Shamrocks legend spike insists garrycastle are final favourites

 

Westmeath football legend Michael ‘Spike’ Fagan insists that his club Mullingar Shamrocks are underdogs in Sunday’s county final against Garrycastle at Cusack Park (3.30pm).

Shamrocks defeated Garrycastle in the 2012 Westmeath SFC final (after a replay) and got the better of 2013 champions St Loman’s in this year semi-finals (again after a replay). However, Fagan still regards Garrycastle as favourites for Sunday’s decider.

Fagan is a selector this year with the Mullingar outfit, who are managed by former Meath and Shamrocks star Bernard Flynn.

Speaking at his club’s county final press evening, Fagan said: “I definitely think we’re underdogs. The biggest danger we have is people saying we’re favourites because we beat the favourites (St Loman’s). Remember what happened Donegal.”

Fagan was referring to Shamrocks’ narrow victory against local rivals St Loman’s in the semi-final replay to win the right to play Garrycastle in a sixth final (including replays) in five years. He was also alluding to the salutary lesson learnt by Donegal’s seismic turnover of Dublin in this year’s All-Ireland semi-final.

Spike was in attendance with fellow selector Tomás Blake, and club chairman Pierce Corroon, to face the press in the absence of the moratorium-maintaining Bernard Flynn, who has pledged a press silence until the final whistle on Sunday.

“Remember, Garrycastle were in an All-Ireland final just two years ago, and they can’t have disimproved that much,” said selector Blake.

A former Meath player, Tomás is a community garda based in Mullingar and was brought into the fold by Flynn. He also lined out alongside Shamrocks stalwart Ciaran 'Reeno” Ryan for New York in the 2000 Connacht Championships against Galway.

When asked how they manufactured a 15-point turnaround from the round-robin hammering to the semi-final win against St Loman’s, Blake ventured: “I suppose the lads turned it around, rather than the management”.

“A few of them went to Lourdes,” joked Spike, a veteran of 10 county finals.

“You may be lucky and come along with a bunch of lads and win one county final, but like the Shamrocks of the early nineties, Garrycastle have put together an era with this team. They don’t go away overnight,” he continued.

Earlier, Pierce Corroon had pointed out with quiet confidence that “a lot of them [Shamrocks players] had three or four final experiences now”, and Spike agreed. “One county final experience is not great experience, because it goes so fast. I played my first county final in 1979, and it was another seven years before I got into another one,” he pointed out.

“People say we have an upper hand because of the two replays [quarter-final and semi-final], but we got lucky in both. If Shamrocks are to beat Garrycastle they’ll have to play way above themselves, and that’s being honest,” said Tom.

Spike then referred to the intangible variable in championship football: luck.

“If you look at the video, you’ll see how much luck was involved,” said Spike. “[John] Heslin hit eight wides in the replay, and we had, what, one wide in the second half? And we won by one point. That says it all,” said Tom.

They were asked if they had settled on the line-up for Sunday yet, and were they having any selection headaches. “We haven’t finalised the final 15,” confirmed Spike. “We still have one or two little niggles. We want to see how they go, and then we may be having selection issues, but we can’t be putting the cart before the horse.”

Both Spike and Pierce suggested that Garrycastle were the more experienced team. Although the Mullingar side have a number of players with multi-final experience, there was still seven of the senior team were U21s, and five of them were first-timers.

“I think Dessie (Dolan) could be on six or seven now. He’s catching up on Mickey!” said Pierce, referring to his legendary old teammate - Mickey Reilly - who holds the county record with nine senior championship medals from his 10 finals between 1986 and 2000.

At this, who should walk into the clubhouse but Mickey himself, with a large box of Shamrocks flags and merchandise for the final. Spike disengaged from the interview for a moment to slag his old buddy. “Do you have a VAT number for that?” shouted Spike, and the room dissolved into comfortable banter.

They may talk a cautious line, anxious about the team in a final, but this club knows county finals and that will lend a quiet confidence to Sunday afternoon.

Road to the Westmeath SFC final - Mullingar Shamrocks

Group Games - Section A

Mullingar Shamrocks 1-15 The Downs 1-9
Scorers for Shamrocks: C Curley 1-2, L Smyth 0-4 (1f), S Quinn 0-3, S Daly and D Keena 0-2 each, P Fagan and D Corroon (f) 0-1 each.

Mullingar Shamrocks 1-11 Maryland 1-10
Scorers: L Smyth 0-4, J Ganley 1-0, C Curley, S Quinn and D Keena 0-2 each, D Corroon 0-1.

Mullingar Shamrocks 0-4 St Loman’s Mullingar 2-12
Scorers: L Smyth 0-2 (1f), D Keena and S Daly 0-1 each.

Mullingar Shamrocks 0-12 Castledaly 0-9
Scorers: S Daly (2f) and D Corroon 0-4 each, E O’Neill 0- 2, D McDermott and C Curley 0-1 each.

Mullingar Shamrocks 0-8 Killucan 2-10
Scorers: D Corroon and L Smyth 0-3 (2f) each, E O’Neill and C Curley 0-1 each.

Quarter-final
Mullingar Shamrocks 1-9 Tyrrellspass 0-12
Scorers: L Smyth 1-2 (1-0pen, 0-1f), D Corroon 0-2 (2f), E Siode, S Daly, C Curley, P Fagan and D McDermott 0-1 each.

Quarter-final replay
Mullingar Shamrocks 3-11 Tyrrellspass 1-14
Scorers: L Smyth 1-1, D O’Donoghue and D Daly 1-0 each, D McDermott, D Corroon (2f) and C Curley 0-2 each, E Moore, P Joyce, E O’Neill and S Quinn 0-1 each.

Semi-final
Mullingar Shamrocks 1-12 St Loman’s Mullingar 1-12
Scorers: L Smyth 1-2, S Daly and D Corroon (2f) 0-4 each, K Daly and S Quinn 0-1 each.

Semi-final replay
Mullingar Shamrocks 1-10 St Loman’s 1-9
Scorers: C Curley 1-0, D Corroon 1-1 (1f), L Smyth 0-4 (2f), P Shaw 0-1 (45’), D O’Donoghue, D Daly and S Quinn 0-1 each.

Top scorer: Lorcan Smyth, 3-22.

Total scored: 11-81

Total conceded: 9-97

Average scored per game: 12.66 pts.

Average conceded per game: 13.77 pts

*See this week's Westmeath Independent for more on Sunday's final including the views of Garrycastle players James Dolan and Mark McCallon (joint-captain).