A bright future ahead
FOR 36 years, they have waited. Since winning the Senior football title in 1984, Tinahely have been forced to watch as Kiltegan, An Tochar, Baltinglass, Rathnew, and – most recently – St. Pat’s have climbed atop the Wicklow football mountain and planted their flag to the summit.
In recent years, they have come close to ending the drought, but were unable to ascend that final step. When Tinahely lost to Kiltegan on the opening day of the 2020 championship, it threatened to be yet another year of disappointment. A subsequent win over Bray Emmets gave them a glimmer of hope of saving their season, but it was not until they beat St. Pat’s in the quarter-finals that their prospects took a significant upturn.
This Sunday, they will have the chance to end their prolonged wait to once again lift the Miley Cup when they go toe to toe with Baltinglass in the Senior football final, in Aughrim.
‘Kiltegan were very good on the day and deserved to win, but we probably knew we had a bit more in us,’ insisted captain Michael Byrne. ‘We had a few good battles; Bray was a very close game, Pat’s was the same, and then penalties the last game (vs Avondale). Coming through tough games like that kind of builds confidence a bit. We are flying high at the minute.’
It is no surprise that confidence is high within the Tinahely camp. Their win over Pat’s hinted at his seriously gifted group of players potentially coming of age, while their penalty shoot-out win over Avondale was a further demonstration of determination and mettle. The group of players that Alan Costello has assembled is capable of endangering anybody. In Alan Dillon, Eoin Darcy, Matthew Ging, and Paddy O’Rourke, they have a potent, lively forward line capable of bagging scores from anywhere; the former three have contributed 6-36 between them.
It all makes for a promising, exciting time for football in the village, especially after the women continued their legacy-enshrining dominance with a sixth consecutive county title in a row this past weekend.
‘There is a nice mix in there now. There are a few
lads who have been there a long time. In the last two or three years, we have had a big number of lads coming up from Minor. Everyone seems to have blended together well. There are a few young lads in there. They are good footballers and the future looks bright if they can keep going the way they are going.’
Tinahely will not be getting carried away with themselves, Byrne assured, and will be well aware of the task at hand when they meet Baltinglass, who won the county title as recently as 2016 and who have been on somewhat of a redemption run after their struggles in 2019.
‘They are a strong, fit team and they have a lot of skills, so it will be a tough game. i don’t think there will be a whole lot in it. we are just hoping that our high-quality forwards – we are hoping to get ball into them and that they can do the damage for us.’