The class of 2015 in St Patrick's College, Cavan wrote their way into the history books in March when they blew away their namesakes in Dungannon to earn the school's 12th MacRory Cup success, ending a 43-year wait in the process. Shane Corrigan spoke to team manager Finbar O'Reilly, who reflected on a landmark year for the school in this year's edition of 'Breffni Blue'.

It may have been a long time coming, but perhaps a first MacRory Cup success since 1972 was worth the wait for St Pat's Cavan.

In an era when the county's U21 footballers have been the dominant force in Ulster, being backed up by the minors on occasion, how fitting it was to see another coveted Ulster title come to the Breffni County this past March to keep the conveyor belt's wheels turning.

When it came time to deliver, St Pat's footballers wouldn't disappoint when they met St Pat's Academy Dungannon on March 17th at the Athletic Grounds in Armagh, where joyous scenes could be witnessed after the last whistle as a famine had been ended.

One of those expressing his delight at the 2-12 to 0-8 triumph was Finbar O'Reilly, who had immersed himself in the team alongside Fr Kevin Fay and Shane Fitzpatrick, but he outlined that only one part of the mission had been achieved by that stage.

"We believed we could have won the All-Ireland and that was the ultimate aim," said the Lacken man.

The celebrations begin at the Athletic Grounds in Armagh

"We believed we were good enough to win the Hogan Cup and obviously you have to win the MacRory in order to do that, and the school hadn't done that in 43 years, but we really, really believed that there was an All-Ireland in the team. That's what we were aiming towards and we were aiming to peak for late February/March time and that's what our goals were when we sat down in September. That's the direction we were headed."

When St Pat's embarked on what unravelled as a historic season they were very much looking at the long-term goal and came through a stiff opening test against St Eunan's Letterkenny in October.

Brian Sheanon's goal went a long way towards securing a winning start (1-12 to 1-9) for the Cavan students in the group stages of the MacRory Cup and from there they took flight.

Round Two saw the team thump St Mary's Magherafelt and when they met old rivals St McCartan's it was Conor Smith's 23rd minute goal that gave the Breffni boys the edge at half-time (1-3 to 0-5).

Great support in Armagh

In the second-half, Denn sharpshooter Ben Conaty landed a long range free to the Monaghan side's net and points from Cavan minor ace David Brady (2), Darragh Kennedy and Thomas Galligan secured a comfortable 2-12 to 0-9 win to edge themselves within a win of the quarter-finals.

St Colman's, Newry were next to fall on the Cavan lads' sword which left a one-point defeat to St Paul's at the end of November meaningless as St Pat's advanced through to the last eight, where the draw would throw up a rematch with St Eunan's in Dromore.

As O'Reilly explained, St Pat's would get back to competitive action after lay-off which spanned close to three months.

"There was a long lay-off," he pointed out. "We played our final group game in November and we didn't play again until the second week in February, so it's something like 11 weeks, which is a huge lay-off, really.

"We tailored our preparations and we didn't go hard at it early in the season. Lads were coming off a long season and after the league section we took a break for two weeks and we let the players recharge and refresh and would have had them under a new training regime and program for the months of December and January.

"We would have went at that hard and got our skill levels and fitness levels up and got our game plan really fine-tuned and really got things moving well for February."

St Pat's would deliver what was arguably the performance of their season up in Tyrone with a 14-point hammering of their Donegal counterparts.

The squad for the MacRory Cup final

The Cavan lads hit the ground running with early points from Sheanon and Thomas Edward Donohoe being backed up by a fantastic goal from midfielder Galligan. Crosserlough's Pierce Smith, Kennedy and inspirational centre-back Cian McManus kept the scores flowing and when Denn sensation Donohoe fired in another wonder goal the Breffni outfit were well on their way towards a 2-15 to 0-7 victory for a semi-final berth.

The team had displayed their considerable firepower in the win but what was equally as impressive was their defence's ability to hold St Eunan's to just 0-4 from play. Cavan minor captain Donal Monahan continued his splendid season at full-back, while the likes of Kennedy, Luke Fortune, McManus and Declan Lunney were never willing to give away cheap scores. That was a common trend in their games and went a long way in the group's progression to the latter stages.

The only down side from the quarter-final win would be the injury Sheanon sustained in its early stages. The Killygarry marksman ruled out for the semi-final against Omagh CBS at the end of February.

Played in Castleblayney, it was the Tyrone side that gained the upper hand early on with a goal from Cathal Donaghy but the momentum soon turned when Conor Smith and Donohoe fired over the points before the latter sent in a cracking goal to put St Pat's 1-7 to 1-3 ahead at the halfway stage.
Mattie McKenna and Donohoe ushered their side six clear early on the restart and despite Omagh getting a lifeline through Gavin Slane's goal, Pierce Smith's frees were enough to see out a 1-12 to 2-4 result in St Pat's favour and send the Cavan school into its first MacRory Cup final in 40 long years.

"There has been a bit of history between us and Omagh because we've played them in previous finals and there wasn't really much between either of us," said O'Reilly.

"In saying that, Omagh got two goals and anytime they got one we responded well. Similar to other games, we always seemed to have our noses in front and probably never really looked like losing the game because we were always able to respond strongly and keep ahead.

The MacRory Cup returns to the College

"We were finding a nice groove and the confidence was there for the lads to get us over the line."

Back in the MacRory Cup final for the first time since the 1975 defeat to St Colman's, Newry, excitement buzzed around St Pat's, in and outside of its corridors. Its footballers were on the cusp of history but O'Reilly explained the management were doing their utmost to keep them grounded.

"It was a game of football and we couldn't get caught up in the hype," he said. "There was a lot of hype in the school and local media and stuff like that but to us it was another game. Nothing else mattered only the game of football and Dungannon were a team that we knew plenty about because the group of guys behind this team would have played them in previous finals. They played them in a Brock final.

"A lot of that Dungannon team would have been in this team and they were a big physical side. They'd a good potent full-forward line with Fintan McClure from Clonoe. He was a real match winner for them all through the group stages, so we prepared diligently, got a bit of video on them and got our match ups ready."

St Pat's would bounce back from the setback of an injury to full-forward Conaty and edge a closely fought first-half thanks to early points from Kennedy, Donohoe, substitute Ryan O'Neill and 'Man of the Match' Galligan, being backed up by Mattie McKenna and Paul Leddy to leave the Cavan side 0-6 to 0-4 in front at half-time.

Dungannon levelled within five minutes of resumption with points from Daniel Kerr and Cormac O'Hagan (free) but their opponents still had the fire in their eyes as Bailieborough's Brendan Argue notched them back in front ahead of Pierce Smith (free), Donohoe (two frees) and Kennedy increasing the lead to five.

O'Hagan pulled back a point from a free for the trailers but the deadly Donohoe soon landed the first decisive blow when he got on the end of a sweeping move and smashed the ball to Dungannon's net, ushering his side into a 1-11 to 0-7 lead with 10 minutes left.

Cian McManus and Thomas Galligan raise the MacRory Cup

The goal rocked Dungannon to their core and when the Denn teenager had the ball in their net four minutes later the game was over as a contest, with Ryan Coleman (free) and Galligan trading the last points, which was enough to see McManus and Pierce Smith going up to collect the MacRory Cup after the final whistle.

St Pat's, Cavan (MacRory Cup final v Dungannon): F O'Rourke; D Lunney, D Monaghan, L Fortune; D Kennedy (0-2), C McManus, JJ McGovern; T Galligan (0-2), B Argue (0-1); P Smith (0-1, 1f), P Leddy (0-1), M McKenna (0-1); C Smith, B Conaty, T E Donohoe (2-3, 3f). Subs: R O'Neill (0-1) for B Conaty, D Brady for P Leddy, P O'Reilly for D Lunney, J Veale for M McKenna, S Fortune for L Fortune, B Sheanon for R O'Neill.

Looking back on the achievement, O'Reilly described the feeling afterwards as somewhat surreal.

"It was unbelievable, really. I think it was something that we kind of felt might never happen," he said.

"Anyone that went to the school and played MacRory Cup football rarely had much success and rarely even won a game. That's just the level other schools were at and unfortunately St Pat's weren't at that level, so to actually get to a final and win it was huge. It was definitely one of the clear targets that we set out at the start of the year and to achieve that was just fantastic.

"The reception the team got back in the school and then subsequently in The Hotel Kilmore for the after match meal and all that was just a dream come true for everyone, it really was."

Indeed the dream had come true and the one of an All-Ireland triumph was very much alive and kicking as well.

In Nenagh, St Pat's would take on defending Hogan Cup champions Pobalcoil Chorca Dhuibhne of Kerry and suffer semi-final heartbreak in the end.
Minus the services of the injured McKenna, whom had a key player all season, the Ulster champions had gained the lead with some heroics in the last quarter which saw Donohoe, Pierce Smith and Kennedy fire over unanswered points to hold a one-point lead headed for the added minutes.

It was deep into injury-time that their opponents forced extra time and from there they clinched a 1-14 to 1-11 victory to end the Cavan lads' season.

The St Pat's side which lined out that day was as follows: F O'Rourke; D Lunney, D Monaghan, L Fortune; D Kennedy (0-1), C McManus, JJ McGovern; T Galligan, B Argue (1-0); P Smith (0-4, 3f), P Leddy, D Brady; B Conaty (0-1), TE Donohue (0-4, 4f), C Smith. Subs: R O'Neill for Leddy (22), S Fortune for McGovern (42), B Sheanon for C Smith (52), Barry McKiernan for Argue (56), P O'Reilly (0-1) for L Fortune (68), T Galligan for Kennedy (70).

O'Reilly and co were left devastated by the loss and had to watch as the Dingle school went on to retain their title, but looking back on it there's no question in his mind that 2015 was nothing but a sheer success for St Pat's.

"It was just a frustrating and disappointing end to the season for us but when you reflect on what we achieved it still was a real landmark year," said the former St Pat's pupil.

"As I said at the outset though, we felt we had a team capable of winning the All-Ireland and Dingle went on and won the final by four or five points in the end.

"If you were offered a MacRory title at the start of any season, any school in the north would absolutely grab it. We had won all four previous competitions in previous years but the one big one was the MacRory that we all felt had to be won to really announce the school as major force in colleges football.

He concluded: "It just had to be won and thank God we got it this year."

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