BY TOM LYONS
IN a season of grey skies and enough rain to float a battleship, the sun shone from a clear blue sky on a beautiful Sunday morning as we made our way to Newcestown GAA grounds for a chat with some of the players preparing for the county final against old rivals, Dohenys.
Early Sunday morning training has become part of Newcestown’s schedule down the years, with breakfast providing perfect bonding. Forty players were going through their paces under coach Kevin Mulcahy when we arrived, with manager Tim Buckley and selectors Eugene Desmond and Conor Condon watching on from the dugout.
Newcestown footballer David Buckley with young fans at the meet and greet morning.
Everything was relaxed and easy, an open morning with supporters, especially kids, invited to attend and meet the players. Ever-helpful PRO Michael Minihan explained proceedings while chairman Ger O’Donovan talked about the great atmosphere the successful campaigns had created in the parish.
With Newcestown already having won the county senior A hurling title, it would be an honest mistake to think that inspirational county hurler Luke Meade had captained that team but, surprisingly, Meade is captain of the footballers, not the hurlers. How come?
‘It just happened, no hidden secrets to it. Tim (manager) asked me at the start of the season if I would be interested and I just said yes,’ explained Luke. ‘I suppose there was extra pressure on me in the hurling to deliver but not so in captaining the footballers. It just means being a little more talkative in the dressing room, urging lads on a bit more. It’s a collective responsibility here in both codes, players driving themselves on, the same players on both teams, nobody holding back. It’s easy to captain them.’
The chat then turned to Newcestown’s great run of successes this season and what was driving them on?
‘Well, as regards the footballers, the driving force was probably being relegated last season. We felt we were very near winning a couple of those games and unlucky to go down. It’s very easy to slip down the grades once the decline sets in so we were determined not to let that happen,’ said Luke. ‘I couldn’t play too many league games but we got to the final of our section and that gave us the momentum to drive on in the championship. Both codes complemented each other as momentum grew and we just kept going. Hopefully, we’ll get one more day out of it.’
We spoke about the challenge Dohenys will pose to a young star of the team, David Buckley, son of the manager Tim Buckley, who has made a big name for himself with Cork U21s and is surely a future star on John Cleary’s senior squad. He is looking forward to the final and much will rest on his young shoulders when it comes to mounting a winning score.
‘I was only a young lad when Newcestown won their last football title in 2010, in intermediate and I suppose there is pressure on us to deliver now. Dohenys must be under the same pressure,’ David said.
‘I would know lots of the Doheny lads and they are fine players. They have fierce pace on their side and we will have to close them down, easier said than done.
‘We would love to be playing premier in both codes in 2024. There would be a lot of pressure on a small panel but we campaigned in the top division in both leagues for a while and that was a lot worse as you’re always missing players. It would be great to be testing yourself against the very best in both codes.’
Finally, we got around to one of the older statesmen on the team, Carthach Keane, for his opinions on this season’s campaign and what it would mean if they were to be promoted to premier senior grade in both codes in 2024. It could be a double celebration for Cárthach on Saturday as his wife, the great Bríd Stack, is expecting their second child that day.
‘It would be fair to say that this season we played only two of our five games in decent weather conditions, so it is hard to judge the form,’ said Cárthach. ‘The first was the third round against Bishopstown and we had a good win that day. It was an open game of football and suited us. The second was the semi-final against Newmarket in Páirc Uí Chaoimh and even though we were poor in the first half, looking tired, we turned in a great second half to pull it off.’
Carthach Keane played on the last team to win a county football title in 2010 but sees no comparison between that and today’s team.
‘The 2010 team was made up mostly of lads just reaching the end of their careers, with some young lads thrown in. This team is mostly made up of lads in their prime, 27 or 28. And the whole approach, the conditioning, the training, the style of football, everything is different now. It’s a totally different game than in 2010,’ he explained.
We left Newcestown convinced that even if they lose this final, which they have no notion of doing, the Newcestown club and the players that make it, will remain a shining light in the GAA on how both codes can live successfully side by side in the same club and how small clubs can always take the down bigger fish by punching above their weight. They do it every season, long may it continue.
