Minor title is major stuff Ardee club insists Kirk
ST MARY’S manager Tommy Kirk was spared any nerve-jangling finale as his charges blew away their plucky opponents Geraldines at the Gaelic Grounds - but there was still a tinge of relief at ending their Larry Murray Cup hoodoo.
The Ardee club have never won the Minor Championship on their own, although an amalgamated Ardee team did triumph way back in 1987, and speaking after Sunday’s win Kirk said he felt such a success was overdue.
‘It’s serious stuff to win a Minor Championship,’ he began, trying to put the victory into context. ‘We’ve waited 30 years for this day and that’s an awful long time for a big town.
‘But these are a great bunch of lads who really want to win every game they go out to play. They’re hungry and somebody said they’re talking about Leinster now, but that’s the type of lads they are.
‘We were strong favourites, but at the end of the day you have to go out and play the fifteen that’s in front of you.
‘Anything can happen - a rainy day, a windy day, a bad bounce of the ball, but we got off to a good start. They came back at us, and we put our foot down and away we went again.
‘We put up a serious score, but these lads are never beaten. Against Cooley we were five points down and we turned it around in seven or eight minutes and won by six - they have a never-say-die attitude.’
Inevitably, having put up a score of 6-21 in the final, the focus was on the St Mary’s forwards whose combinations, speed of thought and explosive finishing were the highlight of the game - but Kirk feels there’s plenty more to come from this Minor team.
‘The forwards are so young,’ he pointed out. ‘We’ve had four Under-16s playing all year and they are great lads to work with, and no matter what you ask these fellas to do, they do it.
‘Most of the forwards scored and two of the subs came on in the last few minutes and scored, and we’re working off a panel of 31. We had five away with Louth earlier in the year and needed to have a big panel when they weren’t available.
‘We had an awful job this year to pick teams and even today we had a big job to pick that team, but they have a great attitude towards teams that are being picked, towards training, towards anything to do with football.’
Now the hope is that this Minor Championship success can translate into silverware at senior level and bring to an end a 22-year wait for Joe Ward.
‘We were 30 years without winning a Minor and in senior football I think it’s 22 years since the last one, and so we’re missing out on a lot of senior football,’ Kirk reflected.
‘But these fellas are coming through and the Under-16s were beaten [in the Championship final] last week and we should be able to bring these fellas onto the senior team.
‘So the future looks good.’