There’s still more to come from this group of teens as they prepare for Meath challenge
This Sligo team ended the county’s 53-year wait for a Connacht MFC title, elevating them to hero status, but manager Paul Henry says that they are only focused on doing their best in this Saturday All-Ireland semi-final against Leinster winners Meath
SO, what next for this incredible Sligo Minor team? Their remarkable scaling of the provincial summit – a task that proved impossible for every other Sligo Minor team since the famous group of 1968 – has had Sligo GAA fans walking on air.
But this momentous season ain’t over yet. Not by a long shot.
With Saturday’s All-Ireland semi-final to come, in a competition sponsored by Electric Ireland, the team managed by Paul Henry can continue to defy expectations, raise the bar and be an inspiration to next year’s U-17 squad and the ones to follow.
Up until Sligo’s magnificent breakthrough on the Friday before last – a victory achieved at the expense of the holders, Roscommon, in that county’s venue of Dr Hyde Park – the last Sligo team to win the Connacht GAA Minor Football Championship was also the last Sligo team to contest an AllIreland final, both milestone events took place 53 years ago.
Few will anticipate that Sligo can follow that glorious path, just as very few expected them to follow up the semi-final defeat of Leitrim with an even better scalp in the Connacht decider. Sometimes great things come along unexpectedly. But team manager Paul Henry, his backroom team and, most importantly, the players have stopped basking in their breakthrough achievement.
Since claiming the Tom Kilcoyne Cup, the restart button has been pressed. Targets re-assessed. The good parts – and bad – of that win over Roscommon have been analysed. There’s an All-Ireland semi-final to prepare for, to play in, to savour. There will be a limited attendance at Cavan’s Kingspan Breffni Park for the 12.45pm throw-in and an even bigger audience glued to the televised coverage on TG4. Sligo have the chance to write even more history according to Curry’s Paul Henry. He maintains that what the players have done, with the entire county (and further afield) buzzing by a 53-year wait being ended, can only be appreciated at a later date.
Right now they’ve Meath to worry about, a county that has won back-toback Leinster titles – their 2021 success coming earlier this month when they outclassed Dublin by 11 points, 3-8 to 1-3, at Tullamore’s Bord na Móna O’Connor Park.
“I don’t think we’ve fully grasped yet what has actually happened – how our Connacht final result has affected so many people and the enormity of it for Sligo GAA.”
“We still have work to do and we’re still in a competition that we want to get as far in as we possibly can.” He continued: “I suppose we will only realise what we’ve done when this campaign is all over.”
The manager emphasised that this group have a unique bond, through this shared, winning experience, that too few Sligo squads have savoured – except, for example, Sligo’s Nestor Cup winners (at Senior level) from 2007 and the Sligo Minors (then an U-18 age group) who won the Connacht GAA Minor Football League six years ago. “The lads have also made great friends in being part of all this, irrespective of whether they had won or lost against Roscommon, we [the management] could see that they were united as a group.”
“I think, also, that it is brilliant for them as a group that they have a Connacht medal to show for their effort and all the hard work that they have put in.”
This collective resolve will be needed
for what Saturday’s game throws at them. Indeed, while fans were on cloud nine at Dr Hyde Park following the provincial final success, the players themselves were already mentioning the next game and what would be required against Meath.
There were moves to have the AllIreland semi-final played tomorrow, Friday, evening but this option didn’t materialise.
As it turns out, Sligo’s game is one of three Minor inter-county fixtures going ahead on Saturday.
The other Electric Ireland GAA Football All-Ireland Minor Championship semi-final between Munster champions Cork and Ulster winners Tyrone is in Tullamore at 2.30pm, with the Electric Ireland GAA Hurling All-Ireland Minor
Championship decider involving Cork and Galway taking place at Semple Stadium, Thurles at 7.15pm.
TG4 are showing all three games – one of which is the biggest fixture yet that these Sligo teens are readying themselves for.
“We are still in a competition and we
are going to try to do our best while we are still in it,” Henry declared. “Hopefully this means we can bring a big performance against Meath and that this can bring us – hopefully – to the next game which would be an AllIreland final.”
“We have only been taking things one step at a time – first it was the Leitrim game, then the Roscommon game and now it’s Meath.”
From a point of having just one winor-bust tie, the provincial semi-final against Leitrim, Sligo’s season has stretched to at least three games – with each fixture giving lessons for both management and players.
“We had good challenge games before the Connacht semi-final and those games gave us a good indication of where we could go with this team.” “With each competitive game we get, we hope to amend things in a way that’ll help improve the performances – the lads have all bought into what we’re trying to do.”
“We think we are improving so, hopefully, we will be showing another degree of improvement against Meath,” he added.
“The bottom line is that we have to play better against Meath. We saw how well they started the Leinster final and we have to make sure that doesn’t happen to us and we end up chasing the game.” In terms of absentees, corner-back Drumcliffe-Rosses Point’s Ross Chambers, who picked up an injury in the semi-final defeat of Leitrim at Markievicz Park, will miss Saturday’s game in Cavan, while Tourlestrane teen Aiden Marren is also unavailable because of injury.