Tavey, Andrew Burns, Sub used; Thomas Geehan. And team-manager McEneaney's summary of the decider? "It was probably our best performance of the year," he testified. "During the year we won a lot of our matches by quite a margin but the final was a different ball game. "Toome won the Under 12s this year so they had a winning pedigree and obviously a right few good players who were ambitious to make it back-to-back county title wins. "But we had beaten them by about eight points in Toome in the run-up to the final so we were fairly confident we had the beating of them again. "Having said that, we told the lads that every game is different and that they had to do it all again against Toome in the final before the other matches counted for nothing." According to the Blackhill supremo, the Shield champions fully merited their joy, if not for the quality of their display in the final then their consistency all year long. "Dessie Daly looked after the defence and he worked hard at eliminating goal-scoring chances for the opposition and the three against Killeevan was the most we let in all year. "They had a big target man and he did well but, in hindsight, it worked the best for us to get a good test against them (Killeevan) in the semis 'cause it prepared us for the final. "The lads showed a great attitude and they worked hard at focussing on stopping the other team scoring goals and getting through for their own scores at the other end of the pitch. "They played well in every game; holding onto possession well and releasing it quickly up front which is just what they did at under 12 level in 2007 when they won the Shield." In truth, it seems the Blackhill camp believed that the Shield was in their charges' own hands and that the opposition's principal hope was that Blackhill would trip themselves up. "We felt that if they didn't do anything silly, they would be okay," Seamus opined. "Going into the final, we reckoned it was really in their own hands. "If they played football of the kind they had been playing all year, it was going to take a really extraordinary performance from Toome to beat them. "It looked as if we were going to be playing Ballybay in the final 'cause we had a very close game against them earlier in the league but Toome beat them in the semi-final. "Toome surprised Ballybay but they deserved to win the the game and we noticed that they improved a lot during the year." Was there any period during the final against Toome that Seamus felt things might not go his side's way? "I was worried when, with the wind behind them, they got their goal and then a couple of points to cut the deficit to three points. "I think we looked at the panic button at that stage but didn't push it. The lads pulled themselves together and showed a lot of determination and character to get back on the rails. "I'd be surprised if at least a handful of the lads who won the Shield this year don't go on and contribute in a big way to the junior team in a few years time. "Obviously we'd be hoping that all of the players improve and go up through the ranks together. That's the plan." Tweet

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