Championship wins for Mary’s, Cooley and Parnells a throw-back to other days

Draw a line from Tullyallen to Termonfeckin, attach three clubs to it and you have the winners of last year’s major Louth championships.

Naomh Mairtin retained the Joe Ward Cup, St Fechin’s made Cooley Kickhams wait for another twelve months by winning the intermediate, and Glen Emmets got their hands on the Christy Bellew Cup for the third time in a decade.

There’s been a wider spread this time. Okay, so St Mary’s and Stabannon Parnells are neighbours – mind you, not always on the best terms with each other, certainly not in times gone by – but it’s at the other end of the county, admittedly not a thousand miles away, where Cooley Kickhams prepared for their intermediate win.

Mary’s, of course, won the big one, while Stabannon welcomed the junior to their part of the county for the first time in almost half a century.

This is all a throw-back, first of all to the 1940s and ‘50s, when there were few around better than Mary’s and Stabannon. A couple of decades later Cooley took charge, dominating in the highest grade.

Mary’s claimed six of their now-eleven titles between 1946 and ’60. Stabannon were supreme just twice in the same period, but that didn’t diminish the stout opposition they provided for the team from Ardee and others around the county.

Backboned by the Conlon brothers, the games Parnells played against Mary’s were fiercely contested, and with Dundalk teams, Young Irelands and Gaels, also in the mix, the standard was good enough to provide the county with teams capable of contesting two All-Ireland finals, winning one of them.

Sizeable championship gaps were closed over the past couple of Sundays. The one most spoken about was St Mary’s. Twenty-seven years they had gone without winning the senior, and even longer – 32 years – had lapsed before Cooley added to their 1990 Joe Ward win.

Almost unnoticed, 22 years had slipped by – before their recent success – with Stabannon failing to add to the sixth of their senior titles, in 1999.

When Stabannon won their second senior in 1954, beating who else but St Mary’s in the final, Paddy Butterly was at left-half forward with Brian Reynolds on the square. Both celebrated when Parnells had their next success in the competition, 37 years later, and with very good reason – each had sons playing.

Now comes the next generation, Bobby and Harry Butterly and Sean Reynolds among the younger set who subscribed to this year’s replay win over Glyde Rangers. It’s continuity likes this that provides the lifeblood for clubs, and when it has success linked along the way, well, that makes it all the sweeter.

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Mickey Rooney is not the first St Mary’s chairman to have also won a senior championship medal. There are many in other clubs, and to find one in Pairc Mhuire, the redoubtable Mickey has only to check with the most recent of his clubmen to raise the Joe Ward Cup, prior to RJ Callaghan.

Brendan Kerin did his bit in the 1995 final, and after retiring from the game took charge of club affairs. The former county player had Rooney and his three brothers, Gerry, Ken and Alan among his colleagues for the defeat of St Patrick’s.

However, it is doubtful if any of those who have ever headed the list of officers that have done such Trojan work to promote the club, making it better, than Mickey, who, when he’s not shouting instructions, is shouting the odds at the dog track, or shouting a hound home that he has bought to race in the name of a local syndicate.

Pairc Mhuire, chosen by Mickey Harte for home matches in the most recent of Louth’s league campaign, is always well turned out; but more important than even facilities, teams are well prepared, and are winners, and when one of those teams is in the under-17 grade, there’s reason to believe more success will follow further up the line.

That win for the chairman was extra special in that his twin brother, Alan, was a selector, and one of his sons, Ryan, was on the panel, coming on near the end of the match.

It’s always good to see a veteran get a reward. We all remember the joy there was when the now-lamented Stephen Melia collected a senior medal for the first time, his St Joseph’s side beating the odds-on St Patrick’s in 2006. The most capped Louth player of all time was 44 at the time.

Ronan Carroll, Brian White and Derek Crilly are not there yet, and might not try to stay the same course. They’ve all given outstanding service to club and county, and, having together been denied a Leinster win in 2010, are fully deserving of this year’s accolades. Same goes for Carroll’s colleague, Darren Clarke.

And what about Stabannon goalie, Anthony Briscoe? At 47, he’s old enough to be a grandfather to some of his colleagues and is still well able to stop a shot. He’s also a referee.

Cooley will say they have bigger fish to fry. While welcome, the intermediate is just a stepping-stone to where they were in the late 1970s, when the Joe Ward spent three successive years on the peninsula. And it was there a number times before and after that. Their first year back will be a good test.

There was only one team that could retain its title this year, Glen Emmets and St Fechin’s having been promoted. Naomh Mairtin never really looked as confident as they did in their title-winning seasons, and that may be attributable to their talisman, Sam Mulroy, not being entirely free of injury.

Yet, when the champions got to the semi-final stage, and then went well clear of St Mary’s, admittedly when assisted by a strong breeze, they were the ones who’d have been most anxious to know how Newtown Blues fared in their semi-final with Geraldines later in the day.

It’s not the first time Mairtin’s did a ‘Devon Loch’, giving way to Mary’s on the day of the competition’s first long count. It happened to them in a previous final, and though the circumstances were different from the day they were caught by Blues in the 2018 final, it’s still one followers think they should have won.

The second long count came in the final replay, referee, Kevin Brady, going on for an extra 13 minutes, three more than Derek Ryan did in the Mary’s/Mairtin’s semi-final. Diligent clockmen say both got it right.

And there are many who think Brady, reading from the same hymn sheet as Ultan McElroy, who had charge of the drawn final, was right not to give frees easily. They contend that had either official been more strict, we wouldn’t have had such spectacles, two of the best finals in a long time.

To finish this review, a word about two words littering more and more chats when it comes to teams’ preparation: strength, conditioning.

They now play a key role in the drill, and when you look at the St Brigid’s Park last Sunday week you wonder would players have been able to withstand the fierce but fair tackling that went on, had their training been crowded with just sprints, laps and leapfrogs – and no gym work.