Pride overrides the hurt of defeat for Brennan

There was pain and there was disappointment but above all else there was pride beaming from Claremorris manager and chairperson Aidan Brennan, as he reflected on Sunday’s loss but more importantly, the overall journey his young Claremorris team have taken supporters on.

Claremorris have thrilled all who have watched them play this season with a swashbuckling style that left opponents dazed and viewers enthralled with the displays of football, as the South Mayo outfit smashed in goals for fun in their run to the All-Ireland club junior final.

O’Donovan Rossa might have denied them their fairytale ending at Parnell Park but Brennan was full of praise for his team, lamenting a bit of luck that did not fall their way.

“Amazingly proud of them,” said the manager afterwards. “They fought right to the very last. They're so young and they just don't give up. They keep going and going and going. I’m absolutely incredibly proud of them.

“Half a post maybe, that was the difference in the end. Another day, it could have gone our way. I thought we didn't get the rub of the green sometimes with some of the decisions. I suppose maybe if it was on the other side I'd be saying the same thing as well. I just feel for the girls who put such an effort in, but they lost nothing in defeat.

“Getting to an All-Ireland final is still a dream. You hate losing. You hate losing any match. I don't think it really has sunk in yet. We tried to keep away from that, what we've done and what we haven't done.

“I think when you look at it back, the age profile of the girls and so on, to get to an All-Ireland final is an incredible journey and to play as well as they've done, not so much getting there but the style of football they've been playing has been great to watch and I hope it's been entertaining for people watching it.” 

While young, Claremorris were not unfazed by the occasion as the 17-year-old duo Bree Hession and Síomha McNulty, and 18-year-old midfielder Alana Fitzpatrick, matched and for long periods bettered their counterparts, with Fitzpatrick holding her own against Cork senior footballer Laura O’Mahony. Brennan believes many of the Claremorris players have futures at county level and that recently appointed Mayo senior manager Liam McHale will have been impressed by what he saw.

“They were up against a county star there at midfield for Skibbereen (O’Mahony) and they held their own. So whoever's looking in, Liam McHale, I think there's girls there with a huge future in front of them.” 

It has still been a wonderful year for this Claremorris team who, in addition to bouncing back into intermediate football next season with Mayo after winning the county junior ‘A’ championship, added a first Connacht club title also. How far they can go, Brennan feels, is ultimately up to the players.

“At the end of it all we were disappointed to be relegated last year so we're only back to where we should have been. It's up to themselves you know. The future is theirs and it depends what they want to do with it,” he remarked.