Pure class from Counsel
Porter and O’Connor shine in superb victory
ONE OF the perks of being a sports journalist – in normal times, of course! - is the pleasure to be gained from covering games on the second level schools scene.
There is a refreshing sense of adventure about the majority of matches, and it’s a bonus to get paid for being there, especially since their midweek settings render them inaccessible to the majority of folks in a 9 to 5 post.
I have many happy memories from attending schools games over the years, and few will compare with the events in Clonmel on Tuesday, April 28, 2015.
Good Counsel (New Ross) went into their All-Ireland Junior football ‘A’ championship final against St. Brendan’s from Killarney as titleholders, having beaten St. Francis (Rochestown) at the same venue twelve months earlier.
However, there appeared to be something special about this Kerry team. For starters, they had accounted for the reigning Munster champions in the provincial semi-final by 2-29 to 1-0.
And then, their passage to the decider was secured with a similar annihilation of the Ulster winners, St. Mary’s from Clady in Derry, this time by 5-25 to 0-4.
That Brendan’s team contained several household names. They were captained from centre-forward by Dara Moynihan, while David Shaw was at midfield.
Most interesting of all, their mentors introduced the gifted David Clifford at half-time, and he contributed 1-1 to their tally.
It wasn’t enough, though, because Good Counsel held on to the Paul McGirr Cup with a memorable victory by 2-12 to 3-7.
After nearly 30 years covering schools games, I would contend that I witnessed a couple of the best-ever individual performances on that Tuesday afternoon from two players wearing the blue and white stripes of the winners.
First of all there was Thomas O’Connor, the multi-talented centre-forward, who had firmly established himself as a midfielder with Gillingham in England’s League One prior to the Covid-19 outbreak after being loaned out from Southampton.
It’s quite likely that we will never again witness the Kilkenny lad with two Wexford parents gracing a Gaelic football field given his career path, and more’s the pity.
On that special afternoon in
Clonmel, he contributed 2-6 of the winning tally – two goals from penalties, two points from ’45s, and four points from play.
It was a display of incredible quality, and I will never forget it.
However, no forward is complete without getting a constant supply of possession, and that’s where Eoin Porter stepped in.
The Rathgarogue-Cushinstown clubman’s foot passing is one of the most uplifting sights on a football field, and his deliveries into the space around O’Connor were impossible for Brendan’s to defend.
As I wrote, using mixed metaphors: ‘If O’Connor is the silent assassin who clinically finishes off the opposition, then Eoin Porter is the conductor of the orchestra.’
Both were also colleagues on the Republic of Ireland Under-16 soccer squad at the time, and
O’Connor left to begin his new life in Southampton on June 29, 2015.
Interestingly, the Counsel goalkeeper, the unrelated Darragh O’Connor, has taken a similar path and is now plying his trade in England too, with Leicester City.
It was the first time that a Wexford team had beaten Kerry opposition in an All-Ireland final since the Senior clash between the counties in Croke Park on November 7, 1915.
And while it may have slipped under the radar somewhat among the general G.A.A. public for the reasons outlined above – with the Tuesday setting leaving the game ‘off-limits’ to neutral fans – I still regard it as one of the finest achievements by any Wexford team since our hurlers collected the Liam MacCarthy Cup in 1996.
And whenever I think of that day in Clonmel, the Porter and
O’Connor double act springs readily to mind.
It took an overall team effort to triumph, of course it did, but their personal contributions were on a level that I have rarely, if ever, seen in a schools contest.
Good Counsel: Darragh O’Connor (Cloughbawn); James O’Shea (Adamstown), Mark O’Neill (Gusserane), Jack Walsh (Mullinavat); Gavin Sheehan (Gusserane), Eoin Porter (Rathgarogue-Cushinstown), Jimmy Sutton (Fethard); Andrew Walsh (St. James’), Darragh Lyons (St. James’, joint capt., 0-1); Seán Nolan (Horeswood, 0-1), Thomas O’Connor (Tullogher-Rosbercon, 2-6, 2-0 pens., 0-2 ’45s), Rory Higgins (Rathnure); Jamie Myler (St. James’, 0-1), Luke Sinnott (Taghmon-Camross, joint capt., 0-2), Sam Wall (Gusserane (0-1). Subs. - Richard Hennessy (Glenmore) for Higgins (57), Richard Gill (Tullogher-Rosbercon) for Sheehan (60+2).