No complaints from Collins, only pride in his players

“We just weren’t good enough on the day.” The post-match honesty of Eoghan Collins, the joint manager of St Colman’s College, had been replicated on the pitch by his players who to a man, played until the very last second of Monday’s All-Ireland Post Primary senior ‘A’ football final, even though their hopes of winning had long since faded.

A first appearance in the showpiece of second level football for the Claremorris school since 1981 had evoked an outpouring of emotion – and expectation – all around South Mayo since last month’s semi-final triumph over Colaiste Mhuire of Mullingar. But ultimately, they were unable to win the Hogan Cup that was last lifted by Claremorris hands in 1977.

St Patrick’s of Maghera had one week less to wait for this All-Ireland final, after their semi-final against Mercy Mounthawk – originally due to take place on the same weekend as St Colman’s semi-final – had been postponed on account of weather conditions. Eoghan Collins believes that the shorter wait could have been a factor in the Derry outfit settling better to the challenge at hand in Croke Park on St Patrick’s Day.

“Maybe the week less helped them a bit. The three week break is a hard thing to try and maneuver. There’s always going to be nerves in a big game and they seemed to settle better but look, they had a lot of wides as well and we just couldn’t get our shots off in the first-half.

“There was a nice wind coming from the Hill and we were playing into that but we just didn’t get enough shots off in the first-half,” said Collins, his team having trailed 0-5 to 0-1 at the break and only seeing their deficit grow in the second-half despite the assistance of the wind.

The Maghera outfit kicked a total of thirteen wides but St Colman’s simply couldn’t capitalise on those let offs.

“We’re heartbroken. We just didn’t perform on the day,” Eoghan Collins admitted.

“In the first-half, they probably kept us in it with all their wides, so we were probably lucky to only be four down at half-time. We kicked some stupid ball inside, we weren’t winning it, and then it was just counterattack football from them. We had planned for trying to stop that but I suppose young fellas, the day of a big game, these things that you plan mightn’t just work out.” 

St Patrick’s of Maghera, who had last won the All-Ireland title in 2013, had some serious pedigree on the sideline too, with Derry legends Sean Marty Lockhart and Chrissie McKaigue included in their management team. But for all their dominance, St Colman’s doggedly kept on their coattails and created a number of fourth quarter goal chances. Had one been taken it could have set things up perfectly for a smash and grab win by the boys in red and white Eoghan Collins highlighted the best chance of all, which fell to Darragh Beirne in the 55th minute when St Colman’s were still only trailing by 1-7 to 0-4. There was nothing shabby at all about Beirne’s shot but St Pat’s stopper Jack McCloy pulled off an excellent save to keep his goal intact.

“It would have brought it back to three and we could have pressed that kickout,” lamented Collins. “In fairness, we were winning a lot of their kickouts in the second-half. We just had to go for it in the second-half and that could have put the cat among the pigeons. But it’s all ifs and buts.” Ballyhaunis man Collins, who himself is a dual player of note and a current member of the Mayo hurling panel, hopes the St Colman’s players will draw upon their experiences of the season as a whole and put that to future use for both their individual clubs and the county too.

“They’ll learn from it. It’s disappointing to lose, disappointing to lose an All-Ireland final up here, but I think they’ll develop as footballers and you’ll see a lot of them lads play club football this year and you’ll probably see Darragh and Rio (Mortimer) feature over the next couple of weeks with the Mayo U20s and a couple more with the minors, so there’s a bright future for the squad. Hopefully they drive on as footballers and try and represent their clubs and their county with distinction in the years to come.

“You have to be proud of each and every one of them, the way they carried themselves. They kept on going until the bitter end and unfortunately we just weren’t good enough on the day.”