MINOR PREMIER CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL: 

DONAGHMORE ASHBOURNE 3-12  DUNBOYNE 4-5

IT’S not too often you have a home Championship final, never mind one that bottoms out, ebbs, flows and then peaks like this one did. 

The club had won a toss for home venue earlier in the week and it wasn’t the first break the team would catch, but in the end the players made their own luck too. 

The unfolding drama in the second half built and built, first gripping the crowd, then dragging them along on a thrilling tidal wave of emotion before a rousing crescendo - built on green jerseys scraping for every ball and pouring forward at will - that brought a scarcely believable finale.

Sometimes you can forget these players - on both sides - are just 15, 16 and 17 year olds - some maybe 14.

The pressure some carry, the entertainment they provide and the courage they have to go and put themselves out there should not be taken for granted.

It would be easier to sit at home on the PlayStation.  

Few could have seen this ending coming when we trailed by 10 points at the break.

But it went from despair to delirium in a finale that will live long in the memory. 

It didn’t look good for long spells as Dunboyne, playing with the wind, built a 10-point half-time lead that was fully deserved.  

But anyone who knows Pitch 1 understands that the game is rarely over when you’re playing towards the village end in the second half, although the breeze wasn’t huge on this occasion.  

They also know how difficult it is to get your own kickout away at this end of the field and how easily you can be hemmed in. 

Both sides, playing towards Pitch 2 and into the breeze, managed just one score from play apiece.

Callum Thomas fisted over a Niall Lawless centre for us.

The team started well in the first seven or eight minutes, but it wasn’t translated onto the scoreboard with a series of wides and we were duly punished at the other end of the field. 

Every turnover, many of them avoidable and coming from handling errors or iffy decisions, saw the ball transferred quickly to the other side of the field and our full back line was left short of cover.

In the lead-up to half time the floodgates opened and Dunboyne hit two goals to go in 3-5 to 0-4 up at the break. 

A panel effort would be required and subs came in to try and kickstart a fightback. 

Throughout, the team struggled to win any ball in the air but from about 10 minutes into the second half on, we started breaking the opposition kickout to great effect and showed real hunger and excellent anticipation to dominate possession for the final 20 minutes.  

David Soden did a big job for the team here when he moved to number six with Fionn Mulvihill also helping to shore up the defence. 

Dunboyne were hemmed in on their own kickout, just as we were in the first half. 

A goal was needed though and after a couple of near misses - we hit the side netting twice in the second half and the post from a deflected 45 - it arrived courtesy of Callum Buckley.

His run up the middle caused panic and resulted in a penalty, which he coolly converted to the bottom corner. 

Then the points started to flow with Buckely hitting one and also converting a free.

Aidan Keogh and Callum Keogh tagged on fine points from play and with the team in a state of flow suddenly it was level with five minutes on the clock.

We had all the momentum but were hit with the ultimate hammer blow as a Dunboyne point effort dropped short to an unmarked man, who fired a bullet to the corner of the net and we were three behind again. 

Could we start all over again?

The team persevered and added to a long list of huge turnovers on the stand side, which really got the crowd into the game.

Ross Wilson put in a massive shift in this area of the field, starting at midfield and moving to wing back, while vice captain Daithi Kinahan was like Road Runner, delivering a relentless display of hard running and support play.

Still, it felt like a goal was required and when Sean McCarthy went raiding and Buckley squared it, his centre was palmed to the net by Callum Thomas, the big paw accounting for 1-1 overall and he wasn’t done yet. 

Level again with time almost up.

Then a high ball was centred and with Thomas in around it again, making it awkward, in nipped Cieran Dunican to fly kick to the net. 

We could scarcely believe it. 

Three up.

The next kick out was duly recovered and if a man deserved to round off this win for his unrelenting effort it was midfielder Lawless, who slotted over the insurance point to jubilant scenes. 

Right hand bounce, left foot finish. Super skills. 

The game just won in the dying seconds though. 

There were big moments throughout, including a sensational save from Pauric Gaughan at his near post in the closing stages, a huge catch from Scott Thomas late on, and a scrap on the endline from Darragh McCabe when he looked like he might be pushed off it, but won a crucial ball he had no right to get. 

Alex McAdam had a couple of huge second half plays around the opposition kickout and was tidy on the ball, while Ben Condon was about to hit the net in the first half with a surging run before being pulled back again.

All those tiny grains of rice proved to be really big plays that eventually tipped the scales. 

They were all required in what was a huge squad effort with Mikey Lematy, Thomas O’Riordan and Philip Carragher getting on the ball and moving it out from the back into the breeze in the first half when the team were under the cosh and it was difficult to play.

TJ Doyle made a major impact, putting in hits and breaking up play. 

By the end the boys certainly deserved their curry in the club.

William Carr, who never stopped showing and working, was a model skipper all year, and boy did he enjoy going up the other famous steps - who needs the Hogan Stand - to lift that Cup.

Carr, a bit like Peter Canavan in 2003, gave his own version of ‘There’s no other place I’d rather be.’

“What a place to be, to lift a cup.’

Dunboyne put up a huge fight, showing a lot of quality throughout, and they duly franked that the next day by winning the Division 1 Championship final at Pairc Tailteann after extra-time. 

Special thanks to our Division 1 players who continued to turn up at training and drive the Premier side on over the last number of weeks despite their campaign not ending how we had hoped it would. 

Championships are not easy won and this one certainly wasn’t.

Quite a few of the lads on show were lifting their first piece of silverware for the club in their last juvenile game, and even this year some of them had lost a Group B Final and a Division 6 League final. 

They were there or thereabouts, but at the weekend they got over the line. 

What a way to sign off - for now at least.