Just the ticket!
December 30, 2010
2010 - another year with the air around Clones clogged with the dust of dreams just demolished? Not quite.
Clones needed a boost as last autumn kicked in. A listless season for the club at premier level had hinted at a comatose year-end for the townies.
And just on cue, the club's multi-talented under 14s came tearing over the horizon with the sort of vitality and vigour that lifted a thousand gaels.
Mid-August conjurs up carefree, sunny, laissez-faire days. For the St. Tighernach's Park faithful, that period in 2010 brought happy days.
Of course, the backdrop to the club's finest day in the past year just had to be a wet and windy affair scarcely worthy of that given to a summer's day.
A 2-14 to 3-8 victory in the U14 Division Four League final over near-neighbours Aghabog in Killeevan was all that mattered though.
All belonging to the Gaelic games family in Clones got a huge lift by dint of their starlets' triumph; a win that meant the world to the club in 2010.
In truth, the final was more like a war, in the best meaning of the word, because Clones and Aghabog were two well matched sides, sporting too.
By the very nature of the competition, the sides were always going to go into the county final with a bit of baggage to uplift/weigh down expectations.
Clones had the bragging rights ahead of the decider as they had earlier beaten Aghabog in Clones in round one of the hard-fought league.
But given that Aghabog were minus a few big guns in the initial contest, the dogs in the street in Clones barked out a different story for the return.
The final itself was a game worthy of the competition and a fine advert for the stewardship and training proffered by both sets of mentors.
Environmental conditions lent a lottery-like feel to the exchanges, especially with the contrary wind on hand to test even the best of nerves.
"In fairness, the wind had a big bearing on the match," Clones team-manager Adrian Alford recalls. "We had it in the first and third quarters.
"I remember we went nine points in front after the third quarter but they then pulled it back to a single goal and things looked shaky enough for us.
"But fair play to the lads, they stuck at it and their trademark qualities of hard work, determination, skill and talent pulled us through in the end."
Adrian - a member of the Clones under 16 team that scooped (2002) the last piece of silverware at underage level for the club - says hard work underpinned the success of this year's starlets.
Certainly Benjamin Franklin's mantra of 'fail to prepare, prepare to fail' was obviously one taken on board by all concerned with the Clones under 14s.
The aforementioned Alford, along with team selectors Felim McElwain, Peadar McQuaid and Declan McQuaid, placed great weight on honest effort.
The tone for the season was set way back in March when the twice-weekly training sessions kicked off with great derring-do.
For the following seven months, never less than 17 players were in attendance at training. The enthusiasm in the camp was positively infectious.
The Class of 2011, like the club itself, needed a boost. They had been very disappointed with what 2009 had delivered and they sought change.
"The lads only won one game, against Rockcorry, last year in the under 13s. Having said that, hey weren't beaten by much in any of the games.
"It was noticeable right from the beginning of the season that they were determined to make things happen for themselves this year.
"They were ringing me, texting me and couldn't wait to get started at training. That was a great indication of just how keen and enthusiastic they were."
The training in spring and thereafter brought the lads on a pile; ball-focussed drills sharpened up their innate skills and fitness in equal measure.
It was a regime which was to work the oracle with the team's spirit and fitness greatly manifest in their fast-finishes in tight games.
"As a team-management, we could visibly see them improving, game by game, week by week, and luckily they peaked at just the right time.
"We had very tenacious backs; two very physical and fit midfielders and forwards who could take their scores and weren't afraid to work off the ball.
"And because of the rules, we were mindful of the fact that we needed a good, strong bench to work from and we had that too.
"The under 13 (campaign) in 2009 was disappointing, results-wise, but it was a great learning experience for the players and us as team mentors."
For all that, the omens weren't that good as the 2010 season began with a one goal defeat at the hands of hosts Blackhill hinting at a different script.
The Clones faithful needn't have fretted. Their opening setback was to be their only one with one win following another from there to season's end.
Reflecting on how the west was won, team-manager Alford says that one victory stands out above all others:
"I think our win over Oram in Drumhowan was the turning point for us. We were losing by a point going into the last quarter and it didn't look good.
"At half-time we asked them to show us what they were made of and they did just that by going onto win by seven points with some great football.
"The lads worked hard on their games all year and improved as a team no-end. Confidence in the team increased in a big way with each win."
As the players' ambitions leaped upward, it was incumbent on Alford and co. to keep their charges' feet firmly on terra firma.
The aforementioned Oram game helped the think-tank's cause in that respect. Kick and backside were the operative words at that juncture.
Still, there was no hiding the Clones team's talent and where they were heading as the season gathered pace. Played seven, won six.
A place in the semi-finals was thus booked in double-quick time with a passage through to the last four sealed after four rounds.
Up ahead, Scotstown lay in wait in the semis for table-topping Clones. An Bhoth had been slain earlier in the season on home territory.
"Because we had beaten them in the earlier rounds, we had to make sure that the lads didn't go into the semi-final in a complacent fashion.
"There wasn't much we had to do in that respect though 'cause while they weren't the finished article, they were a maturing bunch and there were a few leaders on the field that helped us keep the team as a whole focussed .
Scotstown were ousted in a competent if not a wholly comfortable manner. In the other semi-final, Aghabog overcame the challenge of Blackhill.
"We thought Blackhill would have won through (to the final) but when they didn't we weren't exactly upset although some of the lads wanted another crack at them," explains Adrian who helped steer the club's under 13s to Shield success in the county blitz held at Cloghan.
In front of a big, vociferous crowd, the final in Killeevan was a real cracker; a brillant advertisement for underage football in the county.
Given that a lot of the combatants were all too well known to each other from sharing classrooms at school, there might have been cause for thinking that the old 'familiarity breeds contempt' adage would be in its element but not a bit of it!
Ironically both teams seemed to play their best football into the teeth of the influential wind. In the end though, Clones did better against the wind than their opponents managed to do and, therein, lay one of the principal reasons why the town team triumphed.
The issue went all the way to the wire though and although Clones led from pillar to post, the destination of the spoils remained unclear 'till the death.
"It was the first time in a final for a lot of the lads and you could see of them were affected by their nerves early on," Adrian recalls.
"Our display in the third quarter went a long way to winning it for us though. We got ahead by nine points and it proved to be a match-winning cushion.
"All credit to them for reeling us in and only for one of our backs swept up a breaking ball from a dangerous centre in the last seconds, who knows what might have happened.
"They were determined not to let their lead slip and although they lost out to Aghabog later on in the championship, it didn't in any way take away from the league win or the boost it gave the club."
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