Unfortunately few players in any given GAA club are prepared to spend what free time they have in helping hone the skills of the club's younger fraternity. Oram's Tony Graham is an exception though. In reflecting on the GAA year just gone by down Oram way, key defender Tony Graham is quick to acknowledge that there was a lot of the 'curate's egg' analogy about 2001 for the club. At underage level, progress was maintained with much needed silverware being captured. At the other end of the spectrum though, the club's premier football team had a nightmare season and relegation was their lot at intermediate level. Talk about swings and roundabouts. The past year for Oram was made up of some good and some bad days. As a regular on Oram's premier side and one of a number of hard-working underage mentors in place, Tony was uniquely positioned to experience the highs and lows generated in both spheres of the club's activities. There can be little doubt but that the highlight of Oram's year on the football front came in the form of the success achieved by the Sarsfields at under 12 level, specifically in winning the prestigious Magill Cup. Not that the title-winning exploits of Oram's under 12 brigade came as a complete surprise to Tony and his ilk at the coalface of juvenile affairs at the close-knit club. Fact is, the young Sarsfields players had been knocking on the door of Magill Cup joy for the last couple of years. Losing the final in 1999 and last year's semi-final indicated that the pedigree was most definitely there. "The club was fortunate in that the nucleus of the under 12 sides that had gone close over the last couple of years was still in place in 2001. "The lads had impressed during the year on their way to the final with comfortable victories over the likes of Latton and Killanny. The final was really no different as they had little difficulty in beating Blackhill." So what had the team got going for itself in particular? "There weren't that many star players as such on the team. It was a real team effort with very few weak links. It was a good, well-balanced side. Their success was a massive boost to the underage effort in the club." Certainly the promotion and development of juvenile talent in the Oram GFC catchment area which has gained a new impetus over the last three years and more bore fruit with the Magill Cup win - the club's first such triumph since 1990 and before that in 1987. Interestingly, Tony - a member of that aforementioned 1990 title-winning team believes that the latest Magill Cup heroes from Oram represent the most talented bunch of under 12 players to emerge from the club over the last 15 years or thereabouts. He has high hopes for their future development as players of real promise. Oram's last success at any level in juvenile ranks was in 1997 so the 2001 Magill Cup triumph saw a welcome return of the glittering prizes to the club. Whatever about various under 16 teams from the club reaching a brace or three of finals in recent times, Tony agrees that there's nothing like a cup win to boost morale. "I think in a year in which not much went right for us at intermediate level, the success of the under 12s was a real silver lining on the cloud. "We've very limited resources and just one national school in the area so any piece of silverware we can get our hands on is most welcome. "The fact though that the local national school won the seven a-side competition last year is also a good sign that there's some good quality young footballers locally so if we can manage to help them hone their skills in the coming years and realise their potential, we might see a few more pieces of silverware coming our way in the coming years," adds Tony who also helps out with Oram's under 10s, 14s, and 16s. Of course, just like what transpired at adult level, there was an element of disappointment at underage level in Oram during 2001 and, in this regard, Tony mentions the club's unfortunate defeat in the under 14 Farney Cup final to Blackhill. "We half-expected to win that final because we had beaten hot favourites Corduff in the semi-final. The fact that the under 14 final came just shortly after our Magill Cup win maybe distracted the under 14s a bit. Either way, the lads underperformed on the day and didn't do themselves justice. Blackhill were the hungrier side too." With the Oram underage training regime ordinarily in place from the end of February 'till the end of October, there is obviously a lot of work being done by a committed team of juvenile mentors. Like many another clubman who has himself come through the underage ranks, Tony understands the importance of nurturing local talent to the optimum degree. Sandwiched between the staunch gaeldoms of 'Blayney, Cremartin and Toome, the gaels of Oram will be hoping that the aforementioned all-conquering under 12s and their peers will see to it that Oram's senior team in years to come will be blessed with players boasting a winning pedigree. In this respect, it is worth noting that a lot of the current premier adult team in Oram enjoyed success at underage level before graduating to the upper echelons. For instance, Tony and his contemporaries were good enough to scoop a brace of Curley Cups, a St. Dympna's Cup and Flanagan Cup honours. Not that Oram came within shouting distance of scooping intermediate honours in 2001 - despite a morale-boosting start to the league campaign. On top of the division two table after four games, Oram saw the remainder of their year go decidedly pear-shaped. Tony is unequivocal in sizing up the reason behind Oram's mid to end of year decline. "Unfortunately, commitment to training wasn't what it should have been during the year. There was no fault attached to team-trainer Paul McShane in this regard but our fitness levels let us down on several occasions as the year progressed. "At the start of the year, our target would have been a position in the top four. We had missed out on a top four spot in 2000 by just a point so we were keen to make amends in 2001. Finishing in the bottom two and being relegated wasn't what we thought would happen." Despite the fact that he was ensconced in Preston, England at college for most of the year, Tony made it back for practically all of Oram's league and championship matches during 2001. Unfortunately the effort and dedication he showed personally didn't receive its due reward. Oram's opening forway in the intermediate championship saw the Sarsfields lose out badly to Clones at the Clontibret venue. That defeat was particularly damaging to Oram's morale as the Sarsfields had beaten the town team in the league just a few weeks prior to their championship clash. The absence of ace midfielder Peter Finnegan (who had decided to depart to the US) for the club's championship campaign was a sorry blow and even the second chance afforded the team by the novel back door system proved to be no consolation as Drumhowan won through with a bit to spare with late first half goals by James McElroy and Damien Woods proving decisive. Things haven't gone to plan since Oram won the junior championship in 1998 when downing Killeevan. The fact that at least six of that all-conquering squad - including then player of the year Paul Brennan - are no longer available to the team has to be factored in in any assessment of the reasons why Oram have failed to build upon that championship success. Still, Tony believes that his beloved club will be difficult to beat as they seek to regain the junior championship title in 2002. In fact, he reckons they could even start the championship as the bookies' favourites to land the title. Corduff, Cremartin et al, ye have been warned! Oram sweep to Magill Cup success Although the Oram club had a disappointing year at adult level, there was at least a large measure of consolation garnered in the past year via the joy of a Magill Cup triumph back in July. The club's comfortable win over Blackhill in the Under 12 Division Four decider fairly reflected the amount of positive work being undertaken at juvenile level in the mid-Monaghan club over recent years. In truth, the winners were a class apart in the final with the boys and girls of Oram making good what had been a sometimes difficult route to the decider. Meeting their near-neighbours in the county decider had the look of the proverbial 'banana-skin' about it but, like true champions, the Oram crew were in no mood to be complacent. Under the astute supervision of Anthony Keenan and Hugh Leonard, the Oram starlets led from pillar to post over the hour and their faster, more forceful play left their opponents on the backfoot for large periods of the game. The game saw Oram finish as strongly as they had started and, in the end, there was only going to be one winner. Oram proved to be in a class of their own and the Magill Cup was theirs, and deservedly so. Tweet

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