A great victory for a fantastic team!
THE day had arrived, the phone never stopped ringing, grandparents and family members calling to wish us all the best and telling us to try get our hands on the cup for the second year in a row.
I checked my gear bag for the last time to do the usual checks for gloves, gum shields and a packet of hidden jellies before we headed to Horans for our team dinner.
As full as ticks we loaded onto Eamons bus, all roads leading to Cavan, with half the parish behind us in cars with the Dunlavin and Donard-The Glen colours flying as one, St Nicks - green, white and gold.
We arrived in our host club, Kingscourt for a meet and greet at about 4.30pm. The Kingscourt grounds were fantastic with the tunnel underground to the changing rooms, this made it really feel like an All-Ireland.
The chants of St Nicks supporters from the stands had us on a high from the throw in.
Our first match was at 6.15pm against Tyrone’s Errigal Ciaran and we won 4-6 to 1-2 with outstanding play from our back line, captain Oisin Traynor with the help of Ronan Kelly, Mark Murtagh, Rory Martin and Cian Fox holding strong lines to protect our goalie Meithéal Cleary and Liam Metcalfe working hard to keep Peter Canavan’s son quiet in this game.
Our second game was at 7.45pm against Laragh from Cavan. We won this game 5-6 to 1-2.
Growing in confidence, our forwards dominated with some lovely scores, Sean Doyle scoring a hat-trick of goals and two points. Conor Manifold put past a sweet goal and Joe Mills buried one in the net along with some lovely points from Jack Keogh and myself.
After the second game there was a parade in Kingscourt where we followed their marching band around the field with all the other teams in our group.
We then went home with our host families who were class. Myself, Mark Murtagh, Sean Doyle and Sean Metcalfe all stayed with Aine who spoilt us rotten over the weekend. She was easy to find too because of her purple hair and the camera around her neck!
Saturday we played our hosts Kingscourt at 11.00am and best then 5-10 to 0-2. Again our players stood up to be counted. Scores by Eoin Sheridan, Sean Metcalfe, Matt Miley, Mickey ORourke and midfielder Willie Eager kept the scoreboard busy while our backs again cleared all in sight. Ciaran Geoghegan working hard with Cian Deering launching himself in front of balls, blocking all in sight and brothers Andrew and Josh Thompson, Ben Wright and Adam Byrne working hard too.
We qualified top of our group and it left us meeting Dunboyne from Meath. We won again 4-4 to 3-2. This was our most exciting game with our midfielder Tadgh McCarthy Griffin dominating and everyone digging deep to get over the line. Our coach Mick Murtagh brought Sean Boylan into our dressing room after the game, he had a son on the other team but he had a nice few words to say to us.
After the game we packed up for mass at 6pm in Kingscourt followed by food and a disco which was great craic with the Kingscourt girls team too and their host team Derrynoose from Armagh. Home to bed early for our semi-final in the morning.
We said goodbye to our Kingscourt mammies and headed four our semi final in Cloghan, Monaghan at 11.30am. We played Kinawley Brian Borus from Fermanagh and won 6-7 to 0-4.
Everyone played well with goals scored by Tadgh, Willie, Sean Doyle, myself and a penalty scored by Mikey and pushed us on with the support of our other team members Sean OSullivan, David Wright, Jimmy Flood, James Walsh and Dylan Prendergast shouting us on.
The match we worked to was here, the final in Castleblaney GAA grounds at 1.30pm against Graigecullen from Laois.
From the whistle we were in our toes. I think we all played great in the final, nobody could be named as better than another. Long range scores and a penalty added to our final tally of 3-12 to 0-3. We won Féile Division 6 for a second year in a row.
The celebrations began on and off the pitch. We wet James with the water bottles and Ger, Mick and Eddie lifted us up and threw us around. The cup was presented to our captain Oisin who gave a great speech. We headed for home, got food in Supermacs and when we reached my hometown Dunlavin we paraded up the Main Street to the clubhouse for more celebrations and speeches. And the Snapchats continue!