Delight for the three amigos
‘We’re so proud of them’
THIS wonderful championship victory means the world to the Éire Óg Greystones GAA Club. Witnessing the reaction of players, the management team and supporters after the final whistle would soften the hardest of hearts. Beating the defending champions at the pinnacle of Minor ‘A’ football in a superb game of football in Pearse’s Park, Arklow, is a hugely positive development for a proud and ambitious club.
The Greystones lads bagged 5-9 over the course of the game, two of the five goals coming in a stunning reaction of Jack Hanlon’s late goal for Baltinglass that looked to have finally killed off the Éire Óg challenge.
As incredibly important as the 5-9 tally was, holding a superbly talented Baltinglass attack to 2-14 was an achievement in itself and the back seven of Éire Óg, Sean O’Neill in goals, Thade Shannon, Daniel Healy, David Prendergast, Cillian Keane, Fionn O’Carroll, and Cian Hynes deserve massive credit for battling tooth and nail to help bring the Minor ‘A’ championship home to Greystones.
The management team of trainer Gerry Browne, selector Peter O’Neill and Fergus O’Carroll who has managed this group of players all the way up since under-8 level and who kept it going through thick and thin, spoke after the game and it was abundantly clear what this victory meant to all three of them.
‘I thought that the game went as expected,’ said Gerry Browne. ‘There was an onslaught at the start of the game, but we have finished all of our games very strong all year, we’ve prepared for that, we’ve set ourselves out. This man here (Peter O’Neill) is a veteran of many a battle in Aughrim and many other venues and he set up the team for today’s game.
‘Really delighted with them, they were absolutely fantastic. The fittest team, they were flying fit,’ he added.
‘They said to themselves in the dressing rooms that if we are within touching distance with 15 minutes to go that we would have the legs and we can do this,’ said Fergus O’Carroll. ‘That’s what the lads did. They knew they were going to have the ride out the rough start and they were going to have to sync and get themselves together and they did that and then they came back into it. I’m absolutely delighted for them,’ he added.
‘That was a super Baltinglass team, a lot of county players on the team, I really feel sorry for them in one way,’ said Gerry Browne. ‘They had so many good players on that team, they are absolutely super, and we knew we had to up our game to that standard.
‘We set out our stall early in the year, we knew what we had, and we were actually quite confident all year that we were going to deliver this back to Éire Óg Greystones after many many years of it not being there,’ he said.
‘55 years I’ve been playing and managing against Baltinglass and never won, and by God this was worth the wait,’ said Peter O’Neill.
‘Each and every one of that panel, they’ve kept together and stuck together all through the years, they’ve had ups and down,’ said Fergus
‘We’ve a very small panel, with 18 players there all year, including the under-15s, really there are four under-15s in that panel. 12 of the panel are under-17 next year,’ added Gerry Browne.
‘We’re delighted with them, we’re so proud of them, they stuck together as a team and played together as a team and they’re a great group of lads and they really worked for each other and we’re so delighted’.
‘Every man had their job coming out here today. Every man knew exactly what he had to do in their position and what the game plan we had set up today and they delivered that in buckets, they delivered that in buckets. You saw the second half when we kicked on. We flew that ball up and down there. No one could see how fast that ball went down that pitch, and like lightening into the back of the net., I lost count of the goals,’ he said.
‘We knew once we got the ball into our full-forwards that they were good enough to beat their backs. We said it all along. We knew,’ said Peter O’Neill.
When the Baltinglass goal went in: ‘Didn’t worry me at all. We knew we would come back. They never panic, they never panic, they just keep working.
‘We were losing by 10 points to St Nicks and we beat them by seven, we were losing by five points to Baltinglass and we beat them as well. We knew the lads would stay with it,’ he said.
‘Last week against An Tochar we were two points up at half-time, we were three points down with about six or seven minutes to go to get it back,’ said Gerry Browne. ‘We had it all planned out. We had two pairs of fresh legs to come in at the end, two super footballers, Sean and Roy (Sean Mason and Roy Byrne), absolutely top-class footballers and we knew what we had coming in off the bench. We kept them, and we kept them as long as we could before we unleashed them. And you saw the damage they did,’ he added.
What does the championship title mean to Éire Óg.
‘It’s massive, it’s massive’.