Double delight for Classy Castledermot
Castledermot's U16 football team with the two trophies they have won this season after they added the A Championship to the Division 1 title won earlier this year
There were wild celebrations in Kilcullen on a crisp, bright Saturday afternoon as Castledermot completed a historic double-winning season by capturing the Kildare U16 A Football Championship. Earlier in the summer, the South Kildare club also claimed the U16 Division 1 title, going unbeaten through both campaigns. Saturday’s victory marked their sixteenth consecutive game without defeat.
Joint-manager John O’Gorman was almost lost for words after the game.
“It’s unbelievable for us. We’re a small village club in the south of Kildare and it’s huge for us.
"We set out a goal when we were under 7 or 8 to get to Division 1 and to be a good level in Division 1. We had a huge achievement at the beginning of the year to win the league. Then to come on and emulate that on a day like today and to beat a fantastic team like Naas. Words don’t come too easily to me for the scale of the achievement, considering the size of the parish,” he said.
Castledermot started brightly, with Harry Buitelaar opening the scoring after a fine run from the left, though Naas quickly replied through Thomas Walsh. After six minutes, full forward Tadhg O’Gorman showed his strength and determination, cutting in from the corner and firing a powerful shot to the net to make it 1-1 to 0-1.
Both defences stood firm for the next ten minutes before Naas’ Sean Higgins and Castledermot’s Henry Gannon traded fine points. Harry O’Gorman and Callum Cowzer added scores to leave it 1-3 to 0-3 on 25 minutes. Naas then enjoyed a purple patch, using their height around midfield, capped by a superb curling two-pointer from Ben Harrington. However, just before the break, Castledermot struck a hammer-blow as Cian Keogh broke through the tight Naas defence to net their second goal. Naas’ Adam Mullins pulled one back, leaving the score 2-3 to 0-6 at half-time.
The first half was a display of the kind of attacking football that the management team have tried to drill into the team since they got together the best part of a decade ago.
“You need the raw materials,” said joint-manager Mark Deering.
“It’s nearly ten years since we started out with the group and in fairness I don’t think we’ve lost many over that time. We set out with vision of getting to Division 1 so we concentrated at the start on getting the numbers because we are a small parish, and the from about 6 to 10 or 12 we concentrated on working on the core skills. It’s really only in the last year, when we got the skills to a certain level, that we started working on how we wanted them to play, what style we wanted to play. Anything we believe in is all attack based and being positive. We’re very much into fast, attacking football and that’s what we’ve instilled into these guys,” he said.
Tadhg O’Gorman extended the lead seconds after the restart, but Naas hit back through Luca McDonnell’s scrambled goal and a Ronan Lenehan point to level matters at 2-4 to 1-7. That, however, was as close as Naas would get.
Castledermot took control in the closing stages with points from Keogh and O’Gorman before sealing victory when Eoghan Ivory White brilliantly set up Henry Gannon for a third goal. Late points from Tadhg Murnane, Callum Dowling, and Gannon capped a famous 3-9 to 1-7 win.
Selector Danny Murnane said the management team had come with a good gameplan but it was the players who crossed the white line who carried that out.
“What we emphasised to them for today was to go back to the core belief for this team, and that’s to attack fast and at pace and then to capitialise on winning the ball back high up the pitch. We had faith in the guys that they’d stick to that plan and to go out and finish the job on the day. It got a bit sticky there when Naas got back level but in the end we won by eight points from a situation where it was level midway through the second half. It was unreal but it was all down to the lads on the field. As coaches we can only prepare them but it’s up to them to turn up. It’s a great achievement and we couldn’t be prouder of them,” he said.
Referee Niall Colgan’s final whistle sparked jubilant celebrations as Castledermot completed an unforgettable double-winning season.
Selector Mark Flood said he never worried when Naas came back to level the game.
“We were in Raheens, six point down with five minutes to go and we came back and drew it level and then won in extra time, that was the first round of the Championship. We were in Naas, a big wind on the day, and they came at us and threw everything at us and we still managed to come away with a draw. The game against Clane a couple of weeks ago was the same, they got back level but we kicked a two pointer and went on there. This team is always the same, they let their football do the talking,” he said.
Lucas Tansey, Oscar Chatten, Tadhg Murnane, Aaron Brady, Henry Gannon 1-2, Harry Bryan, Harry Buitelaar 0-1, Harry O’Gorman 0-1, Finn Deering, Cian Keogh 1-1, Greg Kelly, Eoghan Ivory White, Callum Dowling 0-1, Tadhg O’Gorman 1-2 (1f), Toirin Flood.
Charlie Higginson, Conor Harmon, Greg O’Shea, Oisin Deering, Tommy O’Shea, Aodhan Bergin.
Jack Logan, Gavriel Abella, Tadhg O’Neill, Cathal Griffin, Oliver Dlhos, Harry Feely, Adam Mullins 0-1, Oran Sherry, Ronan Lenehan 0-1, Sean Higgins 0-1, Callum Cowzer 0-1, Ben Harrington 0-2 (tp), Kieran Loughran, Thomas Walsh 0-1, Cian O’Connor.
Alan Smyth, Luca McDonnell 1-0, Hugh Costello, Cuan Og Mac Aogain, Matthew McCarthy, James Lennon.
