Captain ‘Cian’ to lift more silverware
‘The junior league and junior championship are really the club-makers in any county. That’s where you find the lads with the dedication’
AFTER being put through the mill by high stakes relegation battles over the last few years, Dundalk Young Irelands captain Cian O Naraigh is looking forward to a big day out this weekend.
‘We’ve been in finals over the last two or three years,’ he quips, ‘but unfortunately they were wrong kind of finals, relegation matches in senior and intermediate, so it’s just great for the players and the club and everyone to be involved in this occasion.’
Cian feels that players learn a lot about themselves in the junior grade and it’s a case of so far so good for Young Irelands after they clinched promotion straight back to Division 2 in the league.
‘The league was massive for us because you want to bounce back as quickly as possible. The junior league and junior championship are really the club-makers in any county. That’s where you find the lads with the dedication and everyone just gets to work. The league is so competitive in that you can’t really afford to drop points and every game is like a final and every team is fighting to get up there.
‘We didn’t make the best start, but it might have been a blessing because we realised that if we don’t concentrate on ourselves rather than the opposition that you can be caught out. We built from there and realised that you have to be focused and that you have to go into every game with everything right. We pushed on from there and thankfully we got the rewards in the end.’
Cian pays tribute to manager Adrian O’Donoghue for helping to pick up the pieces and he also hails the impact some of the club’s young guns have made.
‘Adrian has taken in a lot of the younger lads that were on U-16 and minor teams and they’ve really refreshed the team. These lads would run through you and over you to get into the team. Over the past few years there was probably a bit of stagnation in terms of the squad and positions lads were playing in and when things go wrong then it can be hard to lift it. But this year we have really strong options on the bench, one through 30 they’re totally committed and when they come on it’s seamless.’
A defender by trade Cian has been popping up in attack a lot recently and has shown he knows exactly where the posts, kicking three points in the semi-final. But he insists no-one cares where the scores come from as long as they do come.
‘I’m usually asked to pass it on and I probably still will be asked to pass it on,’ he jokes, ‘but from the team point of view it’s good for scores to come from different areas. You don’t want that one dimensional element and we had
scores from seven or eight different players in the last game and we’ll look to continue that on. But the forwards make the runs and create the space for others to come through.
‘However, saves can be just as important as scores and Cian paid tribute to goalkeeper Fergal Sheekey for his remarkable late save to deny Dan O’Connell in the semi-final.
‘Reflecting on the season, one of the biggest moments in the league was Fergal’s penalty save against Na Piarsaigh. That turned the league around for us. Championships and leagues are made of moments like that. In the championship against Roche he did it again with that last-minute save.’
While both sides had things largely their own way until the semi-final, the Irelanders and Glyde had to battle past Roche and Lannleire respectively and he’s expecting another tight contest on Sunday.
‘I remember the senior relegation final out in Knockbridge a few years ago which was really difficult and they have an awful lot of pedigree and they’re playing at a high level. They’re massively physical, but at the same time they have a lot of football in them. They’re a quality side and we’ll have to up our game for it.
‘Any championship finals this club has been involved in have been tight and mostly gone right to the wire and we’re not expecting Sunday to be any different. Finals are as much about the mental strength and stamina as much as the physical.
‘I think it will be a really good game with two teams that are able to kick scores and are defensively strong. They are playing in Division 2 and we’ve just come down and are going straight back up so I think you’ll see good quality football too.’