At the start of every year, a GAA player dreams of playing in their respective county final, some are fortunate to play in them on a regular basis, while for others the opportunity only arises maybe once during their career.

To be fortunate enough to line out at the top level within your county is something to be savoured, but when you reach your first county senior football final towards the twilight of your career, it makes it that bit more special.
Castlerahan's John Clarke has long ploughed a lone furrow for the club and is one of the few links that is left with the intermediate championship winning side of 2001.

Exactly ten years later and John finally got the opportunity to play in a county senior football final. The talented midfielder speaks to the Breffni Blue about his footballing career and he tells us what it means to have had the opportunity to play in a county final.
Castlerahan's last appearance in a senior championship final came back in 1968 when they met they mighty Crosserlough as they were on their way to win an unequalled seven consecutive titles.

Forty three years later and the town is a buzz with anticipation of once again being in the final and John admits that this year's appearance has been building for a number of years.
"Over the last few years, the team has been making good strides and getting stronger. When we won the intermediate in 2001, we struggled for a couple of years afterwards as we adapted to senior football," revealed John.

"This team has a good mix of youth and experience; there are the five of us that are left from the intermediate win ten years ago, while the bulk of the side would be made of lads that won everything all the way up at underage level.
"These include the likes of Cian Mackey and Ronan Flanagan, both of who are regulars with the county team now. Those lads all grew up winning premier titles in the county, which to be honest were unheard of in the club for many years."
John believes one of the main turning points for the side was the appointment of Longford native Ciaran Macken as manager, which he feels brought them onto the next level.

"Even though the players were there, we never really fulfilled our potential until Ciaran came on board. He had been involved with Ramor in various capacities before taking over us and he has made a huge difference.
"He is a good man manager and that is very important these days. The club's chances in the 2011 campaign were hampered by the fact that three of the squad emigrated before the start of the championship, which can have a huge effect on any rural club.
"We did lose some lads to emigration, but in fairness we could have been hit a lot worse. Emigration is a major concern especially amongst the rural clubs. We have lost around ten players to foreign shores in the past couple of years. For example the likes of Fiachra Cork, Pauric Cunningham, Dane Smith, Pauric Smith, Barry Cusack and Enda Mulvey would add serious help to the Castlerahan cause. Clubs like Cavan Gaels don't seem to be effected as much by emigration and even if they were, they have a conveyor belt of talent coming through to their credit. Regardless, it's the players that have stepped in like Enda and Oisin O'Connell, Steven Cooney, David Wright and Alan Cusack that us where we are, in our first county final since 1968.''
Castlerahan did not get off to the best of starts in the campaign as they lost by five points to Belturbet, but the sides would meet again in a critical stage of the campaign.

"We struggled against Belturbet in the first game and it was not the best of starts to get, but we felt that we could battle our way back into the campaign. It became real championship football a bit earlier, that's all."
However, Castlerahan then recorded a resounding victory over Gowna to get them back on track. This was followed up by another win over Redhills and meant that a place in the quarter final was assured.
"Everything went right on the day against Gowna, it was just one of those performances that we could do no wrong and we followed this up with a good performance against Redhills."

A six-point win over Killgarry in the quarter final was their reward for a huge effort and John admits that they went into the last eight full of confidence.
"We knew that we were capable of beating them and I'm sure they were delighted to get us in the quarter final as we were them. Our momentum was up at this stage and the lads produced a great display to get to the semi final."
As Castlerahan were now just one step away from the county final, some of the older club members were casting their minds back to 1968 when they last featured, but John stressed that the hype did not get to the players.
"There was a good bit of talk about how it was so long since the club had reached a senior final, although the players didn't dwell on that and just concentrated on the job in hand."

Castlerahan produced an excellent display in the semi final to end five decades of waiting as they finally returned to compete for the Oliver Plunkett Cup.
John works with ArcRoyal in Kells, Co Meath and is the engineering and facilities manager with the medical devices firm. ArcRoyal is a privately-owned manufacturer and distributor of single-use Medical Products and Custom Procedure Trays.
"We supply products Europe-wide, with export sales accounting for 95% of our business. Established as the European Headquarters of DeRoyal Industries in 1992 in County Meath, Ireland, in 2008 we became ArcRoyal and are now 100% Irish-owned.
"Strategically located in Ireland, we are well positioned to service customers across Europe. Ireland has the highest number of people employed in the medical device industry anywhere in Europe, meaning ArcRoyal are at the heart of the latest industry developments and benefit from having access to employees with vital industry experience and global market insight." Tweet

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