Resounding victory for St Joseph’s in U20 Division 3 final

St Joseph’s produced a fine performance to land the U20 football Division 3 title with a resounding victory over Delvin/St Paul’s (4-8 to 0-5) at Shandonagh on Sunday.

Ronan McDonnell, joint manager of the successful St Joseph's side, said it was a significant achievement for the club and he is hoping it will transfer into success at adult level. The club reached their first junior final in 20 years just a matter of a few weeks ago and they are now aiming to build on a great year.

“It’s a great day for the club,” he said. “To get a bit of silverware at the end of the year is much needed. We've put a lot of work into these players since they were under six. It's great to see them make another final. They've made a few up along the way, but it's great to win today. It's reward for all our efforts.”

After losing the junior final against Castletown-Finea/Coole/Whitehall this year, to see there's another crop of young players emerging gives the club reason to feel positive about the future.

“Of course,” enthused McDonnell. “Without young players, you've nothing. It's irrelevant how productive you are at adult level, if you don't have the young players coming through, you're not going to sustain it. So hopefully we can kick on and get to intermediate in the next year or two.

“It was a good performance by the lads in difficult conditions. The weather held up well for them. Our ball handling wasn't great at the start, but they got into it and they maintained it. And we kicked on. And best of luck to Delvin St Paul's, in fairness to them as well.”

McDonnell and his management team will be hoping the under 20 side can go close again next year with so many players still underage. “We're only losing five off this U20 team for next year, so hopefully we can give the U20 a rattle again next year,” he said.

Crucial, too, is the impact the players making the step-up to adult level will have.

“Without those players, it won’t be possible (to be successful). We've been waiting 20 years for a group of players like this to come along. Over the last three this year - and this current U20 side - we've nearly 20 lads going into an adult set-up. They're badly needed.”