Bailieboro Shamrocks' romance with the Under 12 Roinn A Championship continues unabated. 2003 saw the prized silverware return to the east Cavan town. The value of familiarising primary school children with the rudiments of Gaelic football can never be over-estimated. The rewards to be garnered from the coaching of skills to kids from under eight upwards are there to be seen when the glittering prizes are handed out at adult level. How often have we seen the blue riband prizes being given out to clubs with proven pedigrees at underage level? Not ones to be found wanting in searching out, and playing out, a winning formula, the good and the great gaels of Bailieboro Shamrocks were in the vanguard of underage coaching in county Cavan way back in the early seventies. The Bailieboro club was one of the pioneers of underage coaching in the Breffni county. Yet while the club may have experienced troughs as well as peaks as it strived over the years to keep the assembly lines chock-a-block with bristling talent, there's little doubt but that their efforts in recent years are certainly hitting all the right spots. At under 12 level, for instance, the club has barely been able to do any wrong over the last few years. In 2003, the Shamrocks hit the jackpot, coming good in the Under 12 Roinn A Championship final with a thrilling and tense victory over near-neighbours Kingscourt Stars in the county final. Bailieboro's achievement in winning the top under 12 competition last year brought back memories of similar success enjoyed by the red and whites in 2001 when the best of the rest of Cavan's finest under 12 footballers were beaten. Last year's success also helped to erase the bitter memory of defeat in the corresponding final of 2000 when the title should and could have been scooped only for Lurgan to nick after a titanic struggle. Then as now Paul Kelly acted out the role of team-manager. Months on and he remains predictably proud of the efforts of everyone involved in bringing the premier Under 12 cup back to the east Cavan town. "Winning the championship again was a massive boost to the club. The fellas deserved it though. "You wouldn't get a bunch of lads more keen anywhere in the county. "We knew that they had the talent but they applied themselves great to the training and the matches. "Discipline was never a problem 'cause they were just mad keen to develop their skills, their ability and to win things as a team." And if winning is a habit then the Bailieboro youngsters are well on their way to being addicted to the joys of the winners' enclosure. For, in truth, the all-conquering Class of 2003 scarcely know what it's like to dwell in the losers' camp. "These fellas are used to winning over the last two or three years. They've won local tournaments over the years and reached the last sixteen of the prestigious under 10 tournament in Newry, only losing out to Crossmaglen. "They've won a lot of challenge games over the years too. Like all youngsters, they enjoy winning. "With seven of the 2003 panel still eligible to play at under 12 level in 2004, we're hoping that they can continue the habit of winning," Paul enthuses. Despite having just three of the 2002 squad eligible to play in the competition last year, Kelly and co. were reasonably optimistic at the start of the year that more silverware could be collected. Indeed as the season panned out, it became increasingly obvious that such optimism wasn't in the least bit mis-placed. The would-be champions proceeded to go through the whole league series, which incorporated seven matches, unbeaten despite the presence of some big-hitters such as Kingscourt Stars, Mullahoran and Cavan Gaels. By the time the Shamrocks were handing out sound defeats to the last two-named, the writing was patently on the wall for all wannabe champions. Other teams needed to have a large dose of luck on their sides to prevent the Shamrocks' crack under 12 squad from getting their hands on the Holy Grail. "Of all the teams we played in the championship, we felt that Kingscourt were the biggest danger to us and then possibly Mullahoran. "They (Mullahoran) had a big, strong team compared to us but we beat them by something like six points and really after that we sort of knew that the lads would be hard to stop," Paul reflects. As things transpired, all the hard work carried out by the Bailieboro coaches with the 2003 Under 12 panel since they were under eight and then the honing of their skills in particular from February of that year through to the final in June certainly worked the oracle. It was a workload which all added up to cheers and a few tears (of joy) on Bailieboro's Main Street in high summer. "The lads were a dream to work with. All the emphasis at training was on ball work and everyone of the twenty-six players on the panel enjoyed the way we went about things. "They had the talent but they also showed the commitment and willingness to improve," the former Bailieboro ace attacker and father of 2003 under 12 medallists, Niall and Shane, recalls. Reflecting on the squad's winning odyssey last Summer, Paul says that the plan of campaign worked to a tee, "couldn't have went any better." "The team improved with every game they played and you could see their will-to-win in every match, especially as the year went on," he adds. Increasingly self-assured, confident in possession and prepared to rely on their ball-skills to overcome all-comers, the Bailieboro boys made good their favourites' tag by disposing of the challenge of Cavan Gaels quite comfortably in the semi-final. Progressing through to the decider, Bailieboro met old foes Kingscourt whom they had beaten earlier in the season, albeit by just a couple of points. The final in June in Kingspan/Breffni Park stuck to the script, proving to be a real cracker with Bailieboro sticking the pace that bit better to emerge 3-4 to 1-8 victors. The Shamrocks were a relevation early on with an opportunist goal by Sean Farrelly and points by Niall Kelly and the aforementioned Farrelly helping to steer the red and whites into a useful four points lead at the interval. If the first half was a tense and thrill-a-minute affair, the action on the restart proved to be little short of breathtaking. The Shamrocks got a huge lift within a minute of the commencement of the second half when they cracked home a brace of crucial goals. The first of those goals came from a pile driver from full-forward Niall Kelly and the other via a shot from Sean Farrelly which the Kingscourt 'keeper failed to deal with. Ahead by 3-3 to 0-2, Bailieboro seemed on the cusp of easy street but Kingscourt had other ideas and a string of points and later a goal by the Stars with four minutes to go left just two points separating the combattants. "We were definitely on the backfoot in those last few minutes and we needed whatever luck we could get to hold off Kingscourt. "But, in fairness, our backline really pulled out all the stops towards the end. "Everyone on the team was determined to hold out and there wasn't one of the players who didn't play to their potential on the day. "They were all equally as good as the other - there was no one outstanding individual in any of our games during the year and it was the same in the final," Paul explains. But did he feel that Bailieboro deserved to win? "I think so. The game could have gone either way but we got through for those couple of goals straight after half-time and that made all the difference. "Goals are hard to come by in finals but we managed to grab three of them and all credit to the lads." And the future for the squad? "I'd hope that they can progress to win the Under 14 championship within the next couple of years. "They're all mad keen, enjoy their football and enjoy each other's company. They have the ability too so I'd be surprised if they don't get their hands on more medals in the next year or two." The following is the Bailieboro crew (and scorers) that featured in that dramatic Under 12 Roinn A decider against Kingscourt; Chris Brady, Pat Gargan, Conor Gilsenan, Conor Cronin, Shane Duffy, Conor Tierney, Ciaran McCabe, Gary Kiernan (0-1), David Gormley, Sean Farrelly (2-2), David Carolan, James Fulton, Ciaran O'Reilly, Niall Kelly (1-1), Owen O'Sullivan, Emma Scanlon. Rolling back the years John Donnellan is a member of the new think-tank Bailieboro team. He's optimistic that 2004 will see the Shamrocks recapture some of their old lustre For the most part of ten years, John Donnellan was rated as one of the best defenders in Cavan. He played in Cavan's full-back line in the 1995 Ulster SFC final. A debutant with the Breffni Blues three years earlier, the athletic Bailieboro stalwart figured was good enough to be considered a first-choice countyman by a succession of county team-managers up until he quit the inter-county scene in 1998. During the course of his Cavan senior career, he played with many fine players. For the guts of the next twelve months, John has commited himself to working alongside one of his former Cavan team-mates in an attempt to revive the good old times for his beloved Shamrocks. John Donnellan's decision to link up with fellow clubman Shane Lynch and act as an assistant to new Bailieboro boss John Brady has been widely welcomed in the east Cavan bastion of Gaelic games. Although acknowledging the demands of such a post these days, Donnellan says that he's going into the season ahead with both eyes wide open. "I wouldn't have agreed to be part of the management team if I didn't feel I had something to contribute or that there was no potential in the club. "The senior team had been in decline for most of the last ten years or so but there has been a gradual improvement of late and we'll be hoping to build on that," John enthuses. Bailieboro's oftimes demanding support needn't expect miracles to happen over the course of the next six months though, the new selector cautions. The halycon days of 1995 when the Shamrocks last captured the blue riband Cavan senior title and went oh so close to lifting the Ulster club crown thereafter will not be easily recaptured, he insists. "The potential is there to go very close again but the players need to give that bit extra for them to realise their potential. "Last year they reached the semi-final of the championship and we have to at least match that this year and hopefully take a step forward as well. "If we can get the lads to show a bit more determination and introduce a bit more steel into their game, their talent should see them right the rest of the journey. "More commitment and a more focussed approach would do wonders for the current squad," John explains. Not one to look at his own club with rose tinted glasses, John is, nevertheless, convinced that the Shamrocks have what it takes to make up the ground on the Cavan Gaels and Gownas of this world. "A lot of the players have as much talent as there is at any other club and if they push the boat out that bit more, they have every chance of succeeding in the championship. "But getting the players to give off their best is the challenge facing John, Shane and myself this year. "We'll have a training programme in place that will test the lads and get them fit. "The programme is a tried and tested exercise programme, not rocket science. "There'll be a lot of ball work involved but, at the end of the day, a lot of it comes down to the players' commitment." Certainly few would disagree with John Donnellan's assertion that the Bailieboro players have the talent to succeed. Doubtless even less people would disagree with his belief that getting the Shamrocks mentally fit to apply themselves properly is the key towards re-opening the door to a rattle at the Ulster club title. "There's a case to be made for the notion that the players have lacked self-belief sometimes. "I tend to believe though that the team's downfall over the years has been that the players have fallen short of giving it everything from the start to the finish of the season or even on the day of a big match. "The team made the most of a favourable draw last year and did well to reach the semi-final but they didn't do themselves justice against Mullahoran; the team didn't work as hard as Mullahoran. "It seemed too many of the lads seemed to be happy just to have reached the last four. "But last year presented a great chance for the team and I think the players realise that now." Plagued with a litany of injuries over the course of his career, including disclocated shoulders and ankle ligament damage, John had a bird's eye view of his beloved club's defeat to Mullahoran from the enclosure of the dug-out at Kingspan/Breffni Park last Summer. But given the fact that he was unable to join the panel for championship until some six weeks before the clash with the Dreadnoughts, nobody, least of all John himself, was surprised that he occupied the bench for the Mullahoran game. Now 36, John accepts that the current Bailieboro panel isn't getting any younger. He insists though that there are enought young players coming up through the ranks in Bailieboro to make sure that there is sufficient competition for places to upp the ante for places on the first fifteen. Gerry Sheridan, Finbar Clarke, Aidan Connolly, Charles Clarke from the all-conquering 1995 crew, you have been warned! So how good is the Class of 2004? "The group of players this year are as good a squad as there has been since we won the county title in 1995. "We consider ourselves to be among the top five teams in the county, right up there with Cavan Gaels, Gowna, Mullahoran and Kingscourt. "There is a bit of a gap there between the first two and the rest of us because they have adopted a more professional approach over the last few years but our lads are mature enough and good enough to make a good shot at bridging that gap this year," adds John who last played championship football for Bailieboro two years ago when featuring in the quarter-final against Lacken Celtic. Interestingly, John doesn't go along with the widely held notion that Gaelic football has evolved in a major way over the last ten years or so. "The standard of club football in Cavan is no higher or lower, he believes, these days than it was back in '95. "A lot has been about all the coaching that has been done in the county over the nineties and that's true but I wouldn't say that players are any more skilful or harder to play against for all of that. "The game is probably a bit faster now but there's been no big rise in the quality of the football in my opinion. Football is far less physical now though; players hit harder years ago." Any change in the approach adopted by players at club level towards playing the game? "Football isn't the priority it used to be with most fellas. "Players generally have better jobs nowadays, some of them high-powered ones, and for them work comes first, which is understandable. "Looking after their jobs and maintaining their incomes is number one for most people and clubs have to accept that. " I think most mentors who have been on the go a long time will tell you that it's more difficult over the last few years to motivate fellas to give of their best because maybe there isn't the same level of pride in the jersey or the club. "It's the same for every club across the board though and in most sports too." Nevertheless, the popular Baileboro clubman remains upbeat about the upcoming season and he is optimistic that the Shamrocks will at least reach the SFC final next Autumn. He says that such progress would very appropriate given the level of progress which the club has made in investing in off-the-field projects in recent years. "Everything is in place to support the players and the team-management. The club facilities are top-notch with an excellent training pitch, lights and a running track. " It would be great to complement the work that has gone into ground development with the winning of some silverware and hopefully we can do just that this year." Tweet

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