So close for Swad
November 27, 2011From the depths of Division Three football in Cavan, to the hallowed turf and bright lights of Croke Park; the few months that saw the change over from 2010 to 2011 are ones that Swanlinbar St Mary's GAA will quite simply never forget.
What started out as a bid to get back into the county junior final at the start of 2010, developed into Swad chasing the fourth piece of silverware for their season at GAA headquarters come February 12, 2011.
"Our main objective after we won the junior championship was to win the league final the week after because we wanted to do the double," explained club PRO, Sean Prior.
"We thought we'd be able to do the junior double because of the guys we have and decided to give it a rattle. We'd feel that we'd be capable of playing at intermediate level in both the league and championship and the lads wanted to prove a point last year, especially after losing the junior final in 2009 to Butlersbridge."
Under the managership of Belcoo man John Joe Stewart, who was ably assisted by Kevin Prior and John Gilheany, Swad achieved the junior double in Cavan by annihilating Munterconnacht in the ACFL Division Three final, sending them into the Ulster club Junior Football Championship in red-hot form.
While fellow Cavan champions Kingscourt and Drumalee fell at the first hurdle of their respective provincial championships, Swad underlined their intent in the junior sector by handing Derry winners Ardmore a resounding 4-16 to 2-6 defeat at Kingspan Breffni Park, where the home side made the perfect start by bagging their first goal just 82 seconds in through corner-forward Mark Cunningham, who finished with 2-5, and never looked back after that as Under 21 midfielder Gearoid McKiernan fired over a quick brace of points after.
Barry Gormley got the visitors first score after 22 minutes of waiting, but another Swad goal from Paul McGovern all but settled the issue by half-time as they led by 2-8 to 0-2, and Cunningham's second major arrived early in the second-half for the west Cavan men and not even goals from James Cruickshank and Mark O'Kane could rescue Ardmore, with the superb McKiernan tucking away their fourth towards the end.
"We played the Derry champions, Ardmore, first and we didn't know much about them, to be honest," explained Prior.
"We were aware that they had beaten the favourites in the Derry final. We knew they were a Division Four side in Derry, but the way we looked at it was that Derry club football is stronger than Cavan club football, so we went into the game expecting a real tough test but at half-time the game was done and dusted. I think we scored three goals in the first-half and then added another one towards the end of the second-half."
The win meant Swad cruised into the semi-finals, where a similar demolition of Down champions Drumaness saw their campaign gather real momentum.
Played at Healy Park in Omagh, the Cavan side demonstrated their sizzling scoring prowess in the bitter cold conditions, with ace forwards Robbie Prior and Mark Cunningham contributing 0-9 between them in a 0-16 to 0-7 victory which saw them through to the provincial decider.
"We played that game at the start of the cold spell around mid-November and we dominated it from start to finish. Actually, I don't think they got a score in the game until the 20th minute," stated the PRO.
In the build up to the final, Prior admitted that Swad had little to go by on their opponents before the showdown at Kingspan Breffni Park.
"The only thing we knew about Corduff was that they got promoted in the league as well after winning the junior championship in Monaghan," he admitted.
"The game was postponed two or three times from the last week of November to finally be played on December 12. We were probably at a bit more of a disadvantage in that we couldn't get out on a field to train until the Friday before the final because of the frost. All we were able to do was train indoors.
"Around nine of our starting players are spread between Kilkenny and Belfast and we weren't going to risk any of them travelling for training in the icy conditions, so we were really only preparing with half a team, but we were still happy enough in our own ability that if we clicked we could get a result."
On the day, Swad were off-key and were made succumb to their Monaghan counterparts on a 2-7 to 0-8 score-line, with the goals of Shane Malone and Padraic Keenan leaving their Ulster title hopes up in flames.
"We played very poorly in the first 20 minutes, but we got ourselves back into the game after that," said Prior. "Then they got a goal in the second-half that ended our comeback hopes and we left Breffni Park that day thinking that our season was over. We found out after that the Corduff player that scored the goal in the second-half was ineligible, so the club took the decision to object in hope of a replay."
As events unravelled, an Ulster Council ruling found that Corduff had in fact fielded an underage player in the final and the title was awarded to the Cavan champions, who would go on to represent the province in the All-Ireland series.
The successful appeal meant that Swad were just a hour away from an All-Ireland final appearance at Croke Park with Ballinabrackey of Meath standing in their way of making history for the club.
"We had went to watch them in the Leinster final against St Andrew's from Carlow in the middle of January, so we were able to get a bird's eye view of them. We were training away and managed to play a few challenge games against Fermanagh and Cavan Under 21s and it helped to keep the players' fitness sharp," said Prior.
In the end, the St Mary's side proved just sharp enough as they overcame the challenge of their Leinster opponents by a narrow 0-5 to 0-4 margin at Kenagh, Co Longford, where the Cavan men edged an utter battle with Robbie Prior's pair of second-half points proving sufficient to move them into the All-Ireland junior showpiece at Croker in February.
"That was probably the sweetest moment of our season, considering everything that happened," Prior elaborated.
"The game was a real war of attrition. Although the score-line suggests that it was a boring game, it was far from it if you were involved on the sideline. Robbie Prior got what turned out to be the winning score with over 10 minutes to go and for that remaining time it was pure backs to the wall stuff for us and thankfully we held on."
He added: "There was huge relief after the semi-final and the excitement of playing in Croke Park started to kick in around the village in the days after."
Croke Park beckoned for the team now managed by Kevin Prior, John Gilheany, Colm Bradley and Ciaran McGovern, after John Joe Stewart's stepping down at the end of 2010, and on the eve of the final they received a few words of advice from former Dublin manager Paul Caffrey, who would organise a light training session for the players in the capital on the morning of the final.
Prior explained: "On the day of the All-Ireland Paul Caffrey arranged for the team to train at Na Fianna's club grounds that morning and the team bus got a Garda escort from there to Croke Park after. To play in that stadium was fantastic for the players and the club and it's brought others in the parish that would have never been involved in football into the club and interested."
When the ball was thrown-in, Swad more than matched the favourites from the Kingdom for the first half-hour and an uplifting goal from Mark Cunningham late on in the half saw the Cavan men head in at the break with the 1-4 to 0-4 lead.
However, in the second-half Prior's men were simply outfought and outthought, as three well-timed goals from the Kerry champions saw the Caherciveen outfit from the south west storm to the All-Ireland title and crush Swad's dreams.
The Swanlinbar side which lined-out at Croke Park that night was as follows: G Leydon; T O'Brien, M Cunningham, P Prior; D Leydon, J Cunningham, P Leydon; M Curran, G McKiernan (0-2); C Curran (0-1), P McGovern, D McGovern; M Cunningham (1-1, 1 f), K Brennan, R Prior (0-1, 1f). Subs: A McGoldrick for D McGovern (17 mins), R McBarron for R Prior (46 mins), P McManus for P McGovern (50 mins), S Prior for K Brennan (58 mins), P Brennan for T O'Brien (59 mins).
"They came up against a team that were used to playing at a higher level of intensity and to try and keep at that level for the entire hour was always going to be a big ask for our lads," said Prior.
"Eight or nine of that Caherciveen team played in the senior championship in Kerry when their clubs amalgamated and would have been used to the highest standard of club football. The first 30 minutes we played in Croke Park that day were as good as we had played all year, but we just weren't able to keep at that level for the entire hour and they pulled away."
Prior now hopes that Swanlinbar can keep the momentum going for years to come:
"It's very hard to put into words what the Croke Park experience was like. The whole thing brought everyone together and those that had lost touch with Swad over the years were brought back.
"Gearoid McKiernan marked Bryan Sheehan and played brilliant football in the first-half. Robbie Prior played and he probably shouldn't have played because he was carrying injury.
"We want to keep the momentum going. We're regarded as a team that play nice football, but the in the semi-final against Ballinabrackey we had to dog it out for the win. We played the Kerry champions at Croke Park in an All-Ireland final in February and that's the bar that we've set for ourselves now."
He added: "We want to give a special thanks to Brian Treacy for the work he put in with the team, even though he was busy with the Fermanagh minors. Also to our chairman Gregory McGovern and secretary Paula Corrigan for the amount of work they put in and putting up with a lot through our season."
U16s taste silverware success
While 2011 saw Swanlinbar maintain their Division Two league and intermediate championship status under the new managership of Kevin Prior, it was a select few of the club's Under 16 footballers that stole the show as the Corlough/Swanlinbar amalgamation Dernacrieve Gaels delivered the Division Four league title after overcoming Ballyconnell First Ulsters in a replay in Bawnboy.
The west Cavan combination were in impressive form throughout the campaign, as they secured two wins and a draw to book their place straight into the final against a Ballyconnell side which defeated Knockbride by five points in a play off to move into the decider and when the two sides met in St Aidan's Park on September 15 they would not be separated as the scoreboard read 2-11 to 1-14 come the long whistle.
The replay would be held at the same venue and produced another close battle as Darren McTeggart got the amalgamated side off the mark with a fine point before Greg McGovern's long range effort dropped to the back of the First Ulsters' net. The game ebbed and flowed as Ballyconnell battled back to take the lead, but scores from Sean McGovern and Brian Cassidy saw the teams go in level at the break on 1-7 each.
The town side moved in front early on in the second-half, but Dernacrieve weren't about to fade away and when Greg McGovern made a fine fetch at centre-field and released Brian Deering, the nippy wing forward blasted in their second goal to take back the upper hand. Minutes later Greg McGovern and John Joe McGovern pulled off some brilliant work to set-up Deering to raise another green flag and points from McTeggart and Deering quickly followed to put the would-be winners firmly into the driving-seat. Ballyconnell dug deep late on to find a goal of their own, but were denied by joint-captain Noel Maguire in the Dernacrieve goal, as well as some resolute defending from Conor Gilheany and Conor McGoldrick as the Corlough/Swanlinbar amalgamation held on for a 3-12 to 1-13 win to take the title.
Dernacrieve Gaels (U16 Div 4 final v Ballyconnell): Noel Maguire, Keelan Caffrey, Conor Gilheany, Cathal O'Sullivan, Conor McGoldrick, Kyle Doonan, John Joe McGovern, Greg McGovern (1-1), Brian Cassidy (0-1), Darren McTeggart (0-5), Sean McGovern (0-1), Brian Deering (2-3), Brian Leonard, Killian McGovern, Ryan Melanaphy. Tweet
