Trying to predict the outcome of sporting events, or maybe anything in life is predicated on things going according to script, as it were. The thing is, though, time and experience are very much showing, though, that Wolfe Tones are very much of a mind to write and produce their own scripts.
Going back as far as when Pat Brennan captained St John’s – as they were then – to win the Meath IFC in 1974 and defeat Summerhill in the first round of the SFC the following year. A Summerhill team that, ironically, would go on to lift the Keegan Cup later that year and for the three which followed.
Fast forward 30 years from ‘Pongo’ Brennan’s finest hour and the Tones – as they had become by then – began an even more remarkable chapter in their ever burgeoning history. Winning the Meath JFC – where they had been for my entire life up to that point – in 2004.
Twelve months on from that, they sidestepped the challenge of Duleek-Bellewstown to go straight from Junior to Senior in the space of three seasons.
Before going to discuss how they, almost inevitably, beat Navan O’Mahonys in 2006, I must first go back. To what I’m 99% sure was the intermediate semi against Nobber.
When a 19-year-old Cian Ward scored the greatest goal I have ever seen in club football. It would stand alone as the greatest bar none were it not for Kevin Foley’s. The mercurial forward takes a quick line ball to Alan Fox out under the Pairc Tailteann terrace, after a quick 1-2, Ward proceeds to slalom towards goal better than any Winter Olympic skier before burying an absolute rocket into the Hospital end.
The incomparable Cian Ward
After their capturing of Tom Keegan in 2006, they lost another showpiece shortly thereafter to a Seneschalstown outfit who were a bit ahead of the rest of the pack at that time. In more ways than one.
Although it would be a whole 15 years before the blue riband would be again bedecked in purple and gold. As is their penchant, they sort of upset the apple cart that time too. Defeating a Summerhill side that had been knocking around the business end of nearly a half dozen consecutive championships at that stage.
That may have been an upset, but their usurpation of Dunboyne in the County Final was considered a seismic shock. Not by me, mind you, because if ever there was a GAA team who espoused the Munster Rugby mantra – To the brave and the faithful nothing is impossible – it’s Tones.
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Back then, that manifested itself as Saran O’Fionnagain netting in the fifth minute and giving the Kilberry outfit a lead they would never relinquish. Thus denying the black and amber a fourth Keegan Cup triumph while garnering a second for themselves. That would have been considered quite the shock by most at the time, because their opponents had arrived in the final unbeaten and at the time – personal bias aside – it would have been difficult to find a weakness in those who were then Conor O’Donoghue’s charges.
Saran O’Fionnagain is a man for the big occasion
Yet after the grandson of the late, great Fintan Ginnity slipped the ball past Cian Flynn in the Dunboyne goal, an foireann on Gaeltacht set up a defensive phalanx that their opponents could at no stage breach.
Jump on three years and, in a roundabout kind of way, St Peter’s are actually a decent yardstick to judge the progress their old rivals have made this season.
You see, after scraping past Gaeil Colmcille in the opening round, Dunboyne had four points to spare over Adam O’Neill et al in round two of the of group stages.
Thereafter, Paddy Martin’s charges produced two displays of equal efficiency against Curraha in the last round of the group stages and neighbours Simonstown in the last eight.
On Sunday last however, the mind was cast back to that IFC semi final of 2005 and the occasion of perhaps the greatest display of Ward wizardry. Here, the Oristown/Kilberry/Gibbstown men produced a performance of equal if not even greater collective excellence.
They needed every ounce of it too. As a typically redoubtable, obdurate Skryne side played their own heroic part in what was far and away the best match in the Meath SFC this season.
Martin’s men had actually shipped a heavy blow before the ball was even thrown in when accomplished wing back Dan O’Neill was injured in the warm up.
But, as the great teams always do, the purple and gold adapted and, though it was Mick O’Dowd’s men who were first from the stalls with scores from Niall Finnerty (two) and Darragh Campion, with Thomas O’Reilly in imperious form, he and his colleagues had gained parity (0-06 apiece) by the change of ends.
The first major plot twist arrived nine minutes into the second half when Stephen O’Brien was black carded for the exact same indisgression as the Dunshaughlin corner back had got away with less than 24 hours earlier.
Quite the impact it had on matters too. Because, by the time the No. 2 resumed in the fray, Skryne had fallen 0-08 to 2-08 in arrears. Tones’ goals coming from a Caolan Ward penalty – earned by older brother Fiachra – and O’Fionnagain 33 seconds later.
The latter after the majestic Shane Glynn soared nonchalantly into the clouds and pulled down the otherwise excellent Ian Gillette’s rapid restart. Whereupon the notional full back sent a laser guided long range missile into the bustling No. 11 who drilled low and saved the umpire the job of putting the green flag down.
Still, the famed blue and white came again. Darragh Campion (two, one massive free) knotted matters once again and sent both sides delving into their energy reserves to face into an extra twenty minutes.
Darragh Campion must surely be part of Robbie Brennan’s plans
Spectators, too, probably needed a refuel. Now, unsurprisingly, the Tara team got a serious injection of momentum from their act of escapology, literally sprinting down the tunnel at the end of normal time.
Again however, it wss Skryne who rose the first dust cloud of extra time, as scores from the mesmeric Niall Finnerty and Campion put the boot down on the diesel pedal. Done deal? Not yet.
It would probably be fairly well accepted that to win anything in any sport, you need who or whatever it is sowing the seeds far away to look kindly on you every so often. Kyle Moran surely understands. The Tones substitute was probably ashen faced when, after he was off target with a glorious goal chance, O’Dowd’s doughty fighters dug in and pulled themselves away from the precipice.
From his perspective though, the reprieve granted to those in the other corner looked like being fully drawn down upon when Skryne posted the first couple of scores of the extra time period. The adversaries on this occasion, though, don’t conform to norms.
Hence Moran got on the end of a move very typical of the team, glorious in its inevitability about the outcome – the substitute rolling the ball under Gillett who, despite giving the best he could get of his goalkeeping expertise, couldn’t keep it out.
However, again, those from the home of the High Kings refused to buckle and when a long ball in by the introduced Neil Burke was fisted to the net, it appeared Meath football’s great survivors were about to demonstrate just why they are titled thus.
It was at that stage of the day that Al Paccino’s Inches speech came into play. Moran was again the conductor of the orchestra as he produced a crescendo of a conclusion in duet with midfielder Sean Penny who – upon receipt of possession – ran like Forrest Gump and netted in a fashion very similar to how Ryan Giggs did in the FA Cup semi final replay of 1998.
Dunshaughlin will probably still start favourites in the final, but to paraphrase a mantra often deployed by a certain English soccer team, they are Wolfe Tones, they won’t care!