MacLarnon 2000
Senior Gaelic Football
MacLarnon Cup
In 1968 the St. Eunan's College Senior Gaelic Football Team coached by Mr. Michael Cullen and including future intercounty stars Martin Carney, Hugh McClafferty, Michael Oliver McIntyre and captained by Donal Doherty from Kilcar brought the Dr. McLarnon Cup to our college for the first time.
Eleven years later in 1979 our Senior Team which included future inter county players Eunan McIntyre, Charlie Mulgrew, Paul Carr and captained by Kieran Patton from Convoy brought the same cup back after defeating De La Salle, Ballyshannon in the final. The team was coached by Mr. Paddy Tunney and it had an exceptional amount of talent, and it went on to win the All-Ireland Colleges B title as well.
Since them there have been lean years and several years when luck did not shine on us. We lost to Falcarragh in the '85 final (1-6 to 1-5, the Falcarragh side was managed by Mr. Charlie McGeever who later joined the staff at St. Eunans). In 1990 St. Patrick's College, Downpatrick who included the likes of Gregory McCartan in their ranks annihilated us. Again in 1996 a spirited second half display saw local college rivals De La Salle Ballyshannon defeat our highly fancied side 1-12 to 0-12. There were years when we attempted to play in the MacRory Cup 1979 - 1982 and '86-87. In the '90's we seemed to be there or thereabouts and were beaten in 6 closely fought semi-finals. It looked like we would never win the MacLarnon again!
A new millennium - a gap finally bridged.
At the beginning of the school year Mr. Neil Gordon assumed the manager's mantle (after serving his 8-year apprenticeship to Mr. Paddy Tunney). Paddy after 22 years in charge took an active "director of football role". The previous years panel despite much promise disappointed and of those there was only 5 remaining. However our pre-leaving cert. students had comprehensively defeated all comers in Donegal to win the Garda Shield, so on this nucleus our hopes were placed.
Nov. 15th '99, St. Michael's College Lurgan defeated us by 2-7 to 1-8 in Maghera.
Nov. 20th '99, we managed to overcome a dour Loreto Coleraine by 1-9 to 0-8 in Owenbeg Dungiven. In our final group game we faced a fancied St. Columb's College Derry and they defeated us by 0-12 to 0-9 on our own pitch. This result rather flattered our performance and so we came third in our group and faced into the play-off.
In talking about the success of St. Pat's Maghera, Adrian McGuckian (Derry County Manager) their supreme coach always maintained that
"It did not matter what happened before Christmas, but what happened after it. The only important facet is to qualify for the Knockout stages".
The management team still had high hopes for the team despite the results and they decided to test the McGuckian Hypothesis!
On Monday 3rd Jan 2000 the senior squad travelled to Dunfanaghy to train on the dunes and on the St. Michael's Club pitch. The turn out was excellent and a sense of purpose not seen by Paddy since '79. After a number of important challenge matches against the North West Minor team in inclement conditions to say the least and a number of serious training sessions the senior footballers of |St. Eunan's faced Our Lady's and St. Patricks's College Knock (Belfast) in the play-off on Jan 27th. This contest we won easily 1-15 to 1-4 and could have been more if not for the Arsenal bound netminder.
After much hassle and delay our crunch Quarter final against a much fancied La Salle Belfast team went ahead on 17th Feb in Omagh after the intervention of the College's Council. In what was a bruising encounter we triumphed by 1-10 to 0-6.
The Semi-final in Strabane saw us convincingly brush aside the challenge of Our Lady's College Castleblaney by a score of 5-7 to 1-6. However the celebrations were muted as Niall McClafferty was dismissed for "Ungentlemanly Conduct" and received a 4 week suspension. This ruled him out of the final.
St. Columb's Derry who topped our group would provide the opposition and therefore Referee Des Kearney's prediction for the finalists made in Nov '99 came true.
St. Patrick's day saw us travel to Casement Park, Belfast where in Glorious weather and perfect playing surface we dominated the opening half. We led by 0-8 to 0-3 at the interval. The restart saw Derry claw back into the game and take the lead by a point with 8 minutes remaining. However cometh the hour cometh the man and with little under 5 minutes remaining Colm Anthony McFadden showed first for the ball (as he always does) and round his marker to go on and deliver an imperious finish to the roof of the Derry net. St. Columb's pointed again and then John McClafferty rounded off the scoring with a majestic point to seal victory. There followed delirious celebrations as the shrill rasp of the final whistle sounded to ensure that at last "the Holy Grail" was landed.
The Irish news headline the following morning read "Fabulous McFadden the difference for St. Eunan's" Colm was indeed the difference as he accounted for 1-8 of his teams 1-11 haul and that landed him the man of the match award. However David O'Herlihy's pointed free along with Johnny McClaff's efforts of both feet broke the resolve of the Maiden city team at vital stages of the game. The combative nature of the defensive sextet and the work rate of the rest of the team ensured that St. Eunan's College lorded it at Casement this year.
On the Tuesday 14th (before the Final) disaster struck when regular netminder Sean McNulty suffered torn ligaments in his knee and a hairline fracture of his ankle. Danny Sheridan normally an inter-county class midfield player who fought back from major surgery the previous year, only to injure himself with the County Minors was still struggling with fitness. The management gambled and placed Danny in goal for his kicking ability.
The winning team was:
Danny Sheridan, Ciaran Sharkey, Barry Canning, Michael Boyle, Ronan McHale, Damien McClafferty, Colin McIntyre, Aidan Callaghan, Rory Kavanagh, David O'Herlihy (0-1) Seamus Friel, John McClafferty (0-2), Colm Anthony McFadden (1-8), Ruairi Kelly, Peter O'Doherty. Sub: Barry Devine for Peter O'Doherty (50mins)
On Sunday the 2nd April we travelled to Parnell Park to Play St. Augustin's Dungarvan (Waterford) in the All-Ireland Semi-final. Danny Sheridan almost recruited another player en route - a certain Mr. Geraghty.
In glorious conditions we struggled at midfield and in defence where for long periods the Waterford College threatened to tear us to shreds. The team to their credit stuck to their task and kept playing ball and again Colm Anthony's mercurial touch kept us in with a chance. Indeed his goal 14 mins into the second half put us 1 point in the lead (the first time since the All-Ireland Semi-final the previous year that Augustin's were in arrears to any team!). However we failed to win the next kick out and tag on a score and build on it.
The Waterford outfit tagged on another point and scored a goal on the stroke of halftime to distort the score somewhat. Colm McFadden got the ball 11 times in the game in front of goal. He either scored or was fouled and scored from the resultant free. He accounted for 1-9 of our tally and on another occasion his effort crashed back off the upright.
For the record Colm McFadden scored 6 goals and 45 points in eight championship games out of a total of 11-79. This is a match average of 7.88pts.
We will not forget the Millennium Maclarnon.
2000 MacLarnon