Parke KC Connacht Junior Club Champions

Started by Peter Solan the Great, October 06, 2010, 09:46:43 PM

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Peter Solan the Great

http://www.mayonews.ie/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10989:islandeady-to-end-famine-against-parke&catid=14&Itemid=100008

Islandeady to end famine


Preview
Mike Finnerty

IT will be just like old times for the followers of Islandeady and Parke next Sunday as they make the short journey to McHale Park, Castlebar in search of silverware and, perhaps more importantly, the local bragging rights in their West Mayo constituencies.
It is a big day for both clubs; Islandeady, the slight favourites, bidding to win the McDonnell Cup for the first time since 1985, and Parke, without a county junior championship since the halcyon days of 1997. For one of these proud, rural clubs, the famine is almost over.
On the injury front, Islandeady will definitely be without Brian McCormack who sustained a 'bad' elbow injury against Castlebar in the quarter-final while Paul Ruane (groin and knee) is unable to start and is 'touch and go' to come off the bench.
Parke are planning without Richard O'Boyle but everybody else is fit and raring to go.
Islandeady manager Tommy Gibbons (whose selectors are his father, Tommy Francis, Gerry Feeney and Brendan Gibbons) knows his team have been tipped for outright honours since before a ball was kicked. However, he is under no illusions about the task ahead.
"The fact that we've been playing in Division 1B of the league means that we were in the spotlight a lot more than some of the other teams," he told The Mayo News. "We're also playing good quality sides week in, week out, and it's been a good division for our U-21s and minors to be playing in. It's helped them immensely.
"Plus, the fact that a lot of our more experienced players, like the Feeneys, Peter Collins, and Cormac Gordon were playing for West Mayo in the senior championship brought them on a lot as well. Expectations are higher as a result of all of that. That's something we've had to deal with.
"But Parke are a very settled, very experienced, and physically strong team. They'll present a huge challenge for us and I think there'll only be a kick of the ball in it."
Parke manager, Frank McHale, is quick to point to the arrival of Niall Dunne, Dwayne Flynn and Fintan McHale last year as being a big boost to his team's goals and objectives.
And despite knocking them out in last year's quarter-finals, he has plenty of time for his opponents too. "Islandeady are always a hard team to beat. They're tough, hard and clean, a fine young junior team.
"They're favourites," he continued. "They had eleven lads playing with West Mayo in the senior championship and they're operating at a higher level in the league than us. It's theirs to lose."
Understandably, Tommy Gibbons doesn't see it quite like that. He has had to build a team, twice, since taking on the job at the start of last season. Plus, Islandeady almost came a cropper against Castlebar B last month.
"We had to rebuild the team and, thankfully, there were a lot of new players coming through. Then we got hit hard with emigration and lost seven or eight players, the likes of Stephen Staunton, Brian Heraty, Joe Corcoran and David O'Brien.
"That meant we had to bring through U-21s and minors and, essentially, construct a completely new team again, bar the few regulars.
"The quarter-final against Castlebar Mitchels B was a very, very difficult game for us. We have an extremely poor record against their B teams in the last 20 years and winning that match got a monkey off our back."
Next Sunday, Ollie Feeney and friends should have just enough to finish the job.

Verdict Islandeady

Peter Solan the Great

http://www.mayonews.ie/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10988:when-islandeady-beat-parke-to-win-the-west&catid=14&Itemid=100008

How the West was won


Islandeady's Shane Hopkins and Parke's Joe Flynn recall the 1990 West Junior final

Memory lane
Daniel Carey

ISLANDEADY and Parke face off next Sunday – 20 years after they met in the 1990 West Mayo Junior 'A' Football Championship decider.
Islandeady's Shane Hopkins got the 44th-minute goal which Pádraig Burns identified in The Mayo News as "the score that turned the game". Asked to reflect on it, the corner forward who was subsequently voted man of the match modestly puts it "down to luck", and jokes that the man who gave him the pass "ran out of options".
Parke goalkeeper Pat Flannery had made great early saves from Tommy Gibbons and Michael Horan. "The keeper had a massive game," Hopkins recalled. "Big man, and impossible to beat. I remember getting scolded at half time got not putting the ball over the bar!" Des Ryan made a super stop for Islandeady towards the end of the match.
Hopkins's goal was the second of the day, Joe Flynn having converted a first-half penalty for the opposition. "It was the only one I ever took for Parke in my time playing football," Flynn recalls with a laugh. It followed a foul on full-forward Martin Kilroy, who was "the real character of the team" according to Flynn.
Islandeady were, Hopkins explains, "a mixture" of young players like himself, Brendan Horan, Tony Collins and Tommy Gibbons, and more experienced guys like Jimmy McGreevy, Joe Moylette and Michael Sweeney – the latter two had won county titles in 1974.
"The West final was a special day," says Hopkins. "There was always a great atmosphere in Westport, and you were obviously playing a local team, guys you'd have gone to school with in Castlebar."
"It was a huge thing," Flynn concurs. "The West was always the hardest division to win. It was a really big day in Westport. There were always big crowds, they'd have the Achill Pipe Band there and a parade before the match."
Funnily enough, two earlier Parke successes came outside of Westport – they beat Mitchels in Castlebar in 1976, and defeated Achill in Newport in 1981. The '76 team was managed by Brian McDonald, later Mayo boss, whose words ("If you get nine or ten players playing well in a final, you'll probably win it) Flynn can still recall. Many of the players were also soccer team-mates at Barcastle and Castlebar United, while Danny Lawless (who missed the 1990 final due to injury, and was badly missed) regularly scored goals for Castlebar Celtic.
Islandeady won the 1990 final by 1-10 to 1-5 before losing the county semi-final to eventual winners Ballinrobe. It wasn't a classic – John Melvin reckoned videos of the match "may not be quite in the same demand as exit visas from Kuwait" (the Iraqi invasion had occurred the previous month). But it was a second West title in three years for Islandeady. That mean a trip to the Halfway "for a few Cokes and Lucozades – we didn't get a civic reception!" says Hopkins with a laugh.
That result followed a remarkable turnaround in the semi-final, where Islandeady beat Louisburgh despite conceding three early goals. "We didn't get the ball up into the forwards for the first 15 minutes," Hopkins recalls. "They had us on the rack". Goals from Hopkins, Paul McDonnell and Brendan Horan helped turn the tide.
Parke, for their part, had done well to see off a fancied Kilmeena side at the penultimate stage. Flynn thinks that was the day "practically all the teams" left a wedding in Castlebar to play the West semi-final, and having won the game, the Parke lads returned to the nuptials in good spirits. "The wedding was in the Welcome Inn, and Tony McHugh, God rest him, made sure there was a meal kept for us!"
Both of the current managers – Tommy Gibbons and Frank McHale – played in 1990. Gibbons's father Tommy Francis, then the Islandeady manager, is now a selector. Tony Collins is in the squad. The evergreen Brendan Horan is still playing.
"The young lads coming through have no fear," says Hopkins, who played until 2007. "There's greater dedication ... and a different attitude in Islandeady at the moment. The core of the team are demanding a higher standard from the fellas around them."
Flynn's nephews Dwayne and Darren will be involved, while Harry is currently recuperating after an operation. He was manager of the Junior B team this year, and expects a tight game.
"It's hard to call," he says. "The fact that some of the players played together for West Mayo will add a bit more spice to it. There's a lot of good players on each team, and a hop of a ball could swing it."

Islandeady
D Ryan; T Collins, M Heraty, S Barrett; J Moylette, E McCormack, P McDonnell; M Horan, M Joyce; D Conway, T Gibbons, J McGreevy; B Horan, M Sweeney, S Hopkins.

Parke
P Flannery; M Keaveney, M Lynch, Matt McHale; G Tierney, F McHale, S Lynch; P Kearney, Pádraig Reilly; P McHale, J Flynn, M Barrett; S Cloherty, M Kilroy, Michael McHale.

Subs used: Paul Reilly, G McDonagh.

RedandGreenSniper

Really looking forward to this game. But is there a need for a separate thread Peter? It would be sound in the club thread.
Mayo for Sam! Just don't ask me for a year

Peter Solan the Great

Quote from: RedandGreenSniper on October 07, 2010, 10:29:02 AM
Really looking forward to this game. But is there a need for a separate thread Peter? It would be sound in the club thread.

In fairness its a county final. I think each of the Finals from Senior down to Junior should get its own thread

Farrandeelin

So we'll get PSTG posting a new one every year then??
Inaugural Football Championship Prediction Winner.

westmayo

Hopefully it'll be better than last years championship game between the two. The crowd actually jeering when Islandeady finally landed the only point of the first half a couple of minutes into injury time, was a particular highlight.

Peter Solan the Great

Quote from: Farrandeelin on October 07, 2010, 04:00:59 PM
So we'll get PSTG posting a new one every year then??

Whats wrong about posting a thread about a county final?

From the Bunker

Quote from: Peter Solan the Great on October 07, 2010, 08:04:16 PM
Quote from: Farrandeelin on October 07, 2010, 04:00:59 PM
So we'll get PSTG posting a new one every year then??

Whats wrong about posting a thread about a county final?

No harm in a seperate thread, jez it's a County final and of great interest to the GAA people of the greater Castlebar area.


Farrandeelin

Quote from: Peter Solan the Great on October 07, 2010, 08:04:16 PM
Quote from: Farrandeelin on October 07, 2010, 04:00:59 PM
So we'll get PSTG posting a new one every year then??

Whats wrong about posting a thread about a county final?

What I mean is, that will you post a thread for every single county final in the next 10 years? Also there is the Mayo Club Football thread.
Inaugural Football Championship Prediction Winner.

Peter Solan the Great

#10
Quote from: Farrandeelin on October 08, 2010, 06:58:21 PM
Quote from: Peter Solan the Great on October 07, 2010, 08:04:16 PM
Quote from: Farrandeelin on October 07, 2010, 04:00:59 PM
So we'll get PSTG posting a new one every year then??

Whats wrong about posting a thread about a county final?

What I mean is, that will you post a thread for every single county final in the next 10 years? Also there is the Mayo Club Football thread.

A whole county mayo forum and you want a single thread for all mayo club football. Whats wrong with having a county final thread? its a fooking county final for gods sake. If Knockmore were in one you would not be objecting.

Aquick edit would you mind fooking off if you have nothing to contribute except for complaining. Not my fault that anyone from outside west mayo couldnt make the final.

mayogodhelpus@gmail.com

Quote from: Peter Solan the Great on October 08, 2010, 11:56:42 PM
Quote from: Farrandeelin on October 08, 2010, 06:58:21 PM
Quote from: Peter Solan the Great on October 07, 2010, 08:04:16 PM
Quote from: Farrandeelin on October 07, 2010, 04:00:59 PM
So we'll get PSTG posting a new one every year then??

Whats wrong about posting a thread about a county final?

It's no harm having one PSTG, can always edit the team names next year in the Subject.

What I mean is, that will you post a thread for every single county final in the next 10 years? Also there is the Mayo Club Football thread.

A whole county mayo forum and you want a single thread for all mayo club football. Whats wrong with having a county final thread? its a fooking county final for gods sake. If Knockmore were in one you would not be objecting.

Aquick edit would you mind fooking off if you have nothing to contribute except for complaining. Not my fault that anyone from outside west mayo couldnt make the final.
Time to take a more chill-pill approach to life.

Farrandeelin

Quote from: Peter Solan the Great on October 08, 2010, 11:56:42 PM
Quote from: Farrandeelin on October 08, 2010, 06:58:21 PM
Quote from: Peter Solan the Great on October 07, 2010, 08:04:16 PM
Quote from: Farrandeelin on October 07, 2010, 04:00:59 PM
So we'll get PSTG posting a new one every year then??

Whats wrong about posting a thread about a county final?

What I mean is, that will you post a thread for every single county final in the next 10 years? Also there is the Mayo Club Football thread.

A whole county mayo forum and you want a single thread for all mayo club football. Whats wrong with having a county final thread? its a fooking county final for gods sake. If Knockmore were in one you would not be objecting.

Aquick edit would you mind fooking off if you have nothing to contribute except for complaining. Not my fault that anyone from outside west mayo couldnt make the final.

No need to tell me what I should or should not do. It's not my fault either.
Inaugural Football Championship Prediction Winner.

mayogodhelpus@gmail.com

Quote from: Farrandeelin on October 09, 2010, 08:04:53 PM
Quote from: Peter Solan the Great on October 08, 2010, 11:56:42 PM
Quote from: Farrandeelin on October 08, 2010, 06:58:21 PM
Quote from: Peter Solan the Great on October 07, 2010, 08:04:16 PM
Quote from: Farrandeelin on October 07, 2010, 04:00:59 PM
So we'll get PSTG posting a new one every year then??

Whats wrong about posting a thread about a county final?

What I mean is, that will you post a thread for every single county final in the next 10 years? Also there is the Mayo Club Football thread.

A whole county mayo forum and you want a single thread for all mayo club football. Whats wrong with having a county final thread? its a fooking county final for gods sake. If Knockmore were in one you would not be objecting.

Aquick edit would you mind fooking off if you have nothing to contribute except for complaining. Not my fault that anyone from outside west mayo couldnt make the final.

No need to tell me what I should or should not do. It's not my fault either.

No one has made any real contribution to this thread, me included, all I know about either team, is that I went to school with a few of the lads or they where a year above or below. So I'm pleased that they all getting a shot at a County Title. Has anyone actully watched either of these teams this year, last time I saw Islaneady play it was a few years back in a County Final V Achill I think (was Kiltimagh and Ballintubber in a Final on the same day?), last time I saw Parke was a challenge game against a Mitchels Junior team earlier this year.
Time to take a more chill-pill approach to life.

Farrandeelin

I was at Parke's semi-final against Lahardane. They were well desering winners of it. Lahardane were without Cormac Rowland however, and I was talking to a Lahardane person who said he never saw them play so poorly all year. Don't know much about Islandeady, but they plied their trade in Division 1B, Parke in Division 1C, so I imagine Islandeady would be slight favourites to win. There, I made some kind of constructive contribution. I also hope whoever wins this game goes as far as Kiltimagh did last Spring, this time win the AI final.
Inaugural Football Championship Prediction Winner.