Eire Og committed to dual approach
December 31, 2007
Eire Og's steely determination to get among the silverware at junior level is complemented by the club's ongoing dedication to nurture all of its young talent.
Oftimes we can't see the wood for the trees but on Sunday mornings for most of the year down Smithboro way, you can't see the wood for the juveniles.
Eire Og's pitch is all but smothered by boys and girls at their weekly training sessions with enjoyment and fun most coveted by the club mentors rather than cups and medals.
For many years now the major focus, at least as far as Eire Og's youth programme is concerned, has been on developing the talent of young boys and girls from six years upwards.
There is usually around 50 kids in attendance at the club's juvenile coaching sessions which are organised by former club players intent on giving something back to the club.
Among those committed to handing on their knowledge of the big ball game are Mickey Tierney, Joe Leonard, Gerry Reilly and Macartan Toal.
From early March 'till the end of November, the coaching of Eire Og's burgeoning group of underage footballers are afforded skills training which should see them in good stead.
In addition, the children benefit from much match practice, either side of competition season, and in '07 over a dozen challenge matches were played inside and outside of the county.
Eire Og's juvenile fraternity is fortunate in that there is invariably a great turnout of parents at the kids' matches, whether they are on home ground or away.
"There's nothing nicer to see than a small child smile over at his or her parents after they get a touch of the ball," one Eire Og mentor points out.
In 2007, the highlight of the under 10 season was the club's achievement in winning the Luke Keenan Cup which was run in excellent fashion by the Roslea club.
Played on the first Sunday in November, the tournament was a quality affair with the blue and gold defeating neighbours Scotstown in a cracking final.
For the young children involved in the win over Scotstown, winning the All-Ireland itself could scarcely have generated more smiles on their collective faces.
"Although it was a small tournament, the fact that we won it will still be remembered by the panel of players for the rest of their lives," a spokesman for the juvenile committee added.
Meanwhile on the competitive front in Monaghan, semi-final placings were the order of the day for the club's under 12, under 13 and under 14s.
The fact that all three aforementioned teams bowed out of their respective competitions at the penultimate round should not detract from the brillant effort each of them put in.
Eire Og's juvenile section does its very best to make the latter stages of the various competitions but the numbers game has a very significant role to play in the overall picture.
"We would have only about six or seven children of each age group in the area. Half of the team will always be a year too young for the competitions," a club mentor explains.
"This may be a downfall on one hand in that you may not have the strongest team but on the other hand everyone gets a game which is the policy of the Eire Og club."
Eire Og's juvenile committee is ultra conscious that the mediocre young player today could turn out to be the club's senior star of tomorrow.
Eire Og caters for every level of underage football of course but in 2007 the club found it necessary to enter into amalgamations at under 16 and minor levels.
Unfortunately the Eire Og/Currin combination found it very difficult to compete at minor level but there was a silver lining on that front with the elevation of one of the club's minor stars.
All belonging to Eire Og were delighted to see Mark McBride feature on the St. Macartans McRory Cup side and also on the Monaghan minor team.
It has long been acknowledged in Eire Og circles that Mark has a tremendous future in Gaelic football, having proven himself on a consistent basis on the club and college fronts.
Meanwhile ladies football continues to be on the up and up in Eire Og and it was very pleasing that the fairer sex fielded three teams during the course of the past year.
The under 14s were under the guidance of Barry McElvaney and did marvellously well to reach the league final only to go down to a strong Latton side in a high-scoring encounter.
The game was a cracking affair with a lot of promising players featuring on both sides but Latton proved that bit more potent than the Eire Og line-up which was as follows:
Emma Cadden, Ellen Leonard, Caroline Mullaney, Orla Gleeson, Jacqueline Lambe, Niamh Tierney, Lisa McElvaney, Erin Lambe, Aoife Toal, Ciara Leonard, Lisa Watters, Robyn Lambe, Megan McElvaney, Sarah Mullaney, Grainne McCluskey.
Those at the vanguard of the promotion of ladies football at Eire Og are hopeful that the club can field a team at adult level for the 2008 season.
A senior panel has already been formed and training has commenced and interest among the girls has been very good to date which augurs well for Eire Og's bid to go it alone.
The Eire Og club has many doers within its ranks and it is also fortunate to have two very good referees listed among its membership.
In the past two years, the Monaghan SFC final has been refereed by two Eire Og stalwarts, namely, Jim O'Rourke and Brendan McMahon in 2007 and 2006 respectively.
Both Eire Og's men in black did the club proud with each of them proving themselves to be among the most competent of officials in the province.
The club looks forward to seeing both Jim and Brendan take charge of more high profile matches in the months and years ahead.
Eire Og will make their Mark - McCaffrey
Eire Og stalwart Mark McCaffrey is in no doubt but that the Smithboro-based crew can put their JFC championship nightmare in 2007 firmly behind them.
Losing the blue riband decider to Aughnamullen is still very much a sore point among the blue and gold brigade but keeper of the faith McCaffrey is of positive mind.
"I'm convinced we can rebound from what happened his summer and make up for it in 2008," says the defender 'cum midfielder.
"From the start of the season, our main objective was winning the championship to get up to intermediate and not having to rely on what happened in the league.
"I wouldn't say Aughnamullen didn't deserve to win the final but I definitely think that if we had got a bit of luck, we'd have done it," adds the 2005 county minor.
While Dame Fortune was ruled absent in the final according to McCaffrey, the 2006 Player of the Year concedes that Eire Og's performance on the day just wasn't up to it.
"Luck deserted us but there's no way I'd say that we performed to our best in the final. I suppose the pressure got to a few of the players and they got their goal at the right time too.
"We tried to go out and get an early goal and go on and build on that so we found it hard to get back into it once they scored.
"Sometimes things go your way, like their goal, and then nerves can play a big part and we seemed to suffer from them against Aughnamullen.
"I thought it was a poor game overall with not a lot of quality football but that wouldn't have worried Aughnamullen after the game and we'd have been the same."
Reflecting on the club's championship campaign, Mark says that while their early season league form was good, it counted for nothing when the club lost out to Currin in the first round of the championship.
"Back then we were struggling to play to our potential, were missing about four or five players and the new management team were only really getting to know the players and finding out where we were best suited on the team.
"We were very disappointed we got relegated from intermediate last year but we rolled up our sleeves right from the start of the year and got the better of most of the teams."
It seems that after struggling with their form, the Eire Og team players had a talk among themselves which seemed to work the oracle as slowly but surely the results gradually improved under team-manager Kieran Brennan.
After the Currin setback, Eire Og proceeded to show their fighting spirit by chalking up wins over Clones and Killeevan in the aftermath of their entry into the backdoor system.
Of the championship matches played in 2007 Mark fingers the win over Clones as arguably the team's best display of the championship to date.
"We had beaten them in the league about two weeks before that by about 15 points but we always knew it was going to be a lot tougher when the championship came around.
"It was a local derby but it was still hard for us to get into the right frame of mind 'cause we were clear favourites to beat them.
"They got a very good start but we battled back and showed a lot of character to come out on top,"
The win over neighbours Kileevan in the semi-final added to the feel-good factor around Smithboro, Mark explains, but he contends that the performance was hardly inspirational.
The final had all the makings of being a real war of attrition, a hard-hitting affair and, as things panned out, the script held good.
"Seeing how well they carried the flag for the county in the Ulster club showed us just what we were missing and what we might have been able to achieve.
"I think this team can come again sooner rather than later because it's a young team and we didn't allow ourselves to feel sorry for ourselves after the county final.
"There's more to come from this squad with a lot of good young fellas coming up from underage ranks bound to help strengthen the squad.
"We haven't reached our peak yet."
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