Ulster Minor Club Championship

[BallyhaiseMan]

Martin Dunne and Seanie Higgins are two outstanding young talents alright...
Leigh Jackson is a great targetman in at FF...
and Daniel Graham is an outstanding CHB....
The Gaels keep throwing these great young teams up....

[anglocelt39]

Any of these lads eligible for Minor next year do you know Ballyhaise Man, or any other man or woman for that matter?

[BallyhaiseMan]

Martin Dunne and Daniel Graham are underage for Minor next year...Dont think Higgins is though...but im open to correction on that.

[Rollout]

Yes, Dunne and Graham are still minor next year. Higgins is overage! Gaels lost by a point to Coalisland-last kick of the game so I heard.

[never kickt a ball]

1-14 to 3-7 to Coalisland Na Fianna
Coalisland win Ulster minor title 
Coalisland fought back from seven points down to edge out Cavan Gaels 1-14 to 3-7 in Monday's Northern Bank Ulster Minor Club Football final.
A point in the third minute of injury time from Brian Toner proved decisive.

Gaels led 0-5 to 0-4 at the interval and Martin Dunne and Gerard Reilly goals extended their lead to seven.

However, Stephen McNally replied with a Coalisland goal and Toner's five later points in succession were crucial. Martin Dunne scored Gaels' other goal.

Toner's seven points earned him the man-of-the-match award while Dermot Thornton also hit four points for the winners

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/northern_ireland/gaelic_games/6222915.stm

[Over the Bar]

Well done to the Fianna.  Tyrone's youth system once again shows that its the best in the country with a seemingly endless conveyor -belt of talent   The futures' bright - it's red & white!!

[ziggysego]

Congratulations to Coalisland Na Fianna

[ONeill]

I hope this sets the standard for games in 2007. That second half was a joy to watch, reminiscent of the Down/Tyrone 2003 Ulster Final.

However, wintry cold conditions combined with a lacklustre first half made difficult viewing for the size-able crowd. It was Cavan who were first off the mark when the hero of the semi final, Martin Dunne (LCF), turned Hughes inside-out for for a wonderful score. You'd have thought that the writing was on the wall for Hughes but that proved to be Dunne's only score of the first half. He's a tricky player, reminds me of Linden. He seems to feed off balls played deep into the corner and his turn of speed means he'll skin most corner backs. He has a great eye for goal (4 goals in 2 games) but Hughes slowly got to grips with Dunne with the help of the other corner back O'Neill. At this early stage O'Hagan and Toner were being frustrated by the smothering tactics of the Cavan backs. Toner was getting little change out of Graham, the impressive Cavan CB. His frustration was typified by a trip on Cavan's best player Higgins (CF) which earned him a yellow.

On 6 minutes O'Hagan's goal-bound shot was saved and the resulting 45 saw Toner play it short to Thornton who laid it off to O'Hagan for the equaliser. It seemed Coalisland were set to pull away as they were picking up most breaking ball and appeared to offer more as an attacking force. They went 3-1 up with the Mugsy lookalike Eoghan Carberry notching a Mulligan-style over with his left and a Toner point from play after a fine lay-off from O'Hagan. What followed was a sustained period of pressure from Coalisland that yielded no return, mainly due to the swarming tactics from the excellent Cavan rearguard. I think it was scoreless for a 12-minute period which coincided with heavy cloudbursts. A breakaway saw Higgins reduce the deficit to a single score. As in the St Gall's game, the Cavan forwards were economical with their attacks, usually scoring when any of their full forward line were found. A foul on O'Hagan meant Toner easily put the Fianna 4-2 up from a 14 yrd free. An excellent McClary score reduced the gap again to the minimum. You could sense that the Fianna were starting to rue their poor conversation rate and silly errors began to creep into their defensive game. One such fumble saw Higgins claim the equaliser and the same player sent over a free to leave the half time score 0-5 to 0-4 in Cavan's favour.

The wind had been in Cavan's favour in the first half and it did appear that this lead wasn't enough to inspire confidence that they'd see it out, ahead. This was supported by the first score of the second half, an excellent O'Hagan point from play. The Fianna were playing with much more conviction and at 5-5 I thought they'd stretch away. What happened in the next 30 mins was a delight to behold. Fantastic football, sublime scores, brilliant blocking and enthralling entertainment. Another clumsy mix-up in the Fianna defence saw Niall Murray score the first goal of the day, 1-5 to 0-5 in Cavan's favour. A minute later the increasing dominant Higgins put Cavan 4-up from play. Another minute later and it had seemed Coalisland's world had just fallen apart. Dunne finally found himself 1-on-1 with Hughes in the corner, roasted him and goaled. 2-6 to 0-5. Another minute - another goal. Typifying their character, Coalisland stormed up the field and Steven McNally's shot received a wicked deflection, finding its way to the net. McNally was the pick of the Fianna defenders, one for the future.

So, 5 minutes into the second half we had a 2-6 to 1-5 scoreline in Cavan's favour (from 0-5 to 0-4 at HT). Coalisland were piling on the pressure with the wind at their backs when they were hit with another sucker punch, Dunne reacting quickest to fist a rebound into the net. With 15 minutes left, and the scoreline at 3-6 to 1-5, it looked like Cavan had calmed the Coalisland storm. Not a bit of it. The other Fianna corner forward, Dermot Thornton, burst into life with a wonderful point to pull back the deficit to 6. This was followed by an exhibition of free taking from the hands as Toner notched 3 long range frees in 3 minutes to leave it 3-6 to 1-9. 10 minutes left and Mugsy/Carberry hit his second point of the day. The Fianna contingent in the crowd could sense blood and Cavan were finding it mighty difficult to get out of defence. Their linchpin and commander-in-chief, Graham, was getting the runaround from the inspirational Toner. With 8 minutes left the sides were level. Thornton, on fire, fired over two superb points. 3-6 to 1-12. Suddenly, Coalisland seemed to freeze or sensed that it was job done. Cavan attacked and a splendid pass saw Murphy through on goal. McNally, somehow, got back to make a Gormley-style block to save an almost definite 4th Cavan goal. 4 minutes remaining and Coalisland hit the front. Thornton was walking on air and nonchalantly rifled over his 5th point. Coalisland's jubilation was short-lived when Cavan were awarded an extremely dubious point. I was directly behind the ball's trajectory and it did seem to be well wide before curling. 3-7 to 1-13. 4 minutes into injury time and cometh the hour, cometh Toner - a deserving match winner from play after a well worked move out of defence, a defence owing much of its success to the raiding McNally.

Final score Coailand Fianna 1-14 Cavan Gaels 3-7

This was a magnificent advert for Ulster underage football. That second half will live long in the memory. Toner is a fine player who'll be worth keeping an eye on. McNally is another in the Martin Murray/Phillip Jordan mould. Thornton, at 15 years of age, has a bright future. Carberry reminded me of Mulligan in too many ways....twas uncanny, from the blond tips, tanned appearance, shimmy, as well as some of the more dubious characteristics from his game!

For Cavan, Graham at CHB has massive potential, a man amongst boys. Dunne is a finisher. He'd need to cut out the machine-gun celebrations - came back to haunt him. Higgins at CHF is an excellent prospect.

More of this in 2007 please.

[never kickt a ball]

Great Report O'Neill. Well done Na Fianna

[Norf Tyrone]

but only one member of the current Tyrone county board , why their lack of interest , are they busy preparing for the Mc Kenna cup

Did you go round everyone in the crowd and ask them?

[never kickt a ball]

Taken from Na Fianna Website: http://www.coalislandfianna.com/

Na Fianna's Second Half Storm Blows Cavan Gaels Away

Some people are lucky enough to see a great team play, less people are lucky enough to support a great team and even less get to play with a great team. 

Down the years a lot of us have experienced what we thought were great teams but a lot of those teams did not always fulfill their potential, yesterday those who made the trip to St. Pauls in Belfast saw a truly great team deliver on all counts and lift their well earned Ulster Champions Title.

Working together not for weeks but years this team, managers, advisors, helpers, players, all put in the hours, suffered the defeats, training on cold wet nights when nobody was watching, trainers shouting abuse, players' bodies crying out with pain and exhaustion, but they never lost hope, never lost belief, they gradually matured into a battle hardened team.

The culmination of all that hard work over all those years came good in the last 2 seasons when they have lost only one game.

It came good when they played Crossmaglen who everyone fancied for the trophy (except na fianna supprters). It came good when Killybegs pushed the lads all the way in the semi.

And finally yesterday it came good when in spite of wind, rain, three goals and time running out the Minors stepped up to the mark and said we will not be beaten we have come too far been through too much we are not going to lose.

And do it they did by gradually sapping the Cavan team's confidence by scoring point after point and winning possession and interceptions to the point where the young gaels could not get out of their own half.

Not only did they refuse to even think about such an idea as defeat but they slowly convinced their mentors that they were in control and they turned a downhearted crowd of supporters into an ever growing loud roar as they pegged the score back without ever seeming to panic.  To be honest they seemed to be the only ones who were not losing heart early in the second half, they had the belief and as we all knew they had the ability. 

Unfortunately I get too involved in games to really be able to write an accurate report so please forgive this attempt.

Thanks lads for the brilliant football, not just yesterday but over the last number of years it has been a pleasure to follow you and watch you grow.  Thanks to the management team all those nights, hours studying tactics, worrying about injuries, cajolling, persuading, begging, demanding, bullying and anything else it takes to get the best out of a group of young boys who might not realise for many a year just what they achieved and were part of in 2007.

The team that we were so lucky to see wear the Fianna jerseys yesterday were;

P. Donnelly, L. O'Neill, K. Corr, S. Hughes, S. Galvin (0-01), L. Wylie, S. McNally(1-0), P. Lyons, S. Curran, N. Fox, B. Toner (0-06 4frees),  P. McNeice, E. Carberry (0-02), T. O'Hagan(0-02), D. Thornton (0-04).

[cavanmaniac]

Ah yes, another Cavan minor team snatches defeat from the jaws of victory.

New Year, same old story by the sounds of it...