The team that has it all

There is no doubt about their footballing ability, even a fool could work that one out, but it is quite something to see a team that has won everything come out and play as if they haven’t won anything at all. That hunger, resolve, mental strength, call it what you will, is normally something you associate with a seasoned team that have been on the road for a long time.

Athy haven’t really known any hardship yet and still they can come out on a harsh winter’s day, when they have all the reasons in the world not to be up for it, and produce the goods. In Sunday’s under-21 final, Naas just couldn’t live with that.

Take nothing away from the losers, they worked hard and did as much as they could but they were playing what could well be the best under-21 team in the country. This is, by and large, the same side that narrowly lost to Garrycastle in a Leinster senior club semi-final, the same Garrycastle who beat Dublin’s St Brigid’s in the Leinster final.

There were five points in it at the end but take away Naas’ goals and you get a fairer reflection of the gulf in class. No one has been able to lay a glove on Athy in this year’s under-21 championship. In the three years since this group were at minor level, they have accelerated away from the rest of the pack.

The club deserves huge credit for transforming their underage stars into serious adult footballers but how quickly it’s been achieved is something that only the players that can be credited for. How else could you explain their ability to keep focused on winning an under-21 title while also trying to progress through a Leinster senior club campaign?

For most teams that would have been a hindrance but Athy have carried on as if it was no handicap at all. This has been a 12-month season for them and they were still going strong in the last ten minutes of Sunday’s final. In the last 15 minutes against Naas, they scored 1-4. Up until that point, the game was in the balance, just one point separating the sides on a day that demanded guts if you were to have any glory.

And yet Athy looked like the fresher team in the closing stages. They closed out their win in style and never looked unduly worried about the fact that Naas had got to within a point after half-time.

To be able to say they stood that close to their opponents so late in the day is no small achievement for Naas and when they look beyond the disappointment of losing this final, they should be able to see that as a real consolation.

They had set out to stop their opponents from playing and initially it paid dividends but that’s not enough against any team. Their full-back line, even with plenty of men back in support, couldn’t cope with James Eaton and Darroch Mulhall. Naas did as well as they could in the middle but their lack of composure in possession cost them dearly and they coughed up the ball too cheaply, too often.

Two Athy half-backs scored in the first half which showed how dominant that line were for the champions. David Hyland was just immense, a magnet for the ball and undaunted every time he came into possession.The Naas half-forward line never really got a look in.

Liam McGovern was another magnet for possession in the first half but his work-rate was pheomenal and his point, Athy’s first of the day, highlighted it perfectly. He made a fine tackle to win possession first of all and then he got forward, finishing up on the end of the move that followed to kick his side’s opening score.

Against most teams, Ross Kelly and Eoin Doyle would dominate midfield, but they were spectators for most of the first half and Kelly’s cause wasn’t helped when he picked up a cheap yellow card early in the game.

Athy should have had at least two goals on the board at the break and possibly a third so Naas were blessed to trail by just two points at half-time.

Opening the scoring in the second half, as they had done in the first, was a real statement of intent from Naas. Eoin Doyle’s classy point suggested his side might turn things around but Athy got the all important next score and never allowed their opponents to build any momentum. There was only one occasion in the whole game that Naas were able to put scores back to back and after Ronan Joyce pointed a free to get within one again early in the second half, Athy kept them scoreless until injury time.

It might have taken Athy a bit of time to reassert their dominance but when they rediscovered their scoring touch, the game was quickly put to bed. They could just as easily have it done it in the first half when Feely had a shot saved and Mulhall had a goal disallowed.

Naas could have been nine points down after a quarter of an hour. That, more than anything, tells you just how good Athy have been in 2011 because the same trait was evident in the senior county final against Carbury.

The rest of Kildare’s clubs are going to have a very hard time trying to figure out how to stop them in 2012.