Formerly dubbed aspiring giants, should Latton now be regarded as one of the true behemoths of Monaghan football in light of their latest SFC triumph? The feel-good factor quotient was ratcheted up a notch or three in Latton as autumn 2008 hung on for dear life, writes Kevin Carney. A season that started off with the mother and father of inaugural Gala Balls climaxed with the annexation of the Mick Duffy Cup. Talk about the life of O'Rahilly! As they say around Bawn, Derrygooney etc "you have to hand it to them." Certainly, the club's busy-bodies worked wonders on and off the field of play in 2008. In the past year, the great and the good of Latton O'Rahillys GAA excelled themselves with major landmark achievements either side of the white line. The past year saw Latton's on-field heroics punctuated by indelible enhancements of the club's infrastructure with the club's five-star GAA Centre fully completed last June. One month earlier the club staged its first function, the Annual Dinner Dance, in it's state-of-the-art headquarters. However it was the re-stocking of the club's trophy cabinet with the Duffy Cup which was the stand-out achievement for the O'Rahillys in the past year. It did the world of good for the club's already well-upholstered self-esteem and reputation, built on latter-day triumphs such as the SFL wins in 2003, '04 and '06 plus the 2005 SFC. It's plain that O'Rahilly Park is fast becoming a home-from-home for the glittering prizes. Most significantly of all, the Mick Duffy Cup will winter in Latton once again. The biggest prize in Monaghan sport thought long and hard though about re-visiting its 2005 abode, leaving Latton to sweat it out over the course of nine championship games. The would-be winners' opening championship tilt against Inniskeen would set the tone for their remarkable odyssey to the summit. After being held to a 2-8 to 1-11 draw first time out against the Grattans, Latton turned the formbook on its head in the replay by romping to a 3-10 to 1-5 triumph. In Latton's next outing in the championship, stalemate hovered on the horizon for the most part of the team's joust with Monaghan Harps in the first week of July. In what was the proverbial game of two halves, Latton were the dominant team in the first half and looked likely to forge a comfortable win. However after securing a 0-9 to 0-3 interval lead, the white and blues were pinned back on the restart and eventually needed a injury time point by Kevin Hughes to sneak through. Draw (1-8 to 1-8) was the name of the game once again next time out when Latton locked horns with defending champions Clontibret at Castleblayney. In what was a hard-hitting and tense affair, the champions-elect were almost left to rue a raft of wides in the first half which threatened to come back to haunt them at the death. Fortunately for the Eoin Lennon-captained side, a last minute converted free by Hugh McElroy snatched a well-deserved draw after it appeared they were destined to lose out. Latton's triumph in denying their opponents a draw was all the more meritorious given Bernard O'Brien's second yellow card 12 minutes left to play at the end of the match. Latton trailed by 0-4 to 1-2 at the interval and conceded three unanswered points in the run-up to the final whistle but a foul on Noel Coyle laid the path for McElroy's late equaliser. McElroy and co. lost another man in the replay and lost the game too (0-10 to 1-8) after a topsy-turvy affair in Scotstown which saw Latton suffer a knock-out punch at the death. In hindsight, Latton's players will probably agree that they should have bagged the spoils well before Fergal Mone crashed home a goal four minutes into stoppage time. Forced to field without the aforementioned O'Brien, Latton also finished the game without Ruairi Ward who got a second yellow card in the 26th minute of the second half. Latton had their noses in front for almost the entire game - and led by 0-7 to 0-4 at half-time - thanks in the main to the accurate free-taking of Hugh McElroy. By dint of their agonising defeat, Latton were propelled into a sudden death quarter-final showdown against Magheracloone the following week. It was a never-say-die attitude by the David Nelson-managed side against the Mitchells that saw them edge home to a 0-10 to 0-8 victory in difficult playing conditions in Clones. Once again, Latton took the circuitous route to the elysian fields and the loss of Bernard O'Brien - dismissed for two yellow cards - in the 47th minute left them having to dig deep. At that juncture, the sides were level at seven points apiece but thereafter the O'Rahillys showed tremendous ambition and tenacity to steer their way to the winner's enclosure. Latton's grandstand finish manifested itself in two excellent points from Hugh McElroy and one from Eoin Lennon which lent their side the cushioned lead they needed to edge home. Yet again, Latton featured in a drawn game when they clashed with Castleblayney in their pulsating SFC semi-final clash at the Aughnamullen venue at the end of Sepember. The match was a fine advertisement for Monaghan club football and a draw looked the most likely outcome such was the closely-fought nature of the exchanges. Latton started the game in sluggish fashion and were four points adrift after 10 minutes but Latton stormed back with a 1-3 tally - Kevin Hughes goaling - to nip into the lead. Hughes and co. went onto lead by 2-6 to 1-5 at half-time thanks, in part, to a well-taken Eoin Duffy goal in the 26th minute. Once again Latton had to draw on all their reserves to get over the finishing line in pole position with Hugh McElroy converting a free at the death to make it 2-10 to 2-10. Last-gasp was again on everyone's lips at the replay in Aughnamullen when Latton sealed a 2-6 to 0-11 win to the joy of Nelson and selectors Peadar Lynch and Christy Phillips. After the sides had been level twice in the final five minutes, Hugh McElroy turned out to be the hero by cooly converting a free in injury time just as extra-time beckoned. Latton had the better of the exchanges in the opening half with goals by Eoin Duffy (9th min) and Bernard O'Brien (19th min) setting them up for a 2-2 to 0-6 interval lead. In what turned out to be one of the best Monaghan SFC finals thereafter, Latton reached the promised land for the first time since '05 with a 0-15 to 0-11 win over Carrick in the final. The game was a fascinating, intriguing contest with the combatants level on seven occasions but Latton crucially nudged their way in front five minutes from time. It was in that space of time that Carrick's Declan Finnegan received a straight red card which seemed to inspire Latton to put in a determined, concerted finish. After punch and counter-punch was landed early on, the tone was set as early as the 10th minute when two frees by Hugh McElroy had the sides level. Latton proceeded to edge into the lead for the first time after 19 minutes but the lead changed twice more in the run-up to half-time by which time the scoreboard read; 0-7 to 0-7. The second half was almost a carbon copy of the opening moiety with just the minimum separating the sides on four occasions. Despite making sure the issue went to the wire, Carrick were unable to draw level in the dying minutes as Latton took a firm hold on proceedings. Three unanswered points from substitute James Connolly, Eoin Lennon and Bernard O'Brien duly put the polish on a Latton display which had collective spirit stitched into its core. The final whistle sounded and Latton's triumph was ring-fenced with their 0-15 to 0-11 winning margin fairly reflective of their superiority on the day. For the record, Latton's line-out, and scorers, against Carrick in the final was as follows; Sean Farmer; Ruairi Ward, Edmund Lennon, Hughie Lennon; Dermot O'Brien, Francis Coyle, Stephen Fitzpatrick; Eoin Lennon (0-1), Aidan Farmer (0-1); Owen Duffy (0-1), Bernard O'Brien (0-2), Barry McCabe; Kevin Hughes (0-1), Hugh McElroy (0-7, six frees), Noel Coyle. Subs used; Edwin Lennon; Brendan Lennon (0-1), James Connolly (0-1); Francis Coyle; John O'Brien. Francis Coyle recognises Nelson input After nine absorbing championship encounters this past season, Latton eventually got their hands on their third Mick Duffy Cup this past October. Three years in the wait of the Monaghan SFC crown, the team's centre-back Francis Coyle looks back on a season to remember for the O'Rahilly's club. By Shane Corrigan. When the appointment of David Nelson as the Latton O'Rahilly's new senior football manager was confirmed back in January '08 a new degree of expectation surrounded the club. Along with Clontibret O'Neills, the Monaghan SFC contenders had now moved swiftly closer to that often futile favourites' tag with the successful ex-Navan O'Mahonys boss at the helm. Latton weren't the only team to have a change in their managerial ranks tough. After leading the club to its third senior county title in-a-row, Mick O'Dowd parted company with Clontibret and took the reins with Cavan Gaels, where he would eventually steer the club to their 10th SFC title in the Breffni County. After Declan Loughman had led his Tyholland side to the Monaghan IFC crown, he knew he'd becoming up against his own club in the high ranks the following year, so he jumped ship to his native Castleblayney, who had reached out to the ex-Monaghan stalwart for some guidance. The county finalists of '07 had made their moves and Latton followed suit, with the objective in hindsight for the season also matching those of their rivals, according to one of the senior team's key defenders. "Winning the championship was the main objective from the start with a new manager on board," says Francis Coyle. "We hadn't won it in three years, so there was a huge push from all the players and training was brilliant all year round with David (Nelson)." And what a "huge push" it was from the Latton men. Nine gruelling championship tests, where at one stage there were five games played in as many weeks, was enough to wear out any formidable athlete, but these lads had made a pact at the start of the season and it was Nelson that made sure they saw it through come the final hour. The year had got off to a torrid start. Despite the new effective training regime under Nelson, players would still be missing for the county league's start in March and it meant that the performances weren't going in on the pitch. Between injuries mounting up and players with college commitments, including Coyle, Latton had stuttered in their first few games of the season. In fact, after five games, they were sitting at the foot of the table with no points registered. "We started the league very badly," recalls Coyle. "We lost our first five games and were sitting at the bottom of the table. "Training had been going well and we were playing in the Ulster league up until then, so it's hard to know what went wrong. Between injuries and players away, the league just started at a bad time for us. We had lost our first game to Carrickmacross and then to Doohamlet and Inniskeen after that. We just couldn't seem to get going. "I had missed a couple of games myself because of college and it was another two games before we'd won our first against Tyholland. After that we got the ball rolling and won our next four games, which lifted us before the championship." Indeed. It took a win over newly promoted side Tyholland to get Latton off the mark. Then the results started to come in. The players may as well have forgotten about the previous five outings beforehand, a league title was never the objective anyway, as far as they were concerned their season started here. The winning tallies that followed up until June had built a nice platform leading up to their Monaghan SFC first round meeting with Inniskeen, as well as assured their safety in Division One for 2009. Come June, everyone was out and about in Nelson's camp, preparing for what was sure to be a stern test against the Grattans in Castleblayney. Fresh from securing his degree in Quantity Surveying in Sligo IT, Coyle was focused, while the two Lennons were excused from county service with Séamus McEnaney's county panel for the time being. "Preparations were very good building up to the championship," says Coyle. "To be honest we weren't that concerned with those games we had lost in the league, because championship had always been the priority for us. "From the start of the year David had focused on our scoring, where we would try and get our scores spread across a good few of the players on the team, rather than being a 'one forward' team." The players had worked with Nelson's concept, and perhaps trying to get use to a new method of play was the reason they had started so sluggish in the league. However, it was now June and they had slept in on their first championship assignment against Inniskeen at 'Blayney. Their opponents rocked them in the early stages and had a few of their goal chances hit the net, the 2005 champions could have been heading for an early exit into the qualifiers. Nelson's charges showed character to force the game to a replay and the following week, at the same venue, the dispersed scoring among the O'Rahilly's came to good effect as they ran-out seven-point winners to take their place in the next round. "The first game was really tough for us," says Coyle, "it's hard to know where we went wrong. We were loose at the back early on, but thankfully we played well enough in the second-half to draw it, and in the replay we played much better and came through by seven points." Came through they did to meet a Monaghan Harps side that had sent Carrickmacross crashing into the 'backdoor'. It was no easier against the Monaghan town side, they gave Latton very little time on the ball for the entire hour and it took a masterstroke from Nelson to pull it out of the fire. With five minutes remaining, the Navan man introduced 38-year-old Kevin Hughes to the game, who popped up with the winning score in the dying stages. The former Monaghan senior had already boasted a repertoire of exotic scores up until that point for the club, but his late contribution that day could not have been better well-timed, as it saw Latton progress to a mouth-watering clash with Clontibret in the next phase of the championship. The two sides played out an enthralling draw in the first meeting, before the champions pegged Nelson's charges back a notch in the replay late on. "We played Clontibret next in a tough game and it ended in another draw," says Coyle. "In the replay we were winning by two points in injury-time, which is always a dangerous lead, and Fergal Mone got a late goal, which sent us back into the quarter-finals." In the quarter-finals, Latton travelled to Clones in an attempt to rectify the situation against Magheracloone, who they had defeated in the 2005 decider. Coyle and his fellow defenders were on a mission that day to keep Thomas Freeman and co quite, and did so to good effect; grinding out a two-point win to secure their place in the last four of the championship. Into the semi-finals and it was another 60-minute exertion against the small matter of Declan Loughman's Castleblayney that stood in Latton's way of the final, or so they thought. A third draw in this championship campaign for the O'Rahilly's meant that the two sides would need to do it all again in seven days to decide who would meet Carrickmacross, who shocked Clontibret in the other semi-final, in the county decider "Both games were very tough," says Coyle. "In the first, we went six points up after 20 minutes but they got a goal just before half-time and another goal afterwards. It was tit-for-tat after that and we got a late free to draw it in the end. "In the second match nobody pulled away," he explains. "It was a draw right up until the very end when we won a free, which Ciaran McElroy converted to get us into the final." After eight games, Nelson and his men were finally there. To lose it now would be nothing short of a crime against human nature. But keep in mind that all the pressure was on Latton to do the business, as they were facing a side that had edged past the champions and into their first senior final in almost a decade. "Mentally, it was very tiring," recalls Coyle. "There was pressure on us because we were the favourites. It was Carrick's first final since '99." "Carrick played very well from the start but couldn't pull away from us and at half-time and we went in at 0-7 all. "The manager told us that we weren't playing well and in the second-half to go out and give it a real go, because it would be the last half-hour of the year he was going to ask off us. "Thankfully, we got three points up and never looked back from there." After three years in the wait, Latton had finally reached the Promised Land, overcoming a shaky start to defeat Carrickmacross on a score-line of 0-15 to 0-11 on that memorable October day at St Tiernach's Park, which will go down as a landmark in the club's history. In actual fact, the team that started against Carrick on October 12 had just one amendment to it from the one that defeated Magheracloone three years previous in club's last senior championship triumph, and third in all. Latton O'Rahilly's (Monaghan SFC v Carrickmacross): Sean Farmer; Ruairi Ward, Edmund Lennon, Hughie Lennon; Dermot O'Brien, Francis Coyle, Stephen Fitzpatrick; Eoin Lennon (0-1), Aidan Farmer; Owen Duffy, Bernard O'Brien (0-2), Barry McCabe; Kevin Hughes (0-1), Hugh McElroy (0-7, 6f), Noel Coyle. Subs: Edwin Lennon for F Coyle, Brendan Lennon (0-1) for N Coyle, James Connolly (0-1) for K Hughes, Francis Coyle for B McCabe, John O'Brien for Edwin Lennon. In the end, Latton's plan to secure a hat-trick of Duffy Cups couldn't have come off at a better time, according to Coyle. The following week, the club held their Gala Ball where nearly EUR50,000 was raised to fund a new extension that had been built onto the club's resource centre. "All in all, I think they raised something like 48,000 the following week," says Coyle. "It was a massive boost to the club and the place was packed, with tables bought at 1,200 euro each." The fund-raising event was held at the Glencarn Hotel just six days after the win against Carrickmacross, where GAA Director General Padraic Duffy hosted the event. It was the perfect end to a perfect season for a club that has been knocking on the door for so long now, and the next stop now is Barcelona. The players are set to reap the harvest in the New Year as the entire panel head off to the Spanish city on January 2 for a week to take a well earned break before the new season begins. Not too many of them will be worrying about the likes of Carrick and Castleblayney when they are enjoying the Catalonian experience at the start of '09, but a new year, and new challenge of defending their title, waits for these boys. "It won't be easy next year," Coyle admits. "Teams like Castleblayney and Carrick have improved a great deal and Clontibret will definitely be out for revenge next year after getting caught on the hop (by Carrickmacross)." With David Nelson on board for another year, who's to say that a back-to-back charge towards the Duffy Cup won't happen. This time the favourites' tag will firmly rest on their shoulders as they play into the decade's turn. Great progress on and off the pitch In keeping with the diversity of our local community Latton O'Rahilly GAA Club has embarked on an ambitious development plan to provide a range of quality facilities fit for purpose in the modern era. Our Gala Ball will provide the additional funds which will enable the completion of the final stages of our development and herald a new era of prosperity and growth for future sporting generations. In 2007 the renovation and erection of an extension to the O'Rahilly Centre commenced. The extension includes two new male and female changing rooms, juvenile changing rooms, gymnasium and fitness suite, referee and officials changing room, equipment store and a state of the art function room complete with wheel chair accessible bathroom facilities. The renovation of the existing sports hall included a complete replacement of the existing roof, installation of walls, installing a suspended ceiling, replacement of existing windows with double glazed units, renewed heating and plumbing system, refurbishment of kitchen and replacement of fire exit and doors. The new facility opened its doors on 25th May 2008 for their first official function in the form of the Annual O'Rahilly Dinner Dance. Great credit is due to all members of the O'Rahilly Club, in the Latton-Bawn area for their unconditional provision of community support. Regardless of the magnitude 2008 is a momentous year for Latton O'Rahilly's, a year that has seen great development within the club and has witnessed the O'Rahilly Club restoring its place at the top of Monaghan Football through their victory in the Senior Championship Final on Sunday last October 12th. Tweet

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