Fr. Caseys - County Under 21 Champions

Fr. Caseys 2-07
Newcastle West 0-04

On Saturday November 26th in Tournafulla, Fr. Caseys created history when they captured the County Under 21 Football Title for the third year in a row. This was the fourth time Fr.Caseys have captured the Under 21 crown in five years and the eighth time in the history of our club. This is a remarkable feat from an amazing bunch of players, the likes of which may never be seen again.  Our club is blessed to have such great talent at our disposal and the town of Abbeyfeale cannot but be proud of each and every one of them.

Fr. Caseys knew they were in for a fierce battle against a very strong Newcastle West team. On a dry but cold day in Tournafulla it was Newcastle West who settled the quickest and opened the scoring with a point after two minutes. Fr. Caseys failed to launch any meaningful attack until the fifth minute but when they did it was worth the wait. Donagh Kelly collected the ball in midfield, he passed to Tomas Smith who in turn picked out a great pass to an unmarked John Lane 30 yards from goal. One on one with the keeper John kept his cool to calmly slot the ball to the back of the net. For the next fifteen minutes Newcastle West plagued the Fr. Caseys defence with wave after wave of attack but a mixture of wasteful shooting and a strong Fr. Caseys defence meant that the scoreboard remained unchanged. After weathering the storm Fr. Caseys replied with a brace of pointed frees from Padraig McEnery to stretch the margin to four points. Fr. Caseys were now looking a more confident outfit, looking dangerous in every attack and more importantly they were clinical in front of goal. Twenty five minutes after their first score Newcastle West managed to raise the white flag again with a pointed free and then right on the stroke of half time they added their third point of the day to trail by two points at the break. Fr. Caseys had been slow to start but were now looking impressive. Newcastle West had their poor shooting to blame for the fact they were trailing. The half time score was Fr. Caseys 1-02, Newcastle West 0-03.

Fr. Caseys needed a bright start to the second half and when Padraig McEnery lofted a gem of a point from all of forty five yards between the posts their prayers had been answered. On five minutes Donagh Kelly kicked another outstanding point, clearing the crossbar from a near impossible angle on the side-line. The momentum was now with Fr. Caseys and the large Abbeyfeale crowd was roaring them on. A pointed free from Newcastle West reduced the deficit but John Lane responded immediately, dancing around two defenders and slotting over from twenty yards. Leading by four points Fr. Caseys spent the next ten minutes on defensive duties as Newcastle West threw everything at them. Try as they might, Newcastle West could find no way through the Fr. Caseys defence. Nobody was going to stop this team from victory and when John Browne marched through the centre and fisted the ball over the bar on twenty minutes it dealt Newcastle West a major blow. Two minutes later and the contest was over. Joe Flaherty collected the ball in midfield and went on a great solo run before offloading to the exceptional John Lane who rattled the Newcastle West net from close range. Newcastle never gave up and continued to battle to the end but Fr. Caseys were bringing the cup to feale side once more. A pointed free from captain Padraig McEnery in the dying minutes capped off an amazing day. The final score was Fr. Caseys 2-07, Newcastle West 0-04.

Good teams win county finals, great teams win two in a row, only legends win three in a row. Many years from now we will look back and ask the question how were Fr. Caseys underage footballers so amazing. There is no simple answer to this question but when you are blessed with such a talented and honest bunch of players, a management team who don’t except second place and a club which has the best officers and supporters around then amazing things can happen. On the day is was impossible the pick one individual man of the match, each and every player stood up and was counted and over the course of the campaign each panellist has made a major impact. Padraig McEnery accepted the cup from county officer Seam McAuliffe much to the delight of the Abbeyfeale crowd. Padraig gave a great speech thanking his fellow players, opponents and game officials before giving special mention to the highly successful management team of Gerard O’Connor, Brendan Walsh, John Lenihan, Tomas Cahill and Liam McNally. Congratulations to all involved on an amazing achievement. With many of the panel still underage again next year hopefully this time twelve months we will be celebrating four in a row.

Team: Brian Scanell, Tommy O’Keefe, Shane O’Connor, Thomas Ward, Eoin McEnery, Michael Roche, Keith Hartnett, Padraig McEnery, John Browne, Tommy Smith, Donagh Kelly, Eoin Kelly, John Lane, Stephen Behan, Peter Healy, James O’Mara, Patrick Brislane, Joseph Flaherty, Tommy Gleeson, David Mullins, Padraig Enright, Daniel Daly, Jake Quirke, Joe Browne, Richard Gleeson, Derry O’Connor, Danny Dillon, Eoin O’Connell, James Lane, Seamus Murphy, Sean O’Donnell.