Declan Cassidy embracing Garvan McGinley after Derrygonnelly’s SFC win.
The county final was a breath of fresh air with forwards, for once, dictating the agenda.
A few weeks ago I wrote about how the club is the life blood of the GAA, each club is the heart of every community above and beyond its footballing role. County final day is what every club aspires to be involved in at the start of the year.
Each club team throughout the country will have sat down in a foundering club room in a cold February night thrashing out their best laid plans for the year ahead.
Every manager will ask for a complete blanket drink ban for the season, but by the end of the meeting it has been negotiated down to just game weekends.
Strength and conditioning plans will be given out and promised to be adhered to religiously, some will gain weight, but not the kind the manager hoped for. All these plans are put forward to achieve the main goal of reaching the club final.
As I was growing up I had attended a few club finals as my club Lisnaskea was in a successful period. Watching my three brothers from the concrete seats in Brewster park in what I always remember as glorious sunny weather. On the occasions they won, I could only dream that one day I too could be parading through my home town on the back of a lorry with the town out en masse.
Nerves will always be a huge factor come final day and that’s to be expected no matter how experienced you are, it will come from the personal pressure of wanting to do your club justice. The young guys on the team will be looking for the older more experienced players to lead them through the big day and the older guys will be looking for the young guys to carry their legs through the game.
This year the final was lucky to get a beautiful mild sunny October day, Brewster Park always looks great on the big days and the tight surroundings adds to the atmosphere. Every family member is out for the towns big day out, even the favourite teddy bear has the clubs jersey on, along with the local bar stool expert.
It was a refreshing final, with it been so high scoring and some brilliant scores throughout. When you see how low scoring and cagey other county finals have been this week, it was great to see both teams going all out for the win. It was a brave call for Derrygonnelly to try out-score an experienced and powerful Roslea forward line, but it worked perfectly for them.
What impressed me most was how the younger less experienced players stepped up and took the game by the scruff of the neck. The comfort of the victory in the end was surprising, it was definitely a forwards day and the Harps forward line was in flying form, lead by the now veteran Paul Ward.
It was an extremely difficult week for Derrygonnelly Harps club, which make their performance even more admirable and I am sure emotions were that bit higher at the final whistle. Congratulations to them and now hopefully they can give the Ulster championship run, although that is going to be challenging against the reigning Ulster champions. Slaughtneil, up in Derry.