Jack helps bring up a family treble

This is the second piece of self-indulgence to appear on these pages this week. Elsewhere you’ll read how great a team Dundalk Gaels are; here it’s all about the Carroll clan, with another mention of Gaels.

I went for a treble at the beginning of the championships, St Mary’s to win senior, Hunterstown Rovers to take the intermediate, and Oliver Plunkets to come out best in junior.

Mary’s came up trumps, but Plunkets fell by the wayside. I’m glad I hadn’t to give another airing to one of Meat Loaf’s best, Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad. To do that would have meant Hunterstown beating Gaels in the intermediate final.

Gaels’ win helped bring up a treble of another kind. The other two winners belong to the latest generation of the clan. Miss Clara was in goals for St Patrick’s in the under-13 championship final with Young Irelands. She saved two penalties in a comfortable win and was awarded with the player-of-the-match trophy.

That put pressure on Clara’s first cousin, Master Jack, a member of the Pat’s minor squad taking on Cooley Kickhams in Sunday’s championship final in Haggardstown.

He didn’t get a run, but the boys on the field did it for him and his colleagues on the bench, turning in a heroic performace to win by two points.

A goalkeeper and a minor championship medal-winner? My basket of sporting achievements doesn’t weigh very heavily, but included is a county team stint as a goalie and a minor championship medal.

My only attempt to get among Gaels’ intermediate championship-winning teams ended in a defeat by Geraldines in the 1979 final.

What a season it’s turning out to be for the St Patrick’s club? That under-13 win is only one of a handful in ladies’ football titles to go to the Lordship this year. Among the others are the senior, junior and minor, and now the boys’ under-17.

And you know what? – the winning streak may not be over. With three of the club’s senior footballers’ golden era, Paddy Keenan and the Finnegan brothers, Ray and Dessie, involved, the juniors could also muscle their way into the winners’ enclosure before the season is out.