Championship success would be cherry on top for Adrian
REGARDLESS of how Sunday’s final pans out, Dundalk Young Irelands manager Adrian O’Donoghue (right) is immensely proud of his team and has praised them for the commitment they have shown this season.
‘On the back of last year’s very disappointing season, I think the boys have realised that really it takes a lot more effort than they put in last year,’ he said. ‘We had a meeting at the beginning of the season and the boys gave me great commitment. They understand that the effort they made last year wasn’t good enough and they deserve to be where they were. But they changed completely around and because of the effort, the hard work, the dedication, and their talent they deserve to be there this year.’
O’Donoghue has already masterminded a Division 3 League success and he insists that would still be considered a good year’s work.
‘Everything is great when you’re winning, there is no question about that, but we have done the losing, we’ve all been part of losing teams. Again, it either makes you stronger or you quit. I’m very lucky that we have a great management team and we’ve had remarkable commitment from the players.
‘It’s fantastic to be a part of because we’ve won the league, it’s in the past, that’s grand, but now we can focus now on Sunday and give it everything.
‘We’re going to still celebrate because we won our league, AFTER captaining Glyde Rangers to defeat in the final 12 months ago, Trevor O’Brien feels his team are better prepared to go one better next Sunday and land the Junior Championship.
At 32 he’s one of the team’s veterans at this stage, yet the skipper hasn’t tasted a single championship success since the Baile Talun combination won the Minor crown way back in 2001 and that’s a statistic he’s determined to put right. More importantly, though, O’Brien wants to see Glyde Rangers competing regularly at Intermediate level in the championship, not just in the league where they held their own in Division 2 this year after their promotion.
‘We want to make up for last year big time,’ said O’Brien, referring to that one-point loss at the hands of Glen Emmets in the final.
‘We probably thought it was going to be easier than it was, but I think we felt the pressure before the match as well. We had to be in the dressing-room by a certain time and we had to do a proper warm-up and that was new to us.
‘This year we are a bit more laid back and we’ll just be focusing on ourselves.’
While there are some very promising underage players coming down the line, no new blood has filtered through in time for this year and so it’s a very familiar-looking fifteen who will line out in Dowdallshill. ‘I’m fairly confident that we can win,’ insisted O’Brien. ‘The team is stronger than it was last year because we have Gareth Moran and his brother Kevin back. Gareth’s a scorer and likes to get on the ball and take lads on. He wants to beat every man who’s marking him and score.
‘Kevin had settled down with family life, but he was at we’re back in the intermediate league and that was our priority this year. The championship would be the cherry on the top and that’s really for the players and I hope for their sake they go out and get what they deserve.’
As well as hard work and committment, Adrian feels that a nice blend of youth and experience has really stood to the Irelanders this season.
However, survivors from the last championship success are thin on the ground.
It’s only eight years ago, it’s still fresh in the memory of some of the players we have here that played in that game. It was a great achievement, but it’s very much in the past. It’s great to have players that have played in those games like Derek Maguire. It’s great to have that experience, but we have a very, very young team and for most of them it’s the first time ever being in a final of any calibre, and that’s men of 28 and 29 years of age.
‘We’re very lucky, we have a big panel of players, very talented young men coming through the ranks from a very good underage youth structure. Then you have the likes of Sean McLaughlin, Mark Savage and Derek. Remember Derek wasn’t here last year and he’s a massive help to us. There’s a lovely blend of experienced top class players and youth and it inspires everybody, including obviously the management.’
Adrian has overseen an almost perfect season, with just an opening round league defeat in the negative column. However, that defeat helped to focus minds he feels.
‘As the old saying goes winning is a habit, but so is losing for that matter. They’ve got into a rhythm, they’ve got into a situation where they feel like they can beat anybody and to be honest with you and that’s a great way to be. Again, it’s only because of the hard work, it’s not by accident.
‘Considering we lost the first game of the league, we had to go literally the entire year without losing a point. We put that challenge to the boys and they stood up, and they’re still up to the challenge in fairness.
‘I thought that was a fantastic mental achievement more than anything else because when know you can’t lose a point and you have to go eleven games, it speaks for itself.
‘All of a sudden we’re in a position that if we win the last game, we win the league. It was all so fantastic, we would have been delighted to just qualify and get another crack at it. So, to get back up first time, fantastic.
While he admits to not know a great deal about Sunday’s opponents having not played them in the league, Adrian knows Glyde will pose a huge threat.
‘I certainly know that they’re going to be a tough, well organised, hard, and technical country team and that’s what you’d expect. Pure honesty, hard wok and giving everything for the parish and that’s the way it should be.
‘It should be a battle, it should be a situation where either team gives everything for the respective parishes of respective clubs and I don’t expect anything less than that. The reality is on the day its, roll up your sleeves, get on with job and may the best team win.’